Kaimono-do – The Way of Shopping

Posted on April 5, 2007 by Christopher Davis

For those of you who’ve actually managed the marathon at some stage of living here, you will be well aware of the length and depth of variety in retail spaces that, it seems in places, link endlessly around major city centres. In my experience, they have things here for problems that I didn’t even know I had – tetra pack handle in a variety of colours anyone? They have whole shops for people who hate shopping or just look (Tokyu Hands, Loft) and even cheapskates (100\shop). Think of something you might want, whimsical, nonsensical even. Ok, I’m channelling you with my new G15, Pentium 48, PDA with telekinesis in two tone burgundy – what, you don’t have one of those yet? So I’m channelling you and you want…..a pair of sneakers in purple shag pile with silver lightning bolts down the side, lined with a Lichtenstein print, glitter laces like a pair of eighties roller skates…..and….a built in MP3 player. Huh!? SO last week but I’m sure I saw them at a ‘depato’ in ShibuyaOne of Tokyo's 23 wards and a center of business, fashion, and nightlife. – on sale to make room for the orange faux ostrich skin that’s so hot right now.

Shopping for non-professionals (foreigners) can be a little difficult. Apart from the minute by minute overwhelming assault on all 5 sensory perceptions (6 if you have the same PDA as me), you constantly find the item you want, in five different styles. You keep moving on, telling yourself or being told by a local, “Oh, you’ll get that a little cheaper at the next place.’ And you do – but in 10 different colours and 7 Manga character’s motifs. You go out for an MP3 player and come back instead drunk, overfed, with a wild, wide eyed glare, nervous twitch, disheveled hair and nothing else – in my case employing the services of your mother-in-law to get it for you less you die from paralysis of choice (I believe Tokyo hospital has a special unit set up for that). Take the photo below as an example, but a few metres of the running track length hairdryer section at Yodabashi Camera, Umeda in Osaka. Sorry guys but the gadgets were too small to photograph.

If western cultures have made an institution out of something that was Greek – sitting around in public expressing our likes and dislikes about anything, then the Japanese have made shopping their own. The attention to detail, the paper, the cards – oh the cards! Indeed, the Japanese market accounts for 35% of the world’s luxury good sales according to the Japanese External Trade Organisation’s website. That’s the whole world and that includes brands like Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes, etc. Italy’s single biggest private investment in Japan post WW2, came courtesy of Prada’s 6 level, architecturally celebrated flagship store in Tokyo. It is a discerning market so even if the luxury brands are out of your budget, the budget stuff is amazing to look at, touch, feel, smell and, of course, buy. Of course, if all this variety in styles is too much for you men out there, Asahi have the thing for the choice handicapped – style free beer. No, really! The can just comes in white too.