Shopping in Japan is a real treat. Everyone treats you with plenty of respect and really try to help you find what you are looking for. So let’s talk about why Japan’s shopping is much more different than Canada.
Super Markets: Okay Super Markets are definitely a lot different from Canada. First of all, they aren’t as big as a hockey arena. They are about say 1/3 of that at best. Also, contrary to popular belief, Japan is NOT expensive. If you know where to shop, you can save big, and I mean big. Two months ago, my monthly grocery bill was $300 CDN. Now it is down to $200 because of a simple change of grocery mart! It takes time to find the good places, but it is worth it.
Department Stores: In Canada, we have a number of department stores like Sears, The Bay, WalMart… and so on and so forth. Well, in Japan, there is about a million of these department stores! At each train station, there is at least 1 department store close by. The size of these things is a real treat to see. Many of these department stores have their parking lots start from the 6th floor and up. These department stores often have a grocery store on the first floor, clothes on floors 2 – 5, and perhaps special rooms or events on floors greater than 5. Impressed? I sure was when I first got here. If you aren’t, I want to come to your one-stop-shop land for brand named clothing and cheap groceries.
Small Shops: Because Japan is small, you would have to expect a large degree of small shops to fill in the gaps. It seems like everywhere you go, there’s apartment buildings with stores on the first floor. Anyway, I really enjoy going to the small shoe stores around Tokyo. Each one has unique shoes that are very unique to Japan, at least to my knowledge. I also like the selection of Puma shoes here that you cannot find anywhere else. Aside from the general comments about small stores, it is nice to note that there is no fake clothing in Japan. It seems like the Japanese government must be regulating it really well as I have yet to see the same degree of fake clothing here as I have seen in downtown NYC and Seoul, Korea. It is possible that you could find fake stuff in Ueno, but I have never experienced it. So far, everything’s so clean.
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U took me to all the Puma stores in Tokyo =P
many people from foreign countries are surprised about how kind the shop staff are. Even if you come to the restaurant to go to washroom, they say “Thank you very much!” with plenty of smiiiileee =)