japan homeware haul (cozy things for our home)

Hello, welcome back to our channel. Today we are sharing with you our Japan homeware haul. We've really resisted using most of these items and they've been tucked away in a suitcase in the corner of our dining room so that we could share everything with you at once. But to be honest, we already opened a few items to use. It almost feels like Christmas again because we can open all these souvenirs as presents to ourselves and relive all our memories of our Japan trip. We were basically in Japan for two months in 2025 from September to October and if you don't know who we are, we're a Hong Kong based couple. I'm Sam, my partner is Victor and we love visiting Japan and we go quite often. So this past trip we ended up buying mostly homeware because for fashion and skincare we basically just repurchased items that we already liked and have featured. So this whole vlog will just be dedicated to all the homeware that we purchased. So for this haul we have six categories. The first is everything from Kitchen Street slash Kababashi Street. Number two, antique and flea market finds. Number three are from big brands, lighting, tea, ceramics and gourmet items. And last but not least, fun and novelty items. Let's start! The first category is items we got from Kababashi Street aka Kitchen Town. This is an area near Asakusa where you can buy a lot of kitchen souvenirs and tools. I feel like baskets really add a sense of warmth to a home and I've really been looking for some to add to my space. So these two I got at Teru Tokyo on Kababashi Street. It was a tiny tiny little narrow shop, floor to ceiling, full of woven baskets and tools. I kind of regret not purchasing a couple more of these because I plan to organize my pantry with these baskets but if they work out I guess I'll get a couple more the next time we go Japan. I discovered a amazing wholesale basket shop in the Kurume area. I got this basket bag and a tiny little basket. I think this was like 100 yen only. If you're looking to buy baskets I highly recommend going there because it can be a little cheaper than even shops like Three Coins. This is a hinoki wood cutting board. We're slowly trying to phase out all plastic chopping boards because my mom said so. Hi mom if you're watching this. This one has a pivot stand so you can actually stand it up and it saves a lot of space. Can't wait to use this because we're still using our plastic board. And at the same shop we also purchased three of these sponges. They're the Kamenoko sponges. In Hong Kong dishwashers aren't very common so we go hard on our sponges and I heard these are really good on your pans. They also come in a lot of funky colors. You don't have to get these on Kababashi Street. A lot of shops like Today's Special, any of those homework shops also stock them. I've been looking for a bottle brush for my water bottles I bring to the gym with me. This is not from Kababashi Street this is actually from Kirishiki and I think the store owner told me that it's actually for rubbing cats but I think I'll use it for my balls anyways. The next category is antique shop and flea market finds. Lately I've really been into purchasing crafts that are made by hand and Japan is the perfect place to find so many of these artisanal shops because there's a lot of antique markets and places that you can shop vintage. Maybe because we are so oversaturated with social media and with the arrival of AI I just feel super drawn into things that are handmade that have a sense of imperfection that someone actually made this by hand. Especially items that gear more towards like folk art and things that you would see in a So these are a couple of things that I picked up from the flea markets. I've been looking for a bedspread that's kind of like a quilt but not so thick because those are not suitable for cities like Hong Kong which are so humid. So I found this boro fabric. Boro fabric is basically old antique pieces of fabric that's been patchworked together and this one I got at a seller from the Oedo antique market. She said it's from the Taisho era so it's about a hundred years old. As you can see it is very frayed and you can see a lot of handmade stitching details. But after putting on my bed I think it's still a little too short on both sides so now I'm thinking about hanging it up because lately I'm also really into soft furnishings such as fabric wall hangings and baskets to really add warmth to a room because the walls are very white in our house. Boro fabric can be super expensive but when I found this one at this particular shop I thought it was within my budget which I think was around 20,000 yen. I also picked up these wood saucers from the Oedo antique market. Couldn't resist because they're only 100 yen each and I like how this wood has a bit of age detail on it. The Oedo antique market is every first and third Sunday of the month but you need to check their calendar just to make sure that they're open. And this may be my favorite favorite item from this entire haul. I saw this piece of fabric on our last day in Tokyo and I was over the moon. So I've been filling my entire Pinterest board with this fabric that is actually from Korea. It's pojagi which is the art of putting scraps of fabric together to create these beautiful quilts. As you can see I'm really into things like quilts and stained glass and yeah so I saw one at the Oedo market it was like 60,000 yen and obviously over my budget but then I saw this one at Takumi store in Ginza and I just had to buy it because the colors of this oh it's so stunning look at this blue green and creams and I plan to hang this over a window. The next category is big brands aka my favorite brand Beams and other chain stores like Yodobashi and Three Coins. I first bought this calendar in a store in Kawabachi street and I had my local friend hunt it down for me. He told me to buy an Yodobashi. This is a tear-off calendar meaning that each day has its own number and date. It comes in blue font, red font, and black font. The next one is from Beams. We've been buying this calendar since 2022 after COVID and it's just a really nice souvenir gift that we can get for your friends for Secret Santa or just a souvenir to bring back home. Surprisingly I'm the one who purchased something from Beams this time. I love a good packing cube especially the ones that come in bright colors and have a mesh so you can see exactly what category of item that you packed. So I got this one which I think is a small size there's also a large size and I also bought this small toiletry pouch just because it's just very cute. I also got this stain remover from Donki. I saw this on Instagram or something and if you spill or stain your t-shirt which we often do it can quickly remove the colors off the shirt. And last but not least I also got a yoga mat there at Three Coins because we were in Japan for two months. I wanted to do some basic exercises and stretching in our house and this did the job. It's different from your typical yoga mat which rolls. This one is more like a tatami mat style which folds out but I like how small it becomes after you fold it back together again. Everybody's probably going to skip to this chapter which is lighting. I know you guys you want to see the Akari lamp. Anyways if you watched our Tokyo vlogs we went to the Ozeki showroom which is the official stockist of the Akari Isamu Noguchi lamps. Originally we were going there just to look at the sizing because I heard it's really difficult to score one in person but when we went there if you saw the vlog I ended up talking to the salesperson and she said that the one that I wanted which is the long pendant lamp was in stock so I ended up buying it in person which is totally a dream come true. Just for reference if you're also thinking about purchasing the pendant style the box for this this one is 84 cm by 16 cm by 9.5 cm. So logistically speaking as a traveler within Japan we checked in this lampshade and we hand carried the pendant back and it was okay to put as a carry-on. A lot of people ask why we purchase it in Japan it's because the prices there are a lot lower than purchasing it anywhere else in the world. We already have two Akari lamps both we purchased in Tokyo on two different occasions and the price is at least half of what you can get anywhere else in the world. And another reason for buying the long series pendant lamp in Japan is because Japan is the only place where you can get the design that has the two light bulb design wire frame. If you buy it in the States it only comes with one light bulb design but I've seen actually people DIY an extension to make it into two bulbs which you can try as well in your country. So the design I got was the 35N which is the long angular pendant style. I'm not going to unbox it in this video just for the sake of brevity but you can see it in a future lamps video. The cool thing about this lamp is that there's two ways of putting it on either on the floor with the floor stand or on the ceiling hung from the light track and we decided to do it from the ceiling because we already have light track and to do this I saw a lot of stores in Japan that had the Akari lamps have a adapter like this. So this is a plug that goes in through the lamp and then this goes onto your light track for power supply. Along with this we bought two hooks because my friend from Japan told me that I can buy this in a store called Natori and Natori is basically the Ikea of Japan. They have a lot of homeware items and furniture. This is to help to shorten the cable from the lamp or extend it if you want to. We went to Aomori for a few days and we got a chance to stay at the Hoshino resorts there and they had a workshop there where I was able to make a lamp out of a dried gourd. This is just a fun DIY that you can do there as a hotel guest. You basically use a metal dowel to poke holes into your gourd and you put a light bulb in and it emits light. It was surprisingly very therapeutic to do. I highly recommend it if you are staying at the hotel. So this is my gourd design and basically the light bulb goes in and I'm just going to display it somewhere. The category is tea, ceramics, and gourmet. The first item is this bison ware cup from Kurashiki. Kurashiki is known for their bison ware which is clay that is left unglazed and the patterns that you see here come from the minerals that are naturally within the clay or marks that are made from the straw when it's being fired. It is something you would really like if you're into the wabi-sabi aesthetic. And this may be my dream cup that I found from a store called Nakagawa. It's from Nara. It's a souvenir store. I got it from New Women Takanawa Mall and no two cups are the same. They're all different. So the sales lady let me pick five boxes and choose the one that I wanted the most and I found this one looks the best because the frosting is quite even on both ends of the cup and I will make my coffee in this from now on. I picked up this coaster from Jogyaoka from a store called Three Little Songbirds. It is 100% felt and it's very thick and a pop of color and it'll be great to have my cup from Mount Fuji on this. These are three wood inlay coasters that I also purchased from that Nara homeware store that Vic was mentioning. These coasters are made by Otamoko and these geometric patterns it's called marca tree and they're made with different colored trees. You can only find these in the Odawara region of Kanagawa prefecture and this is the only place in Japan where marca tree has been produced since the Edo period. Even though you can see it's like a grid formation you can see there's a lot of free handedness in each one of them and that just goes back to that obsession I have with quilts and patchwork items and I love each one of them because they're all slightly different in color. So I ended up getting three because I couldn't choose between all the ones that they had in the store. And now into matcha. I used to rarely make matcha not because I didn't like the taste but because I didn't have the proper sift for it I would always have to go into my kitchen and get my kitchen sift but those are so large that it's not really good for sifting fine things like matcha powder. So when I saw this one at today's special I got this one. I love the hammer details on the handle and honestly since buying this it's been a game changer because I If you're in Hong Kong you can also find the exact same one at Hakde on Shanghai street. I also picked up a new whisk because my old one I've had for probably 12 years and I don't think I even properly bloomed it. I didn't know about the proper way of blooming matcha whisks until recently thanks to social media. So I got another one just to replace this old one. When we went to I stopped by this really cute little tea store called Suneki. The owner is adorable. I think he's like over 90 years old but he's still running his own little tea shop. He has an award-winning roasted hojicha tea and then also green tea with roasted rice that I really love. I wanted to buy this just to support his shop. This is also where I got the whisk. Originally when I wanted to buy this he was like oh this is too expensive don't buy here but then I just wanted to support him so I bought these three items from him. In terms of matcha I'm not going to talk much about the ones I got in Uji because I talk about it in the Uji vlog. I'll link it at the top right. Those include the Maruku Koyaman and the Yamamasa Koyaman but the other matchas that I did end up getting is this Ippudo Uman. This is incredible because as soon as I opened it I honestly thought I was burning a candle in the house. It is a very strong floral scent and when I was drinking it I was like constantly sniffing my glass because it smells so so freaking good. I only have maybe one glass left in here and then I'll probably have to buy it on my next trip to Japan. I also picked up this one from Kanbayashi Shunshou. I actually found this at Suneki Tea and just bought this one just to support the tea shop owner because he's so cute. And last but not least when we were in Matcha Passport in Shimokitazawa the owner gifted us a couple of their matcha bags. And in Tokyo we tried a coffee shop Bailo Coffee in Aoyama and the owner is a champion brewer and we tried this Tokyo blend. Immediately I bought a bag because it was so amazing but now I'm sad because it's all gone and it's empty and they don't make it anymore. But instead we buy it now online and we have the bags of beans shipped from Tokyo all the way to Hong Kong. And on this trip I was finally able to try a coffee shop that I wanted to go to for a long time called Coffee Supreme. A couple saw us there and recognized us and they kindly bought us two bags of these coffee drip bags. I stumbled upon this weird thing called garlic coffee and I found it so weird so I had to try it and I'm gonna make this soon and let you guys know how it tastes. This was one of those items that we couldn't wait to unbox and we probably finished half of it already which is the dashi from Kayanoya Dashi. As an Asian I think this is the best souvenir to buy your friends and family especially for the winter. We were so excited to use it so actually this one's already empty. These are bonito and flying fish stock powder and the ones on my right is the original dashi stock and then they also have one that's for chicken stock. We use this as a very clear soup base for hot pot dinners and also we got the I think there's like an onion soup powder mix that we have with our dinners at night as a side. Ayoshi Cola is pretty popular on TikTok and social media and we found a new store in Asakusa when we were staying there. There's basically no lineup but they make artisanal cola syrup and I bought their gift set because I thought it'd be perfect for hot summers in Hong Kong. They have two flavors this one is the dreamy and one is the Japan edition. I forgot which one tastes like vanilla but I thought this would be perfect for summers here and a good gift too. And from Aomori I also got some artisanal rice. To be honest I just like the graphic design so we picked this up. I also got this premium 12 magazine which is all about coffee and tea and documenting how everyday people hold their tea and coffee rituals around Japan. What I like about it is that it really tells you that you can use any kind of tool to make things like matcha. You don't have to use a chawan to make your matcha. Even this girl talks about you can just use any regular size bowl to make your matcha and you don't have to go by all those fancy rules to enjoy tea and coffee. I also wanted to find some decorative items to put on our walls that were not your typical square shaped frames and we went to a kisaten in Shinbashi in this underground mall. It had immaculate retro vibes there. It's called Kisa Fuji and inside is Fuji themed everything and they had these fans that you could take for free and so I'm probably going to hang this up because it's so cool. I also got one from Three Coins that has the matcha and I think I bought I forgot when I bought this. Did I buy this on this trip? Anyways I'm just putting this in this haul because they have similar vibes and we also took the coasters as a commemorative souvenir because it's so awesome. And last but not least we have the fun and weird items that we got. One of my favorite things about riding the Shinkansen train is that we're able to buy the ekibento and bring them on board. A lot of them have keepsake boxes. This one is the crab shape one. If you saw our last Japan haul video I already have this version of it so I just wanted to have both as a set. This is a kid's ekibento but we just wanted it because it's a miniature version of the Nozomi train. Opens up like this. Obviously there's nothing in it anymore but it makes a very cute storage box. And this one is quite rare because they always sell out very early so if you can you can also reserve it at the train station. I love everything in miniature forms and in Japan you can get a lot of miniature versions of branded bags. I have one of Ikea and then I saw this one at the GAP so I had to get it. I usually use these to keep my 100 yen coins for gacha. This one has a zip pouch so it's very convenient and you can hang it on your purse. Speaking of gacha I'm not going to share the entire collection of gachapon that I rolled the last two months except for this collection. This is the Nicolino series. Nicolino is the Japanese version of the jellycat. It's essentially products and items that have been personified and I was looking for this classic Kizuten collection and I think we found it at Big Camera or Yodobashi. I had to roll the entire collection. It is their nostalgic Japanese cafe series so we got the much wanted coffee. I also got the pouch version of it and we also got my favorite little egg pudding, the Japanese fluffy pancakes, and then the egg sandow. I also purchased this plastic folder from Muji. This is a bit of a vlog inception but basically whenever I do all the write-ups for these shopping haul vlogs and I need to remember the prices of things I keep all my receipts here and I categorize them by the trip that we went to or by the category so I can keep it organized and have something to reference to for when we do the vlog write-ups. And at 7-Eleven we found this picnic basket that has the branding of 7-Eleven. It includes sandwich picks, a napkin, a lunchbox, and you can use it to hold either food or stationery items on your desk. The inside of the magazine shows your recipe book into what to buy at 7-Eleven to make your own lunchbox. And from my favorite stationery store, Hi-Tide, we bought these Ziploc bags from Penco and these are great to store vitamins whenever we go on trips and travels. And last but not least is an item I've been wanting for over a year but couldn't get my hands on it until now. I've always been content with my wired headphones and never really felt the need to upgrade to the Apple AirPods but that all changed when I saw this. This is my favorite Japanese snack. It is chocolate biscuits in the shape of a mushroom. You see in the corner here they have a raffle for these AirPods. However, this is impossible to just purchase on hand. I think they only make like 2,500 sets. You can only get it if you enter a raffle and to enter the raffle you have to be a resident of Japan, which I'm clearly not. So I ended up purchasing it on Mercari secondhand and had it shipped to me when we were in Tokyo. And I finally have it! To me this is really special because it's so silly. Packaging looks very similar to the Apple AirPods but it has this silver embossed mushroom on the side and inside is a pair of wireless headphones in the shape of the actual snack. So essentially it's like shoving a chocolate mushroom in your ear and I'm so excited to use this at the gym because ironically I think it'd be hilarious. The charging case is actually a miniature version of this box that you can see here. I'll do unboxing on my Instagram because I need to savor the moment. I've been wanting this item for so long and was thinking about it for a long time because it is a little on the pricey side but I decided to take a plunge because it just brings joy to my life. And that concludes the shopping haul from Japan. If you do want to see how we style the items in our home, we'll post more in our upcoming Hong Kong vlogs. But until then, we'll see you in the next one!