Happy New Year! I hope you had a great end of 2010 and a nice start to 2011. I was really happy that I got to spend time on new year's day here in Japan with my family. There are so many things I want to share with you already but I am going to make this post short by focusing on zakka shops in Japan and a temporary update of my etsy shop . What does Zakka mean? I get this question very often. Despite the fact that this word should be very familiar with me, I tend to space out a little not knowing the best way to describe the meaning simply. How about I take you to a virtual tour in a Japanese zakka shop that is located close to my home in Gunma so that you get the feeling of what zakka is all about? I know I am biased but I have to say Japan rocks for someone like me who loves to hunt for cute and inspirational things! I hope you enjoyed the little tour and will come back to see more of Japan later here. Oh and I wanted to let you know that I listed some old and rare Japanese sewi