Of course I had to buy yarn while in Japan. I thought I'd visit Okadaya in Shinjuku, but we never made it there. I left the list I printed out from Pinku's site in the hotel the day we went to Shinjuku.
Fortunately, I found mention of another yarn shop in Kyoto called Avril. They are known as Habu Textiles in New York. I almost didn't go to Avril because I figured I could get the same stuff at the New York store, but since we were in Kyoto and I hadn't seen any yarn and the yarn store was within walking distance of the hotel (which meant I didn't have to drag Clay yarn shopping against his will), I decided to check it out.
I was glad I did. The shop is really beautiful. I forgot to take a picture since I was so overwhelmed by everything. The yarn is sold on cones and by the gram and I had read that Avril allows you to pick up to 3 yarns to be combined to create a unique yarn of your own design. I would have done this, but I have no sense of which yarns work with each other (not to mention, my color sense deficit) so I chose a few yarns I liked on their own. I came out with some bulky yarn (150 grams), a couple of novelty yarns (which I never buy because I never know what to do with them), a couple of yarn kits which have small samples of some of the yarn available in the shop, and a knitting pattern book. The patterns are all in Japanese but I bought it for the pictures. It is really a gorgeous book and not available in English at Habu Textiles. Avril does not sell any commercial yarn. They only sell yarn of their own creation.
The next shop I visited was in Kyoto Station. With about 30 minutes to find the shop in the massive station in time to catch our train back to Tokyo, I somehow found Masuzakiya. At first glance, I wasn't very impressed with the shop. It was small and they didn't have a wide selection. Upon further inspection, I found a few well known Japanese brand yarns as well as yarns from Italy and the UK. I bought some Puppy yarn, some Noro (which I love) and some other Japanese yarns I don't think I'll find in the States.
I am proud of myself for not getting too crazy with yarn as I did in Buenos Aires. I only added a little to the yarn stash this time and they are definitely yarns that I will use.
