Tokyo Toys – Japanese gadgets

In England, my friends come to me wanting my recommendations on which of the latest gadgets they should buy. If they’re stuck for a present or don’t know where to find some specific home accessory, I can usually point them in the right direction. I’m proud of my encyclopedic knowledge of the retail landscape but in Tokyo, the land of the bullet train, robots, instant noodles and all-singing, all dancing toilets, I always feel like I’m walking into another world, where my alleged wisdom is completely negated by a whole new generation of faster, whizzier, smaller, cuter, sexier, more exciting gizmos and retail adventures. In fact, technology is so advanced in the land tha t created mobile phones back in the 70s, tha t they are simply not used as phones any more. Very few Japanese actually talk on the phone at all. Instead they use them to write novels, manga comics, shoot films (there’s even a Mobile Phone Oscars) or create art. At the Shibuya H.P France Gallery, a group of mobile phone artists are gathered for a creative meeting. Surrounded by large-scale abstract oil canvases on the white walls, they are taking art into the technological age, using pixels instead of a paintbrush to create canvases for the communications era. I learn that young girls, somewhat predictably, change the ‘skin’ (appearance) of their phone more frequently than their male counterparts, and the ‘kawaii’ (cute) factor is key when it comes to choosing which phone art to download. Another way of decorating your mobile in Tokyo is to customize it. Like so many young Japanese women, top Japanese model and socialite, Momo Eri is immaculately turned out and her attention to detail extends to her phone handset, which is decorated with hundreds of stick-on crystals, bows, plastic fl owers and cartoon characters. As we arrive at Chiara, the tiny boutique where she has customised six or seven handsets in the last couple of years, she’s like a toddler in a pick & mix s tore, grabbing tiny cellophane bags fi lled with the treasure she’s chosen for her latest project. She briefs the sales assistant, handing over a selection of shiny shapes that will transform a mundane black gadget into a girly accessory worthy of any fashionista, and heads off for milkshakes with her friends while she waits for her ne w phone to be fi nished. Chiara is typical of the Tokyo shopping experience. All around the world, shopping has become homogenized: surrounded by familiar brands and shopfronts, you could be in London, Hong Kong, Milan or almost any other major city. But not in Tokyo. From international luxury brands to quirky gadgets, from exquisite origami paper to cute characters adorning everything from bento boxes to coffee machines, if you can ’t find it here, it doesn’t exist. In Otomesando, global brands have put down roots and made this their home. Kiddyland is heaven for kids and makes Hamleys look like a corner shop (there’s a whole fl oor of Hello Kitty paraphenalia for those who can’t resist the cute cat). Further up the street, there’s Otomesando Hills, a newly-rejeuvenated shopping centre fi lled with small boutique stores, and the amazing architectural structure that is Tod’s fl agship store in Tokyo: a glass cube wrapped in steel ‘trees’ – worth seeing for the building alone. Ginza is another upmarket shopping district, and on a Saturday is heaving with glossy ladies browsing in Mitsukoshi (aka Tokyo’s answer to Harvey Nichols), and Tiffany & Co. And of course, there’s Akihabara: Electric Town… So where do you go to refuel after a long day’s shopping? Well, in Tokyo, innovation doesn’t stop with ‘stuff ’. The city has the most technically-advanced food in the world too. In the 38th-fl oor Oriental Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, Japanese-American chef, Jeff Ramsey, serves Japanese molecular cuisine in the Tapas Molecular Bar. Think Nobu meets Heston Blumenthal. The 20-course tasting menu at £100-a-head changes every two months – although “course” is perhaps misleading; most servings are just a mouthful or two. Listing all 20 dishes would lessen the element of surprise tha t helps make the molecular experience fun but highlights include apple snap with manchego cheese sorbet, green tea tuna with 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, charcoal beef, a cleanser of mojito served in a steel straw in an empty glass and Chinese dumpling served in Australian lamb. Desserts entertain as much as they please. The Cherry Blossom is a syrup frozen in liquid nitrogen. It’s like eating dry ice and only lasts 20 seconds. Eat it quickly and smoke pours out of your nose, making you look like ‘Puff The Magic Dragon’. The next day it’s my turn to be on the menu at Oedo-Onsen Monogatari, a spa theme park in Shimbashi. I’m going for a pedicure. Forget pummice stones and nail fi les, here it’s Doctor Fish – tiny Garra Rufa carp – that do all the hard work, nibbling away at dead fl esh. I dip my feet in the warm pool of water, and hundreds of the tiny carp swim towards my feet for their breakfast. Of me. It’s the strangest, squirmiest, squealiest sensation, like being nibbled and tickled by a little electrical current. Once I’ve stopped giggling, I fi lm the little munchers with my new INQ phone, and after fi fteen minutes, I have the smoothest feet. The spa is like a village in itself, with shops, arcade machines, restaurants and even cigarette vending machines alongside open-air and indoor hot baths and massage treatment rooms. My time in this incredible city has fl own by like a sushi conveyer belt on fast forward. I’m off to make the most of Saturday night in Tokyo, but if you get a chance to hang out in this incredible city, don’t hesitate to take it.