tintin

Thanks again for your help!

Thanks Tisswat! Any idea what they would charge to take in a shirt? it seemed pretty fancy from their website.

Hey / Bonjour

I recently moved to Paris (the one in France, not the one in Texas or Ontario) and am looking for a reputable tailor to take in some shirts and maybe shorten an overcoat that I picked up.

Walking around, I see seamstresses here and there, but have yet to see a men's tailor.

Advice kindly appreciated.

Merci!

Can definitely second the motion for Takayama. Very beautiful, traditional city in the mountains north of Nagoya. Also the villages in the Kiso Valley are super gorgeous - there are great hiking trails that connect the towns, if you're looking for a glimpse of some japanese nature.

if you can go father afield; Okinawa's smaller islands. So beautiful and chilled out.

cities to live in, or cities to visit?

either way:

montréal

mexico city (if you ignore the crime)

hong kong

moscow (but not in winter!)

melbourne

in no particular order

hanjiro in harajuku (probably the biggest, wickedest second-hand store ever)

marui outlet in shimo kitazawa (*really* hit and miss --like a true outlet store-- but if you buy two things, its 60% off both)

united arrows (several locations)

and a (several locations)

graniph t-shirts (several locations)

and, who can say no to a department store just for men; marui men in shinjuku!

japan is probably the safest place on earth, without a doubt!

i lost my wallet and mobile phone one night when i was going home drunk, and the next day the police station had contacted my work and made arrangements for me to pick everything up. all the money i had was still in my wallet, and they were very concerned that none of it had been taken!

you could probably drop at 10,000Â¥ note (100$US) in the middle of a busy street and, --if you taped your name and address to it-- it would find its way back to you. seriously.

i think it would just never even occur to most japanese people to cheat, lie or steal. like dj flame said, its considered disgraceful. it's a great country that way.

my recommendation is for the presso inn - shinjuku. it's a "business hotel" run by keio (a large department store company), with several other locations (but mostly in boring business areas). the shinjuku one is a five-ten minute walk to bright lights and madness of shinjuku station and is brand new, so all the rooms are spotless. the rooms however, are *tiny*, --but what are you doing in your hotel room anyway --you should be out there getting chewed up and spit out by the meat grinder that is tokyo!

singles 8000Â¥

doubles 10,000Â¥

http://www.presso-inn.com/english/shinjuku.html

(it even comes with free breakfast! who can beat that?)

if you're looking for funky areas for shopping, i love shimo-kitazawa. (two express stops from shinjuku on the odakyu line). most guidebooks tend to overlook it, but there's tonnes of great funky shops, wild second-hand stores (i bought a crazy t-shirt from east germany once), great restaurants, etc. harajuku is full-on madness, but shimo-kitazawa has a really great atmosphere and cool vibe.

if you're looking to go into the countryside a bit, takayama in gifu prefecture (in the mountains sort of north of nagoya), is *amazing*. if you're short on time, i'd say drop osaka (which is the same as tokyo only with crazier people and less interesting everything else), and stay overnight in takayama.

takayama's urban landscape is much better preserved than even kyoto i'd say, lots of traditional buildings, nice ryokan, etc. getting out of the big cities is a great chance to see a totally different side of japan.

hello, i'm looking for information about a korean brand called 'hum'.

i was doing some sightseeing in seoul and came across a 'hum' shop in myongdong (quite close to myongdong station). i was in a hurry and didn't have time to check it out, but it looked like cool stuff.

do any of you super shopper know if/where they have other branches, website, anything at all?

thanks so much for your help!

thanks presto718! will definatly check it out, but do you have an address for them?

i'll be in beijing for about 10 days over christmas/new year's to visit family. does anyone know if anything special happens on new year's eve, or do they just save it all up for spring festival/chinese new years in february?

attrition, i came across this post about hong kong. hope it helps!

Quote: dumadiscount

-bored-

Posts: 30

Joined: May 9, 2005

posted: Aug 31, 2005 05:13 PM msg. 2 of 2

heard this guy is better than sam's:

A-Man Hing Cheong Co., Ltd.

This tailor is known for European-cut suits and custom shirts and has a list of distinguished clients.

Address: Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 5 Connaught Rd., Hong Kong, China

Phone: 2522-3336

- not sure about cost though

sassafras, thanks again so much for your help. like i said, i would have been lost without it. if i run into any "máfán" while i'm there, i'll give you a shout. will you be around over the christmas holidays?

attrition, i can tell you there are tonnes of tailors in hong kong. in fact, you wont be able to get away from all the "you-want-suit?" touts walking down nathan road in tsim sha tsui. the whole pushyness of it really turned me off. also i've heard that prices in hong kong aren't much different from what you'd pay anywhere else to get a suit made.

now, does anyone have info on getting a suit made in seoul, south korea? my guidebook mentions that itaewon as a place to check out, but says nothing beyond that; no store names, prices, good or bad experiences, etc. not terribly helpful --thanks again lonely planet!

oh, by the way, do they speak any english at these places? i speak some chinese, but i've never had to push my vocabulary into the realms of french cuffs and notched lapels.

xiè xiè!

sassafras,

thanks so much for your info! i would have been floundering all over the place trying to find a place before. lifesaver!

i take it you live in beijing? what do you do there if you don't mind me asking?

thanks again heaps!

just for the sheer freakishness and cold war hysteria of it all, a trip to the DMZ is really a must. you have to go there on a group tour, but tension and feeling of being in a spy movie are well worth it. i used a korea national tourist organisation tour, which seemed well organised and well-provided for. a guidebook can give you contact #s for tour operators.

Edited by tintin on Nov 1, 2005 at 06:23 PM

thanks heaps you guys for you imput so far.

sassafras, do you have any hints/tips for where to go in beijing, or how to avoid getting scammed? i used to live in china myself, long, long ago, so i'm okay at haggling, but i don't really have any idea what to say in a suit-making situation. suggestions?

thanks again!

i've traveled to beijing several times in that past to visit family (many moons before discovering this forum). but i've always found the city to be empty and characterless, lacking anything really interesting beyond the obvious (albeit stunning) tourist sights. you know what i mean if you've been there right -- endless bland tile buildings, tracts of mouldering soviet-style apartment blocks and avenues with eight lanes across of traffic.

but recently, some of my friends have come back from there and said it was really cool, with lots of interesting, funky stuff. well, the last time i was there was '99, so i don't doubt everything is completly different, but i would have described beijing as "institutional" at best --or whatever the most opposite word from funky is. has it really changed that much?

if it has changed, where is all this cool stuff? interesting shopping areas. clubs, etc?

any superjetsetters out there based in beijing? what the deal yo?

you can read previous passengers comments --many very insightful and well thought out-- at:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/el_al.htm

now that i work in japan, and rake in decent yen, i can finally afford to get custom-made suits made for me. --but of course prices in japan are stacked; so i wondered if anyone out there has had any experience with getting custom-made suits in Beijing or Seoul. i have an upcoming trip to these places, so any advice would be fantastic.

elsewhere i asia, i've personally had a great experience getting clothes made in hoi an, viet-nam. rediculously cheap, with people who could copy *anything* from a picture. 25$US for a perfectly fit jacket, for example. unfortunatly, no trip to viet-nam on the long term horizon, so i defer to all you supershoppers out there, and your infinate wisdom.

thanks!

Edited by tintin on Oct 31, 2005 at 05:01 PM

i've worked at nova (gasp!) for two years. it gets a lot of bad press, i know, but i've never had any real problems. the big five eikaiwas (nova, ecc, aeon, geos, berlitz) are all pretty silimilar, each with it's advantages and disadvantages --nova's biggest drawcard (for me anyway), is that you're free to take your holidays whenever you want instead of during japanese holiday periods when travel costs shoot through the roof (talking +300% for plane tix).

the job itself, no matter the company, isn't going to be the most stimulating. lots of pretending to be interested in talking to people you would never talk to in real life. but if you just go in and have a laugh with the students, the day goes quickly. (and you sometimes get to meet cool people too!)

despite any apprehensions you might have about coming over, you should definatly check it out. new york and london are really sweet cities, but there's nowhere on earth like tokyo. it'll chew you up and spit you before you've had a chance to say "hello kitty" and it'll only leave you wanting more. despite all the things that i bitch about, i still love it here. i would rate my experience as 10++ no doubt about it.

...oh, but if you do work for nova, dont live in a nova apartment. that's a big scam. just find your own apartment, its not that hard.

does anyone know where to get d-squared stuff (for guys) in tokyo? i seem to be looking in all the wrong places.

thanx!