Fabric Shopping in Sapporo

My third trip to Sapporo and I think I should write about my favourite fabric shop in Sapporo.

The shop is called カナリヤKanariya. They have shops selling fabrics as well as ready made clothes. There are quite a number of branches but today I will be talking about their main store that is near Odori Park.

The Odori park station is just one stop after Sapporo station. Sapporo station is like the main interchange for trains, similar to what Shinjuku is in Tokyo. Sapporo station which is where you get off if you take the airport express from New Chitose airport, you will then need to get out of the JR train station (which is something like the intertown/city train network), and get into the local subway system.  Once you are at Sapporo station, you can either take the subway (1 stop to Odori Park) or walk the entire way (takes about 15mins) since the the two stations are connected underground. If  you choose to take the subway, you will still need to take a 10-15min walk to exit 36. Fortunately, this is entirely underground, so even in freezing weather it was perfectly easy. Exit 36 joins to the Kanariya building at its basement, so you can really get there without getting out of the station at all!

In warmer weather, the nearest station is actually the next stop called Susukino. The shop is a 10 minutes walk from the Susukino station if you don’t get distracted by other shops along the way. 🙂

Once you enter, it is like entering fabric heaven.

There are 5 whole floors of shopping in the building. From the basement to level 4. Each level is pretty big and so stuffed with goodies you will need to spend a long time shopping here! The basement houses some designer lines, like Green Gate and Nani Iro. The first two floors are mainly fabrics. Anything from interior, designer, organic, as well as the plain solids, checks, stripes, and even denim, jersey etc. There are also cute character fabrics, seasonal fabrics, suiting fabrics, all types of fabrics for bags, laminated or nylon fabrics, costume and dance fabrics. Literally, anything you need, or want, or didn’t even know existed.

The 3rd and 4th floors are devoted to machines, notions like ribbons, tapes, bag notions, interfacing felt, yarn, quilting fabrics + batting, fasteners, buttons, beads, stamping craft tools, stenciling, dressmaking tools etc. There are also bargain bins and craft books on every floor, and a corner where they conduct sewing lessons. When I was there they were having a bag making lesson. I was drawn to the samples of the clothes/bags samples that they hang everywhere, as an example of the end product. You can buy the fabric, notions as well as the patterns of the sample products from the store.

What I love about shopping here is how efficient everything is. The checkout was a breeze. There were a few cutting counters situated around each floor (for fabrics section) and you never have to queue for long. The staff in charge of cutting is fast and efficient but takes great care to cut the fabrics in straight lines. If it happens that he/she didn’t, she will measure the shorter portion (probably just a couple of cm off) and round down and asks you if the amount is alright, and charges you for the lesser amount.  The best part is, you don’t have to pay immediately, so you can go ahead and browse some more, looking for co-ordinating fabrics or notions to match your fabric. After cutting the fabrics, the staff writes down your purchases – length x unit price, and slips it in with the fabric. At the cashier, she just tallies the slips of paper and payment is done! No scanning of bar codes necessary.

There are a few branches situated all over Hokkaido. I visited another nearer to Sapporo station but it turned out to be just a corner in a mall, so the selection was much smaller. The main branch is really worth visiting if you every have the chance to visit Sapporo.

note : all pictures were taken from Kanariya’s website as I felt it was really rude to use my handphone camera in the store. Do check out their website for more pictures of their store! You will be amazed!

Basement – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_bf.html
First floor – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_1f.html
Second floor – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_2f.html
Third floor – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_3f.html
Fourth floor –  http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_4f.html