Saturday in Kawagoe

Back to that shopping district. From a cultural point of view, this is a place where you can loose yourself completely for hours in the pursuit of local and designer goods. If you take a turn down a side street (past the likes of 7 Eleven – America’s cultural contribution) strangely enough, you will find yourself in the peace and tranquillity of a tradition Japanese garden. Another one of those ‘things we take for granted’ are bins. Strange but true, from what I’ve seen so far, you have to be quite alert to find one, and even if you do, it may not be for general rubbish……..

Mobile phone are another one of those things you have to get use to around here. I’ve seen whole train carriages full of people tinkering about on them. You might as well bin your British phone if you come here because it’s all 3G. Not GSM at all. In fact I paid a visit to a phone shop, and they were quite surprised to see a Vodafone SIM chip. Vodafone is very popular here, and surfing the net and watching TV on your phone is commonplace. Nokia phones are non-existent here as the market is dominated by the home-grown companies like Samsung and Panasonic.

Kiss your VISA cards goodbye here too…… If it says VISA in a shop and VISA on your credit card…..it wont work!!!!!! The people around hear haven’t heard of Barclays!!! If you put your card into an ATM with VISA on it……. That’s the last you’ll see of it this side of eternity.

…..and why is it no matter where you go, this type of shop follows you. The 100 Yen Shop.