Luxury fashion stores line the street from Tokyo's Omotesando Station to the Nezu Museum. Walking from the station, you'll pass the wavy glass walls of Comme des Garcons, Prada's flagship store designed by Herzog de Meuron and many beautiful Issey Miyake shops. But you will also pass a more humble Tokyo treasure: the Hakusan Shop, located in the basement of the From 1st building (which is also the home of the Figaro Cafe, where a good impression of a Tarte Tatin may be had if required).

The shop is beautiful, as you would expect of a company that has devoted more than 60 years to designing elegant modern tableware. Ceramics are displayed on a low-level wooden shelf that runs around three sides of the room and also on three shallower shelves above. More pieces are displayed in the center of the space on waist-high white cubes. And the shop counter is made from one giant plank of wood, which would not look out of place in a fancy sushi bar.

Hakusan Porcelain Co. began in 1779 in Hasami, Nagasaki Prefecture, and counts eight generations of family ownership since then. In 1956, a young designer joined the company and, two years later, designed one of the most iconic Japanese products of all time: the G-type soy sauce dispenser. That designer was Masahiro Mori, just as famous these days for the beautiful tableware he designed for Muji, which has been in production for several years now.