Ikea 4.5 Museum

Well, finally, we’re just a short two weeks away (April 24) from the opening of the Ikea Funabashi store, which marks Ikea’s return to the Japanese market. You can already see all items and prices online, but I was looking for a way to order a catalogue — Ikea still sends out catalogues, right? — but couldn’t find any info on how to do so (there are complete scans of it on their site though, which you can download as a PDF). In the meantime, they’ve set up outdoor showrooms in Aoyama, calling it Ikea 4.5 Museum (the 4.5 referring to rooms that are the size of 4 and a half tatami mats). The showrooms (14) are lined up all along Icho-Namiki street (here’s a map — it’s the street that leads up to the event space where they held Tokyo Designer’s Week and 100% Design last year), until April 23.

Update: I’m a bit bummed, since it looks like you won’t be able to order stuff online or even through the catalogue, meaning your only option is to make the trek out to Funabashi (out in Chiba) every time you want to buy something. Lame.