Tortoise in Venice was opened by husband and wife Keiko and Taku Shinomoto at the end of October 2003, after they moved to Los Angeles from Tokyo. The Shinomoto’s envisioned a general store full of beautiful and practical items. They describe the “Tortoise life’ as “‘things’ which have been here for long time, ‘technique’ which has been fostered through history, and ’shapes’ which never change in time”.

Grace had been there and Jon and Em from It’s k(not) Wood have been there. So it was time for me to head to Venice to check out Tortoise and find out how they apply the ideas from the slow-food movement to their store and gallery full of ’slow’ objects. Recently the Shinomoto’s have added a gallery space down the street from the original store. So now the original space is called Tortoise General Store and the new gallery space is called Tortoise.

In the Tortoise General Store, I love the patterns on these tea towels. The bee is adorable and the cherry blossoms remind me of Kyoto.

The owl and bird are made from Nanbu Cast Iron

Metal teapots and rustic wood slice trivets.

I love the mix of neutrals with pops of color.

I then headed down the street to the Tortoise gallery space.

Entering the gallery space I immediately know that I like everything.

Ceramic plates and this cutlery set from IDEE in Tokyo. Cutlery by Marc Newson.

These metal canisters are made with a vintage metal working process. The lids fit perfectly to create an airtight storage. These white ceramic vases have tiny openings at the top.

Rabbit and Trunk by Gelchop.

Click here for more photos from Tortoise General Store and the new Tortoise Gallery in my LAist Goes Shopping Series. And here for their online store. I will definitely be making many more trip s back to Venice to visit Tortoise.

Thank you so much Grace for inviting me to contribute to design*sponge. It has been really fun and helped me get even more exited about my trip to Japan next week. I’ll be visiting several of the places listed in d*s Tokyo Design Guide and many that design*sponge community recommended too. On my trip, I will be sure to raise a glass of sake to all of you and say “Kampai”!