|
|
|
|
Japanese Shops Rock. Not only are there huge
amounts of shops that sell anime and manga merchandise, but there is
also the matter of names. It seems that English words sound good
in Japanese. So much so that they are sometimes used without real
thought going into their meaning... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings In Shops
When you enter shop or restaurant in Japan you are greeted which is
fair enough. When you walk past the same person again though, you
are greeted again. And again. And again. Whenever you
walk past a member of staff in Japan you will be greeted every time
without fail. One member of staff walked past Rich about six times
in the space of five minutes and greeted him every time. When
stood outside a Japanese burger bar reading the menu we were greeted by
the staff inside about three times. Ghibli Shop
Tom & Rich both thought that most of the Studio Ghibli merchandise
they were planning to spend the majority of their money on would only be
situated in the shop at the Ghibli Museum. So we were more then
pleased to find when walking through the large shopping mall connected
to our hotel that next to the (ahem) Disney Store was a Studio Ghibli
shop! Most of our Yen was spend in this excellent store which
contained more quality Ghibli merchandise then you shake a Totoro at.
Stationary, statues, plushes, playing cards, ear pickers (!), flannels,
DVDs, CDs, chibi figures, film prints, keyrings and much much more.
When we found that most of this stuff had Laputa (Ric’s favourite film)
and Kiki’s Delivery Service (Tom’s favourite film) on it, you can
imagine how Yen was spent! Cowpoo
In Japan they love using English to name their shops.
Unfortunately the do not seem to bothered about the meaning and we both
enjoyed spotting several faux pas throughout our trip. They are
too numerous to mention but we had simply had to mention the best one –
a women’s clothes shop called CowPoo! Adolescent sniggering was
the outcome of spotting this and the above photo was taken instantly.
What made it even better is that if you look at the logo next to the
name you can that it looks a bit like a fart! Condomania
Slap bang in the middle of road full of high class emporiums such as
Yves St Lauren, Gucci and Prada in Harajuku there was a Condom shop.
Not only is this guaranteed to raise a childish snigger in most, but
plastered across the windows was a huge smug looking cartoon condom that
is winking and giving the thumbs up sign. This is near Gucci.
The comic value of this is immense! Carrefour
During the journey to the hotel, viewing a neon sign with Carrefour
written on it gave Tom a shock which resulted in him shouting ‘Oh my God!’,
much to the bewilderment of the rest of the coach. You see, Tom’s
mum used to work in a hypermarket named Carrefour when he was very young
and this underwent several name changes and it is now Asda Wal-Mart.
Tom never thought Carrefour existed anymore so to see it in Tokyo was a
huge random surprise! Book Off
Firstly this Book/CD/DVD shop in Harajuku was called Book Off.
This is good in itself. Secondly it had a section of CDs for
¥100 (about 60p). This included several
anime soundtracks (many of which now reside in our collections) and even
more shockingly a number of cheesy imported UK CDs including Clock,
PJ &
Duncan, Doop and the almighty Scatman John! Much purchasing was
done... Sarahbrand
Casual Wear
For People Who Love Dogs. Can you get any more specific? |
