Daiso (or "The Daiso," as its website occasionally refers to it) is a cult-fave upscale Japanese 100-yen store -- like a dollar store, but stocked with awesome Japanese houseware items. We cannot overemphasize the awesomeness of the wares. You want juice glasses with chickens on them? Plastic pastel-colored baskets? A rubber puzzle of Japanese prefectures? Picture frames with a photo of a dog wearing glasses and a Santa hat? Miso soup bowls? A plaid-striped umbrella? All yours for $1.50 (It's about 118 yen to $1 as of right now; also, a few items in the store cost a little bit more).
We were kicking ourselves for forgetting our camera, and we had to leave far too quickly so we could get to the mall across the street before it closed -- but you should check it out! This is the fourth Daiso to open in America, and the first to open in California. There are three Daisos in Washington state and one just outside Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Daiso is in a stand-alone building right across from the Serramonte Target (the one up the hill, not the one down the hill in Colma -- we always get those two Targets mixed up), in the building that used to be a Good Guys. 146 Serramonte Center, 650-992-7462.
