Fabric Shop in Okinawa, Japan

Aloha! I’ve been under the weather since our trip to visit this cutie in Okinawa, Japan. It was a chilly, windy week and every one but Evelyn (who, thankfully, just had a runny nose from teething) got sick…allergy, head cold and/or upper respiratory junk is not fun when there is so much to see and do!

Such a cute little “kimono” outfit!

Just in case you think we didn’t get there and back again…

Getting our first stamps in our passports was quite exciting, it went very smoothly and with no delays! 🙂

With the weather and being sick, I still managed to find a fabric shop during our trip! I couldn’t find too much information on the shop but it has been in Okinawa for a good while. I found this article online but not much else.

I don’t know what the “66 cents” means…I didn’t see anything for that price or even ending in that price. This photo is of the front store and held the quilting cottons, notions and, interestingly, an olive oil shop above it!

Courtney and I entered from the side entrance. To the right were these cabinets full of all types of thread. The price in Yen (371) converts to about $3.29 U.S in case you’re curious!

To our left, were these bolts of fabrics. You can just see the stairs leading up to the olive oil shop. These novelty fabrics seem to be very popular.

On the other side of the thread cabinets were these fabrics on rolls rather than folded onto bolts. I had recently learned there were traditional Okinawan fabrics and these in the lower right seemed to be the closest I found. Surprisingly, there were not very many to choose from.

I can’t interpret the writing on this one…but I loved the texture!

This is the second part which was behind and left of the front building. Note the drinks vending machine…they are EVERYWHERE in Okinawa. Residential, retail, parking lots, street corners…everywhere!

 

We actually started with this building first and found it had decorator fabrics, satins and silks and such for clothing making and a bit of quilting cottons (primarily fat quarters and remnants). This store had signs for no photography (so the pics from the shop above were taken on the sneak!)

I did ask if I could photograph these fabric holders as I was paying for my purchase. He graciously said I could!

I have never seen fabric bolt holders (is that what they are called?!) made of wooden frames and covered with paper! Have you?!

Cool, right?! They appear to be old (judging by the discolored tape) but are they?

I bought this fat quarter (to entertain Evelyn while we browsed) and this remnant. I think it will make a lovely wall hanging to remember our trip. I paid Yen 1804 or about $16.00. The remnant piece is 1-1/2 yds and the normal 43″ wide.

After a fun day shopping, we went out for dinner. This photo was taken at Hamasushi – fast food sushi on a conveyor belt. What an adventure and pretty good food! That’s a tiny peek at the conveyor just over Courtney’s left shoulder. Grab a plate as it goes by or place an order for cooked and/or specials. They add up the plates when you are finished!

More photos to come…we have two cameras and two cell phones to retrieve photos from so stay tuned!