What I Didn't Buy: The Cleanest Flea Market You'll Ever See in Okinawa, Japan

A couple of years ago I embarked on the trip of a lifetime to Okinawa, Japan. I thought I'd lost all of my photos from the trip with a computer crash but I recently found an SD memory card where I'd backed up a couple thousand photos from my trip! Looking through these photos are incredibly inspiring, they're a riot of color, Japan is such a stimulating environment for the creative/designer's brain! We tried to hunt down places to thrift but the only place I encountered was this small flea market by the sea shore in a large shopping center.

I still remember the cloudy November day I set foot in my first Japanese Flea Market, which, as you can see, is immaculate and quite empty. It was probably an "off" day for the market.

There was no vintage as far as I could tell, just a random assortment of things to buy, many things for 100 yen. (About $1.00.)

This may remind you of flea markets domestically where vendors sell "Made in China" wares they ordered in bulk from overseas. A couple of tables where selling lightly-used clothing and housewares, too.

I still love this Dragon Ball Z poster and display of belts folded inside of coffee mugs. So tidy!

There were a couple of stalls where vendors set up more permanent shop, this children's clothing booth was popular.

Here's the view of the flea market from the upper level of a cafe where I sat with my friends, falling asleep into my matcha late from jet lag. ALL of the cars in Okinawa were of that soft-cornered cube variety. See that cube to the left entryway of the flea market? That was my favorite stall, it was loaded with merchandise and incredibly well organized.

I even loved the contrasting woods grain textures going on inside, I took so many pictures in just this one stall.

 I'm still in awe of all they fit into the small space efficiently everything beautifully displayed. Lessons I need to take to my own home-built displays for art shows and stores.

All the merchandise had its on packaging and a nice assortment of color. As you can see a well-curated modern version of shabby chic was popular at the time I was visiting. Not my style at all but I loved looking at it all.

 I'm thoroughly enjoying looking back at these photos from my trips to Japan, can't wait to share more of them! I always feel refreshed and inspired, I'll definitely be back to explore more of the country someday. Time to earn more and save up for it!

/Comments Off: I'm playing with having comments off on certain posts depending on my work load, the day of the week, and the type of post. Today is my one work day at "Shakti", a local raw vegan caterer and I want to work on getting ahead on posts before my shift (and bike orders to the post office!) so comments will be off today. Send me an e-mail or Instagram/Facebook/Twitter message if you have anything to say or wanna say "Hi!"

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