Conversations with Friends: Zoe Schaeffer

Zoe Schaeffer is a Travel Advisor and longtime curator of beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. Someone whose career has always revolved around discovering things worth sharing. Before planning super personal trips, she worked as a beauty editor at fashion magazines, owned a clothing boutique, and built a lifestyle blog that shaped how many people approached style and daily rituals. Alongside being one of her agency’s top-producing travel advisors, Zoe also writes her own Substack, Trippin, which focuses on the intersection of beauty and travel, I look forward to it every time it lands in my inbox.

I first met Zoe on a trip to Morocco when I worked at her agency’s HQ; we immediately spoke the same language, and ever since, Zoe has been someone I have always consulted on the big life decisions with (including starting this Substack).

In this conversation, we talk about Tokyo: the neighborhoods she loves to wander, the hotels she returns to, the beauty rituals she’s chasing, the bookstores she gets lost in, and the discoveries she’s excited to make next.

Where do you stay when you’re in Tokyo?
I’ve stayed at a few spots: Mandarin (chic), Trunk Yoyogi Park (highly curated), The Edition (way too commercial for me), and my favorite, Janu (which has a spin studio and a boxing ring). I think K5 looks super cool and is tiny, which is definitely my speed. But I’m also kind of dying to stay at the newly renovated Park Hyatt - I can also get into an epic property with lots of history.

Do you have a neighborhood you keep coming back to?
I don’t know the neighborhoods well in Tokyo — I usually explore by foot or make lists of where I want to go. But when I go back, I want to wander around Daikanyama more.

Where do you always end up losing an hour (or three) in Tokyo?
I went to that insane bookstore in Daikanyama three times (T Site). My husband said I blacked out the first time — I died over the gorgeous book covers from all over the world. Japanese writing is so beautiful, so I always come back with Japanese interiors books or cookbooks I can’t read. There are Japanese books all over my house, actually.

Also, if you go into the Tsukiji fish market (the interior space, not the perimeter), all the food packaging is picture perfect. I remember staring at a carton of eggs for a full minute.

And you can’t beat going into the baller clothing stores and discovering new brands. Even though we have a Dover Street Market in LA, the one in Tokyo is insane. I wander around slipping bomber jackets on and off in all the mirrors. And vintage kimonos slay me — they’re like art. I have a number of them in my closet next to this season’s Dries Van Noten. It’s ridiculous.

Where do you go for beauty finds in Tokyo?
A friend who is fluent in Japanese took my teen daughters and me to Cosme, which is like Japan’s Sephora. She helped us sift through products, which was super fun. I scooped up cool lip stains from brands I didn’t know, mascaras, and this pretty Magnolia Oil that everyone uses. I purchase for packaging when I’m in that city — I’m a real sucker for beauty.

What beauty discoveries are still on your list?
I really want to learn more about Japanese beauty treatments as J-Beauty is becoming as big as K-Beauty. I also need to find the best Japanese Head Spas as this was something that I deeply researched but came up fairly empty-handed!

What's something unexpected you love in Tokyo?
Everyone will obviously suggest popping into a Japanese 7-Eleven for the packaged pancake, but my favorite thing there is the white T-shirts for men - they are $5 USD and are the perfect boxy fit! It’s a real hack.

I also deeply love the food hall at Isetan on the lower level. You will find $300 beautifully wrapped watermelons — stuff like that — but will spend an hour trying to decide what to actually eat because everything is so perfectly tempting. And sushi culture is so funny because you can obviously go insanely high end and spend a fortune (which I’ve done), or go to a conveyer belt restaurant where you order and the rolls slide out into your booth (I’ve done this too), and don’t skimp on a “standing sushi” restaurant which is for the time-crunched consumer who wants high-quality (a fave!).

What did your daughters love most?
I have three teen daughters, so naturally they’re really into the vintage clothing stores and, of course, the matcha shops. It’s like, how much matcha can we possibly ingest? We had to stop in each one. They also went bananas for the micro pig cafe — I believe there are ethical issues with the non-domesticated animals like hedgehogs and otters — but apparently the pigs are treated really well, so I can look myself in the mirror.

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