Buying Guide Japanese Fabrics

Fabric Shopping in Sapporo

December 17, 2012


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

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11 Comments

  • Reply Patty December 19, 2012 at 1:53 am

    I went through every level thanks to your links, it is breath taking!!!! I feel mad that stores in Canada never display fabrics in such nice way, and we do not get all this beautiful fabrics from amazing japanese designers!!! Lucky youuu got to go and touch everything hahahaha!!! Nice post, makes me feel like sewing something pretty. Love your blog it is so helpful, a very good tool when somebody sews from japanese sewing books!! Cheers and happy week!
    Patty Jakob

  • Reply Gaye December 19, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    Gosh, reading your blog has me daydreaming about spending hours exploring the fabrics n wares!

  • Reply Debbiefs in Australia January 24, 2013 at 5:41 am

    Hi – I bought some gorgeous brocade with very small design in Tokyo 2 years ago and have been trying to buy more! Do you know if it is possible to buy brocade mail order and how I could find a specific brocade? I believe it was in a Tomato shop. I love the brocades they are wonderful! Do you know if brocade (like for OBI can be found in Sapporo?)

    • Reply Japanese Sewing Books January 24, 2013 at 8:45 am

      Hi Debbie, They do have Obi fabric in Kanariya but I’m not sure if it will be possible to find a specific design. If there was a designer piece or from a specific manufacturer it might be possible to find it online. If they don’t ship directly you can use a mail forwarding service. There are also quite a number of online fabric shops (non-Japanese) and Etsy stores that carry Obi fabric, you can try those and see if they carry the same fabric?

  • Reply Michelle Chiang April 19, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    I was in Sapporo during my Japan trip just this april. And my friend and I happen to walk past and we walked in. To our surprise, we saw so much fabric and beads and much more sewing materials. Their quality is very good, as usually i will have brought my sewing materials from Spotlight in Singapore. Too bad they do not have shops outside Japan.

  • Reply While the cat’s away… | sewniptuck February 18, 2015 at 7:59 am

    […] buttons came from Kanariya in Sapporo, Japan. Thanks to this website for inspiring my visit. I only realised the significance – the boys being in Japan and all […]

  • Reply Using Japanese Sewing Books | Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics April 24, 2015 at 11:04 am

    […] Buying fabrics in Sapporo – Fabric Shopping in Sapporo […]

  • Reply Happy September 27, 2015 at 9:18 am

    Hi! I hope it’s not too late to ask but I just found this post. I was wondering if the store also offer a staff to teach you how to knit. Like a corner where they can instruct you after buying yarn and such?

  • Reply Yany smits April 6, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    Thanks so much for the info. I am in Furano now and will be in Sapporo for a day before moving on again. I do hope we have time to drop by Kanariya. Looking forward.

  • Reply Ann September 8, 2019 at 7:52 am

    The main store of Kanariya was really nice but somehow Yuzawaya in Kobe near Sannomiya has a better selection of things like trims, lace and varieties of fabric. I was impressed with Kanariya’s several fabric floors however it was mostly cotton prints, when I tried looking for other fabrics like velour, jacquard, etc. couldn’t find any. Yuzawaya has the velour and jacquard, other types of fabric, etc. When I tried looking for tyrolean trims Kanariya didn’t really have any, they had India style trims but not much else, but Yuzawaya has a tyrolean trims section. So I ended up walking out of Kanariya empty handed despite looking really well through each floor.

    • Reply Japanese Sewing Books September 25, 2019 at 12:59 pm

      But Kobe is a plane ride away? This was about fabric shopping in Sapporo lol…

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