new item spotlight: neko bag

cotton shelter half tent canvas, vegetable tanned leather, leather rifle sling strap. $135 CAD


an updated version of a popular style. hobo-style bag with adjustable leather strap. fully lined with cotton/hemp twill blend. zippered pocket inside.

japanese kit kat

I'm not usually one for packaged sweets, but when I saw these special Kit Kats at Narita airport, I couldn't resist. The verdict? Matcha flavour: good stuff. Royal Milk Tea: once was (more than) enough. I passed up the Soy Sauce and Wasabi versions. I'm thinking this was a good choice.

For some reason, Japanese Kit Kat was a hot topic around the internets awhile ago. Read more about the delicious flavour possibilities here and here.

In other news... I am buried under a mountain of boxes right now because we are moving this weekend! I'm looking forward to the new place, but the actual process of moving is the worst. Where did all this stuff come from??

bluebird handmade

I dropped off some bags at Bluebird Handmade here in Toronto yesterday. It was my first visit, and wow, what a lovely shop! They have a small but very well curated selection of handmade items, many of which were new to me. And all of it is beautifully displayed:






Bluebird Handmade is located at 986 Bathurst Street, south of Dupont, and now carries a small selection of jack&marjorie bags!

I think I'm probably the only person in the city who was loving the cold weather we had here in Toronto last week. Though I always prefer things on the chillier side, I was especially excited because it meant I could make use of the birthday present Manuel got me this year: a beautiful, soft, cozy wool blanket from MacAusland's Woolen Mills, on Prince Edward Island. Clearly, I'm not the only one who has been enjoying it; Lucy has barely moved from the sofa since it arrived!

tokyo food 2: ippudo

I'm certainly no ramen connoisseur, but I loved Ippudo, a ramen shop in Ebisu. Delicious food, an atmosphere more pleasant than most, and friendly service. Apparently, there is a branch of Ippudo in NYC too.



There are raw garlic cloves and a press on every table so you can add it to your bowl to taste. The guy in the red pants put about 15 cloves in his bowl, yikes!:



Later, in Naka-Meguro, a cute little car turned coffee stand:



If you're hoping to gorge yourself on ramen in Tokyo, you should check these blogs out first:
Ramen Adventures
Go Ramen
Ramenate

new item spotlight: mitaka tote

cotton duffle bag canvas or east german camouflage.
$125



white top stitching and leather patch detail at base of straps. double pocket on front. fully lined with hemp/cotton twill. zippered pocket inside. magnetic snap closure.

sally scott, 10632 ohio: 4741-9842. no dogs. two cats.

Sally Scott is a concept brand based around a fictional girl, designed by Akira Minagawa, who also happens to be the director for the popular mina perhonen.

We stumbled upon this shop while searching for mina perhonen, which is upstairs in the same building in Shirokaneidai, a sleepy stop on the Tokyo Metro Mita line.

I love both the clothing and the styling; the photography is so perfect.

Although there are several other Sally Scott shops in Tokyo, it sadly is not available outside of Japan.

tokyo food 1

In February, Manuel and I took a trip to Tokyo! We hadn't been back since we moved from Japan to Canada a bit over 5 years ago, and it was unbelievably fun to go back as a tourist. One of the best things about the trip was being able to gorge ourselves on on the food that we had been craving since we moved away. Here's some of what we ate:



Not really a food destination, but one of our first stops was Tokyu Hands, a store that sells virtually everything. If you are in Tokyo for the first time, this store is a must-visit. In particular I highly recommend the cosmetics floor, for some 'only in Japan' moments. We were there just before Valentine's day - just in time to witness Japan's crazy consumerism at its finest. Don't knock it though: we started the day off right with some yummy corn chocolate from Hokkaido.



The Takashimaya basement was probably my favourite stop of the first day. Department stores in Tokyo usually have a basement (depa-chika in Japanese) full of food vendors - row upon row of prepared food, sweets, basically pure deliciousness. I had forgotten how amazing these places are; I was grinning like a fool the whole time we were in there. If you have only one day in Tokyo, I would suggest coming to one of these places, as you can find a stunningly wide variety of choices all in one location. Besides Takashimaya, my favourites are Isetan (also in Shinjuku) and Tokyu in Shibuya.

Maki snack:


Gyoza Rou - Harajuku:



Gyoza Rou was a nostalgic choice, though we definitely aren't the only fans. If you go at a peak time, it's likely you'll have to wait for a table, but as we were there on a weekday, well after the lunch hour, it was only about half full. When we lived in Tokyo it was our favourite place to go for gyoza, mostly because the gyoza are delicious, but also because of the youthful atmosphere - not full of salary-men, but a younger, hipper, more varied crowd.

We had the pan-fried (yaki) and boiled (sui) gyoza, rice/miso soup, cucumber with a sesame dressing (kyuuri), bean sprouts (moyashi) with a spicy miso/meat topping.



Gyoza is one of those things that although you can find them in Toronto, they just never seem to taste quite right. These ones were perfect.

Something else we forgot about: that smoking is still permitted in many restaurants here. A girl sat on the other side of the counter from us, chain smoking. To our relief, she eventually left - revealing a young family behind her, mother bottle-feeding their baby, father enjoying a smoke not two feet away.

Tsunahachi Tempura Shinjuku



For our first dinner in Tokyo, we went with our friends Rob and Emi to Tsunahachi, an almost century old Tempura restaurant in Shinjuku.



The tempura arrived 2-3 pieces at a time, so everything was crispy and fresh.


more to come...

new item spotlight: nakano bag

vegetable tanned leather, duffle bag canvas, leather rifle sling strap. $160 CAD



two pockets under flap, magnetic snap closure, removable and adjustable strap. zipper closure into main compartment.
fully lined with hemp/cotton twill and inner pocket.

compact size perfect for bike rides or a night out!

spring and my talented friends

My friend Andrea was the first person I know to have a blog. She started green tea years ago, and has somehow managed to continue to post entertaining and varied content - on a regular basis, no less (I marvel...). As if that weren't enough, she's quite the photographer as well (check out her photos from her recent trip to Bhutan). I'm not sure why I didn't think of asking her sooner to help me take some photos of the bags, but I finally did. So on a recent rainy Sunday - along with former jack&marjorie intern, and all-around lovely person, Stephanie as model - we took some photos. Despite the gloomy weather, they turned out really well! Thanks Andrea and Steph, you're the best!

We will be posting more info on the new bags here and on the main site over the next few days.