Made in Japan

Dahlia S. shows us her authentic Tokyobike and other everyday Japanese products.

Japan touches my life in many ways, from the food I eat to the clothes I wear to the items I choose to decorate my home. MUJI, for example, has been a staple for my storage and homeware options for years. I still swear by my MUJI rice cooker – and funnily, people often comment on it when they visit. It’s been my saviour on lazy days, when I don’t want to cook, I simply put on some rice and sit back - I sometimes cheat and throw in some vegetables (or fish, before I gave it up) to steam alongside it too (Japanese food purists and home chefs may recoil in horror but it works for me!). Of course, there’s UNIQLO too, how many of us have a drawer overflowing with their simple, comfy tees and socks?! 

Then there’s the most recent addition to my home, my beautiful green Tokyobike – you may say perhaps I could have purchased any other bicycle, rather than having one imported, what’s the difference? But there was something about the look and feel of a Tokyobike that I couldn’t resist and having been wanting to get out in the fresh air on a bike for a long time, I finally caved in and bought one! For its first day out, I took it for a 17-mile round trip to Sandringham, whizzing through country roads and along woody trails, I saw deer, lamb and a bevy of pheasants (I think I swallowed a few bugs along the way too). It was wonderful, and incidentally, I’m sure Sandringham and the surrounding areas is somewhere many Japanese tourists (and residents-alike) would really enjoy a visit to too!