LOOKING GOOD
In store



Hearing silver bells ring-a-ling, but feel like a shopping ding-a-ling? Try one of these three utterly distinct shops for classy Christmas solutions.�

Compiled by Kit Pancoast Nagamura

Pour Annick offers an eclectic collection of Asian home furnishings Kit Pancoast Nagamura

Pour Annick
Pour Annick (rhymes with "you' unique"), offers a wonderfully eclectic assortment of European furniture and ornamental items from Asia. Beds and sofas are upstairs in the chic concrete showroom. Downstairs, there are smaller items that appeal to all five senses. For the eyes: colorful mini-lanterns, ingenious mobiles, order-made curtains of luscious fabrics. For the taste buds, exclusive Inoda coffee. For your ears: tribal and Brazilian CDs. Aromatherapy goods (superior candles, eucalyptus bath salts) tickle the nose, and your fingers will love the leather chairs around the store. Items range in price from the (hard to gift-wrap) brightly enameled refrigerators (JY315,000), to wee tins of Burt's Bees lip balm (JY600).

2-22-12 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku; Tel: 03-5411-5366. www.pourannick.com 

Shop Detail
Say goodbye to gray with the candy-bright merchandise at Shop Detail, purveyor of international "oddities" and curios, most of which are both funky and functional. A cool little recorder (JY1200) lets you leave a secret voice message for your latch-key kid or lover. A vinyl inflatable pillow plays with your head - it's filled with colored feathers, that float around inside. Neon plastic pens, innovative string lights and mirror balls set the light dancing around an Ebina Noriyuki ant-sculpture light crawling up the wall. Shop Detail offers fun gifts between JY380 and JY33,000. Best sellers include enameled shoe shelves and hemp mats in muted graphic patterns.

2-28-3 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku,; Tel: 03-5474-0708. Open daily, 10:30am-8pm.

Shizen
Shizen takes the bonsai mentality to the limit. Bonsai moss?! Yup. In sizes from quail egg to table top, Shizen's miniature gardens of native flora in handcrafted pots are worthy of the shop's name (shizen means nature in Japanese). Outside the building and on the roof terrace (open to the public, weather permitting), potted and free-standing moss bundles provide growing medium for indigenous grasses or berry-laden mini-trees (prices from about JY800 up). Inside the store, ceramic items of marked originality are lit by handsome rice paper and iron lamps. You'll also find lacquerware chopsticks, paintings, wall vases in wood and metal (JY15,000), ironwork and silk pouches.

2-28-5 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku; Tel: 03-3746-1335. Open daily except Wed, 12-8pm (closes early on some Sundays).