The January Sales Breakdown

So clearly the January sales didn't start on December 30th, again I am projecting my post back in time in order to give you filler that's all killer. Or something like that. How can I describe the January sales in Japan? With an image:


I think that what has happened there is that the tussle for sale goods was so violent that somebody punched a fucking mannequin in the face. Hard core. So what you need to know about the January sales in Japan is the following: that although January 1st is one of the most important holidays of the year, it's also fukubukuro (lucky bag) day and all the big shops, department stores and malls open to sell discount bags full of random goods; and that the sales proper start on January 2nd (along with the smaller stores fukubukuro sale). This year, as last, I went shopping both days. I didn't get a lucky bag this year since I have no money and couldn't justify it to myself. I found it remarkably easy to justify the purchase of the following though, part of the Spring Bape drop that came out on the 2nd... I couldn't resist:


I know what you're thinking - but what would Kanye West look like in that? Luckily he wore it in the new Bape lookbook:


Have you seen Kanye's new year post on his blog? I love that guy.

Christmas at Sapporo Factory Once Again

So it's December somehow or other, and you know what's in December? Andy's Birthday! And another birthday! Jesus's Birthday! To be honest I was gonna try and avoid harping on about Christm... AH WHO AM I KIDDING I LOVE CHRISTMAS I LOVE IT.

And I love almost everything about Christmas - even Christmas shopping in busy shopping malls. Maybe it's nostalgia for the classic tearjerker Jingle All The Way, but whenever I'm looking at larger-than-normal mall trees and fairy lights... all's right with the world.

I'm not even joking y'know. I'm putting together a Christmas playlist right now, so watch your asses.

Since I've come to Sapporo I always make sure to check out Sapporo Factory, where they have a big tree that plays music and does a light-show every hour. I'm not gonna deny that it's tacky and gauche, but there's no real need to defend it either.


Now, to be honest (and I need to go back and check the reference photos from last year) the Factory tree looks a fair bit smaller than last years. Looked pretty enough when the lights were on though.


Christmas. Commerce. Capitalism. And other words beginning with C.

Cruel Taunts of Commerce

On sale now across Japan, the two volume new novel from Murakami Haruki. Pictured here in a tiny Supermarket in the middle of nowhere, North Tomakomai (it's kind of like Leicester by the sea):


Don't you see? I can touch it, but I can't read it.

New Sapporo Bape Store!

I'm pretty far beyond defending my affection for the Bape brand at the moment, I dig what they do so I was pretty stoked that they were closing their small Sapporo Store and opening a big new shiny (very, very shiny) one right next to the TV Tower. As Bunny pointed out they could have done some kind of Terebi-tou San X Bape crossover, but perhaps that was too much to ask for.

Saturday was opening day, and around lunchtime we walked past and yes, there was a queue and ticketing system to get in:


But when we came back later on it had quietened down a bit so we could swan in, poke around, marvel at the brushed steel and ludicrous amounts of neon and... maybe I bought some clothes too. Ahem.

There was no need to take any snaps inside, Nigo already did it for me on his blog:


All the neons look good, but when you're standing right in front of that wall of flashing Bape logos it sure gives off a lot of heat. And I can't even imagine the utility bills for something like that, but I'm sure it's all costed out for maximum cool for yer buck. Anyway they have more stuff in there now, and a slightly strange "ticket window" thing to buy your good through. It's ridiculously cool, as demonstrated here by Verbal:


Verbal is a Japanese rapper, and my favourite member of the Bape-sponsored hip-hop group Teriyaki Boyz. He's a good rapper and some sort of half deranged street-wear fashion GOD. He was in town for the weekend to play the Bape store opening party the previous night (along with Nigo and Wise, I probably should have gone), to play the opening party for the Height store in Parco on Saturday night, and to appear at the Height store too:


I really wouldn't be surprised to see Verbal dressed like that walking down the street, he's almost unimpeachably cool.

Shin-Okubo to Shinjuku

Most of our time in Tokyo was spent exploring parts of the city, and I didn't really snap many interesting shots of the corners we found (you can see what I did take in my flickr stream). So sadly, I can't drag out the Tokyo coverage for quite as long as I'd like to. I did take a bunch of videos while riding on the train though - which is always fun, so here you go. This is going counter-clockwise on the Yamanote Line from Shin-Okubo to Shinjuku :

I could mention shopping too, let's see. I bought new sneakers at the BapeXclusive store in Minami-Aoyama (again, they had my size, I couldn't resist); and this time managed to find something I really liked at the Original Fake store, but I wish they'd stop making everything so darn classy there. I picked up a pretty unique hoody/jacket thing in Daikanyama that was either designed or made or both in some guy's appartment, I couldn't quite follow the store clerk, but he was very enthusiastic. I met up with Conrad and Rose, who I met when I first came here, and who have both stuck around in Japan for as long as I have. We did karaoke, and I have never had a bad karaoke experience with Conrad or Rose, they're awesome. Bunny got her photo taken (unsurprisingly) in Harajuku by some lady with a fashion blog, and made friends with a designer and illustrator in Daikanyama. In Akihabara, some British guy was so excited to be there he asked us to take his photo in front of a famous manga store. He was genki as all-get-out. We had incredible Italian food outside in the sun, and ate twice at the same Freshness Burger because both days when we were shopping in Harajuku it was pouring with rain and our patience ran out when we were near it. I kept up my record of always finding something unusual and cheap at Disc Union in Shimo-Kitazawa, and also have a much better opinion of Ueno now that I've checked out Ameyoko and the park. Still haven't been to the Imperial Palace. I'm sure it's very nice.

Tokyo Calling...

We came to Tokyo, and look what happened to us!

It warped and twisted our frail human bodies into pitiful mockeries of the human form! Behold! The wages of sin are never being able to buy clothes that fit! Ever! Again!

Tokyo report:

Weather: Sunny, then cloudy, then rainy.

People: There are several people in Tokyo.

Shopping: There are several shops in Tokyo, at some of which we have purchased things.

Tourism: Tokyo Tower was freakin' mind blowing. Meiji Jingu was beautiful as always. Were I to have to marry a shrine, it would be that one. Or possibly Hokkaido Shrine. Maybe I'd marry Meiji Jingu and Hokkaido Jingu would be my mistress. Anyway, the situation is unlikely to come up so I'm probably wasting way too much time thinking about it.

Do Want / Do Not Want : Michael Jackson's Neverland Auction

Just like everyone else I've been browsing the auction catalogue for Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch sell-off to see if there's anything I could pick up for a song.


ITEM: Neverland Coffee Maker

DO WANT - I could really do with a coffee maker, and that looks pretty fancy. I dig the eagle.


ITEM: Large Chess Set with Marble Columns

DO NOT WANT - I like chess as much as the next fellow, and at present am without a chess set. However I don't think I have anywhere to put this beast.


ITEM: Royal Velvet Cape

DO WANT - The one I'm wearing to recieve visitors at the moment is looking pretty dog eared and the Ermine is a pretty horrible grey-brown colour.


ITEM: Oil painting of Michael Jackson as a king.

DO NOT WANT - Kind of creepy.

I'm sure you can guess...

It comes as no surprise, huh?

Two Hundred and Thirty Six Dollars and Thirty Two Cents of Beef Jerky

A few weeks ago I mentioned going hog wild on Amazon. I ordered a bunch of books I couldn't find over here and they completed their journey over the Atlantic from the jolly old USA to Japan to my doorstep today. Of course on the journey the box apparently got accidentally torn open (in a surprisingly... linear fashion) and Japanese customs had to reseal it and stick a sticker on it. So when I opened it I took a look at the Amazon invoice to check everything was present and correct. Except...


I blurred out all of the details of course, but lets just say someone in Princeton ordered $236.32 of beef jerky in eight, sixteen-ounce bags and a variety of flavours. And I assume that this guy in Princeton now knows that someone in Japan ordered David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, Chuck Palahniuk's latest and a bunch of comic books. I mean in some sort of "Medium Sized Dry Goods" metaphorical sense I probably ordered $236.32 of beef jerky - but I'm pretty sure that Amazon don't label their invoices symbolically.

What did you buy over the holidays Alex?

I bought:

A T-shirt that came in a miniature shoebox.

A Batman: The Dark Knight toothbrush with logo embossed cover.

A novelty webcam of Medama Oyaji from GeGeGe no Kitaro.

Friday via Sunday: New Year Shopping

Post New Year has been pretty hectic, so this Friday blog post is brought to you with the blessing of Sunday and the hindsight of two days. Let's begin:


Those are lucky bags - fukubukuro - that are sold on January 1st of every year from pretty much all the big stores and malls. The idea's pretty simple, you buy a bag filled with mystery contents (you can choose the size if it's clothes) worth a lot more than you pay. At the shit stores fukuburo stick around for days into the January sales, but at the popular places they go within minutes of the stores opening. In a couple of stores it was kinda like one of those speeded up shopping montages in a movie where hands a grabbing items off a table until the table is empty. Either that or there are security guard-enforced queues and massive crowds. We got into town just as the stores were opening (nine-fucking-thirty on New Years Day) and Yuki got four of those bags, I got the Adidas one on the far right, and when we opened them up...


Unsurprisingly the ones from the good stores, the busiest stores, were the best ones. One of them was almost a total write-off for Yuki, but one was almost all good and she was happy overall. I got two t-shirts and two hoodies in the Adidas bag, one of each of which is awesome, so I'm happy.

This, by the way, is not the actual January sale, that doesn't start until the 2nd and of course we were there for that too. The crowds were even bigger because some stores don't sell fukubukuro until the 2nd either. I thought it would be unbelievably awesome to get a Bape fukubukuro, but unfortunately so did about a hundred and fifty other people and they were more into waiting in the snow than I was:


They only had 30 fukubukuro which were being handed out in a lottery to some people out of the first hundred in line. After that people were just getting tickets to get in the store because the pre-release from the Spring/Summer 09 line dropped that day. Overall I guess I didn't buy too much which is probably a good thing, but I was fun just wandering around these stores while they verged on riots. My kinda fun.

Winter Trainers

I got new trainers today:


No, wait! I didn't just by these because I'm developing an alarming "Sneaker Habit" (although several people today did take one look and say "More sneakers?"). These shoes were primarily a pragmatic purchase, because they're Winter Sneakers. They're not real leather they're some kind of waterproof pleather; the tongue is sewn into the shoe with extra panels to make it waterproof and snow resistant; and they have ruthless looking grips on the bottom too for snowy and icy weather. Pretty much designed for a Sapporo winter y'know.

Now I'm curious as to whether these shoes are available outside Japan. All the big sneaker companies make them, basically a rugged snow-ready version of one of their other shoes, but mostly they're only made up to 28cm which is the standard Japanese upper size limit. I really dug the New Balance and Vans ones, but they didn't stretch to 30cm. Converse miraculously did, so that's what I got, and they're tagged with Converse Japan labels. Last year I emailed Vans to ask if I could get their snow sneakers in my size and they didn't seem to know what I was talking about, so I have to figure that this is another one of those lines of awesome shit that is made by the Japanese arms of western companies, only for Japan.

And hopefully I'll fall on my ass less this winter.

Snowboard Shopping on a Monday

You know what I'm going to do? God help me I'm going to go snowboarding this year. Like, more than once. I decided that since I love snow so much, I have to find a new way to worship at its altar, and that way will be painful and expensive.

Because of course if I'm gonna be serious I need the gear and that ain't cheap. I'm pretty sure I can do it financially, but just finding stuff in my size here is proving really difficult. Today I trekked around a bunch of places with some success, but plenty of frustration. Boots in my size? Just utterly impossible to find here. The clothes I should be ok for though.

One of the places we went to was the Ario shopping mall, because someone told someone that there was a snowboarding shop there. There wasn't but still we had fun. Ario was really quiet because it was monday, but there were still a few people:


I found some snow-sneakers in my size but couldn't bring myself to buy them... I'm splashing out so much on the snowboard gear I need to pinch a lot of pennies I reckon. Tara however, found THE WORLD'S GREATEST SHOES!

Do they work?

Kind of!

On our way back to town we had to take a tunnel under a railway line. I'd like to think I'm not superstitious, but the gaping maw, the orange glow and the roar of machinery that greeted our approach did somewhat make me think of the entrance to hell. Olivia and Tara had to hold hands:

Also fun was that we popped into the other Evisu store in Sapporo, the one I didn't get my jeans from, while I was wearing my fancy Evisu jeans. The woman working there talked to me about them, and at one point thanked me for buying them, which was a little odd as I got them a few months ago now. Pleasant though!

Field Recordings 3 - Don Quixote

Don Quixote is a... goods store chain in Japan. It's pretty tricky to describe, it's not a department store, it's more like a general store on crack. They sell almost everything, and it's really hard to find anything, and it's crowded and noisy so I thought It'd be fun to wander around it with a microphone and record the sound.

I'm not sure whether I should use the correct spelling of Don Quixote by the way. It's always in katakana phonetics here, Don Kihote, so that seems more natural somehow.

Anyhow here's the sound of Don Quixote in Sapporo, five floors of joy:



And you can download the MP3, should you so wish, here.

Singing in a Mall

Y'know, I don't think it's a shopping mall in Japan unless someone's singing to people:


I went to a huge Jusqo mall today. It was big.

Tokyo! The official recovery post... mostly about shopping.

So a week since I left for Tokyo I think I may be taking some tentative steps towards recovery.

That's kind of a joke, I was already getting sick by the time I went to Tokyo, and staying up all night, racing around like a crazy person, meeting friends, shopping and seeing Radiohead was just a silly idea all around. It did however mean I was walking through Shibuya at 7am to take photos like this, which was strange and fun:


So what can I tell you about Tokyo this time? I feel like every time I go to Tokyo I spend 50% of my time on trains getting from one place to another. And you can never sit down on the trains. Apart from that it's always really awesome to meet my friends in Tokyo, and if you ever go to eat Korean yaki-niku in a neon lit hole in darkest Kabuki-cho where the hot plates don't even sit straight on the tables, all the furniture looks to be made out of garbage bins and you seem to be leaning on a box of cabbages - the food will actually be really good. I guess the clue was in the fact it was wallpapered with celebrity autographs. Also I still hate Shinjuku Station. Fuck that place.

After the lack of sleep, the Radiohead and the kimchee and pork, I managed to get some shopping in too. I tried to go to the Original Fake store near Omotesando once before when it was closed, but this time I succeeded, and stepping inside was like breathing the kind of bottled air that is released in a limited edition, and reserved for the unbearably trendy. I really love Kaws' work and his all-round design and visual style, and the store did look incredible (photos would have felt like sacrelige so I refrained), but his current clothing line under the Original Fake label mostly leaves me cold. It's awesome, but it's not my style. It's filling an increasingly popular space in the street-wear scene for tailored, high-end, high-quality goods, but it's just way too muted for my tastes, especially since his splashy flair was what turned me on to him to begin with (and what he still seems to be doing in his painting and design elsewhere). There was one hoody I loved, but - of course - not in my size. I love seeing the old Kaws collaborations with BAPE because they're just so fucking gharish.

And speaking of BAPE:


The BAPEXCLUSIVE store in Minami-Aoyama (practically Omotesando) is just crazy. Adrienne was just reeling around the place getting lost in mirrors and colours. These two pictures of the BAPE stores are hers because I was too chicken to get my camera out. The downstairs is a super-fancy clothes boutique, but the upstairs is just a crazy shrine to a dazzling rainbow of patent-leather sneakers. They have shoes rotating inside glass cases, floor to ceiling displays of classic BAPESTAs, and a freakin' conveyor belt displaying shoes that haven't even been released yet. All this and still somehow it feels minimal. And the crazy thing is that you're surrounded by sneakers... so many sneakers, and you can only buy the 8 styles in a tiny area on the right. The others are only for show. So goddamn frustrating. That said... they had some good stuff in the back - if you know what I mean. I left there a happy man.

And then about three blocks away is the Harajuku BAPE store, which is also a trip into boutique wonderland. Their shoe floor isn't as spectacular, but they do display their shoes in a glass bar, which the assistants stand behind to serve you.


That's me emailing a picture of some shoes to Olivia to see if she wanted them, a terrifying piece of hi-tech shopping that for better or worse resulted in the following:


Zap!

A Bagful of Sticks and Carrots

I figure that, being pragmatic, one of the main uses of this blog should be to give people an inside view of what living in Japan is like. I mean, coz clearly there's not enough blogs and sites doing that already.

Ahem.

(The ahem is meant to indicate that the preceding statement was sarcast... oh never mind)

So here's something you get from day to day life in Japan: shop assistants love bagging and wrapping things up for you. I'm pretty sure I've gone into this before, but my mind is fried this week, so humour me. Seriously, much more than in the UK, and to a farcically impractical degree. I have a pretty good understanding with the donut shop I buy coffee at now, whereby they know me and just give me the coffee, in my hand, and I walk out the door. At first though it was coffee, in a paper bag, in a plastic bag, and then it tips over as soon as you pick the plastic bag up. I like the new deal.

This can be tied into Japan's phenomenal service culture of course, but it's really, really wasteful when the supermarkets are always giving you more plastic bags than you need, or bagging your groceries for you into far too many bags. Wasteful... until yesterday that is!

As of October 1st, both of the Supermarkets I go to regularly have stopped giving out free plastic bags! Not only that, they are using both the stick (5 yen per bag) and the carrot (1 yen off your shopping if you bring your own bag) to incentivise their customers. Seriously, I'm astonished and delighted, but now I have no idea what I'm going to use as bin bags at home coz those medium sized Daiei bags were just the beans.

I guess I'll take one for Mother Earth.