Welcome to part two of my Japanese crafting adventures! If you haven’t read part one yet, which is all about the crafty places I visited in Tokyo, you can read it here.

Today I’m excited to share all the crafty sights we saw while visiting Kyoto, a city that is renowned for its traditional craft industries.

On our first day in the ancient capital, we arrived via bullet train and were fortunately permitted to check in to our AirBnB early (lugging your luggage around on public transit in Kyoto is a huge no-no, so we were grateful to be able to unload it so we could see the city!). We dropped off our things and went straight to [hus:], a small yarn store I had stumbled across thanks to the YouTube algorithm. They were only open on Saturday and Sunday, and considering we didn’t have a full weekend in Kyoto, I wasn’t expecting to be able to make it there, so I was glad we were able to drop by!

[hus:] was a sweet little store with a nice, clean aesthetic and kind staff. This is a great place to go if you like to make amigurumi or other small crochet items, as they have lots of neat yarns and kits suitable for those sorts of things. I fell in love with a very soft tweedy yarn, sold in cones, and bought a sweater quantity which will eventually become a cardigan for Eitan.

The next day we went to a large number of shops mostly in central Kyoto.

Our first stop was Linnet, a real teeny tiny little fabric shop that specializes in linens. It’s worth noting that (I’m pretty sure) the fabric is on display as fat-quarter-type pieces, and you select what you want and they cut the yardage you need from stock in the back. I didn’t actually end up buying anything, so I’m not sure this is actually how it works, but it’s something I saw in a review of the shop, and I saw very few actual bolts in the store, so I’m guessing this is the case. No staff offered to help me, but I was happy to browse and just didn’t find anything that really pulled to me.

After that we went to Idola, which was an incredible button store on the third floor of this beautiful old building with a lovely wooden staircase. When you reach the landing where the store is located, they have little lockers where you can store your personal items and grab a tiny shopping basket to do your button shopping.

Idola had lots of great vintage buttons (as well as beads and sequins) but I was so smitten with the ceramic buttons by nonomura minami – they were incredible works of art and I just couldn’t resist getting a few.

After that we went to Misuyabari Needles, which I had seen on a few other sewing blog posts about Japan. Apparently it’s a very old shop – from what I’ve heard at least a hundred years old. It’s very much tucked away, and it’s very tiny (only a few people can fit in the shop at a time) and it’s surrounded by a beautiful traditional Japanese garden. The staff there were very welcoming and friendly. They really just sell one thing – needles and pins – as well as decorative storage boxes for them. They sell pins with tiny handcrafted heads shaped into different animals (think dogs and cats!) or objects (like teeny sewing machines) – there are many to choose from! I asked the man working there what you’re meant to do with them, and he told me they’re decorative; I think the Dalmatian puppy pin I chose will be an adorable addition to one of my more decorative pin cushions! I also bought a very cute felt needle book, which I was actually in need of and very happy to find.

We then made our way to Nomura Tailor. This was my favourite fabric shop on the whole trip – I probably could have spent all day in there (I was in there for at least an hour before I even realized there was a third floor, where they have loads of books, notions, and kits). This was the Japanese fabric store of my dreams – interesting prints, luxurious Liberty fabrics, and beautiful linens. I enjoyed myself so much walking around and came home with some beautiful fabrics, including some Liberty prints I’ve always loved and never got around to buying.

I actually went back to Nomura Tailor the next day for another round of shopping, and to check out Nomura Tailor House, which I hadn’t known existed until after I went to Nomura Tailor (I think it’s because I realized that I had seen a different shop sign in some photos online?). It’s just a few minutes’ walk away in the nearby covered shopping arcade. I’m still not really sure what the difference was between the two shops, but Nomura Tailor House was smaller and seemed to have more quilting fabrics and pre-cut fabric pieces. Either way – don’t miss it like I almost did!

One last fabric stop we made was mina perhonen, which was an incredibly beautiful store, however it was also (at least for us) incredibly expensive (think over $100 CAD per metre…). I should have known when the employee there gave us a look, but gosh, their fabrics were indeed lovely! The fabrics there felt like they were very high quality, but there was nothing I loved so much that I was willing to splurge.

My last crafty store stop in Kyoto was Itokobaco, which is in a beautiful old house (make sure you take off your shoes before you go in!) with a very cozy vibe. It’s a good place to get solid colour yarns in many colours, or pick up some cute crochet kits. They have a nice selection of books too!

Other crafty things of note:

The Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design is a great place to spend a rainy afternoon. You don’t need much more than an hour or two there, but it’s worth the stop. They have a great permanent exhibit on the traditional crafts of Kyoto, with demonstrative displays of how they are done (including some where you can try it yourself!). The temporary exhibit on while we were there was of the works of craft students (I believe from the Kyoto Arts & Crafts University), which, as graduates of an art and design university, was very interesting to look through and took us back to our art school days!

Another stop we loved was Suzuki Shofudo – if you love Japanese paper products, definitely check it out – they have incredible washi paper by the metre, but it was also a great place to load up on special Japanese souvenirs. We stocked up on lots of goodies for ourselves and family there!

That’s all, folks!

We had such an amazing time on our trip to Japan. After all that planning, it’s hard to believe the trip has come and gone!

Japan certainly is a wonderland for crafters or anyone who appreciates great craftsmanship. Which of these places would you love to visit most? Is there anywhere I missed that you’d recommend to others planning their trip?

I hope you enjoyed reading and please let me know your thoughts, questions, and comments!