While I was in Tokyo, I was glad to be invited to our Tokyo designer, Yuruliku‘s studio in Ochanomizu, an area which I have never visited before. There are many university campuses and musical instruments stores here (which I later discovered when my friend and I got very lost).

Foolishly, I left the address and map at the hotel and trying to find a cafe with free wi-fi turned out to be much harder than I thought. Eventually, I managed to download the address but even with the help from passerby’s mobile phone GPS, it still took ages to find the small studio by the river. Meanwhile, my camera’s battery also went dead, so I had to use my iphone to take these photos…

While we were lost, we passed by an interesting temple called ‘Yushima Sei Do’, which turned out to be a sightseeing attraction in the area. The 17th century temple is rather unusual because it is also known as the Confucius temple, and has the largest Confucius statue in the world. It was a shame that we didn’t have the time to visit the temple properly but we were glad to know of its existence!

When we eventually found the studio, it was already getting dark, but it was such a relief after wandering for so long! It was great to finally meet Koushi after communicating with him via emails for months and to see their whole collection.

My friend and I decided to buy their handmade greeting cards as they are limited in supply. These birthday cards are so wonderful that I will probably end up keeping them myself! Koushi and Kinue were very hospitable and gave me some Japanese candies that they had bought earlier for me. It made me feel guilty for arriving empty-handed…

To find out more about Yuruliku, click here for their website.