I read about a Japanese gift shop in Hackney in this month’s Monocle.   I thought I would investigate.   It’s called Momosan and is on Wilton Way just north of London Fields.   It stocks little carved wooden tumblers and socks the size for Japanese men and carved wooden spoons from New Zealand and English ceramics from the Cotswolds:-

Nearly next door is an equally wonderful shop called J. Glinert which sells the best quality paper clips and pens and Ghanaian brushes and books about the local area:-

Yesterday, I was told about the so-called discriminatory curve whereby consumers become more and more sophisticated in their patterns of consumption as generations pass.   I think these two shops in Hackney are at the top of the discriminatory curve.