50mm Oedo Antique Market, Tokyo

Halfway through the trip I asked a nice woman at a tourism office for her personal recommendation on where to see good craftwork in the city. She brought up Oedo Antique Market. It’s an outdoor market that happens every few months. I got lucky with how it lined up with the dates of my trip. I went to it on my last afternoon in Tokyo.

The market’s held next to Ginza Station. It was for sure the most impressive antique market I've ever been to. I don't really have time this afternoon to elaborate much more than that, but I could have spent the entire day walking it. A few thousand people were there. Just about all of the vendors were Japanese. Meanwhile I was surprised to see how international the things were that they were selling. A lot of 1970's Nordic tableware, for instance. I wound up picking up these squiggly vintage Italian candleholders. In a phone conversation the night before, my friend Kevin had just told me that he has this ritual where on Monday nights he lights candles in his apartment in Berlin and takes a bath, as a kind of creative meditation. Japan is also enthusiastic about baths. Altogether I’ve been thinking about baths, candles, scents, and Italian stuff, so the candleholders were the clear thing to bring home with me. I got Shake Shack afterward. The chicken sandwich meal.

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