Cool Japan in Paris

What amazes me during my weekend stay in Paris is the ubiquitous presence of Japan. So many Japanese restaurants are scattered around the city. Colette, the "concept store" that sells everything that's cool, exhibits casual fashion brands from Tokyo, including Graniph (my favorite t-shirt brand). It also sells laptop bags and mobile phone cases decorated by Tokyo landscape along with the ones of London and New York. I discover a Paris branch of Japanese socks brand Tabio in fashionable Marais district. Uniqlo, Japan's answer to H&M and Zara, has also opened a branch here. And Japanese patissier Sadaharu Aoki has opened two little stores on the Left Bank, where I bought Pomme Caramel tea (I usually don't drink flavoured black tea, but this one as well as Mariage Freres Marco Polo, which I also bought during my stay in Paris, does make my taste bud tantalized).

Japanese people in Tokyo, especially girls, still adore Paris and France. Parisians now adore Tokyo and Japan.

Colette's website, by the way, streams cool music 24 hours. Check it out.

(This is the last blog post on the weekend trip to Paris in 2010. Click here to the first post.)