Shopping in Kawasaki

Well, my first day back in Japan (I do love Japan ^_^) and I spent the day in Kawasaki, shopping. I've already written 'a day in' Kawasaki posts (see here and here), as well as 'Kawasaki city spotlight' posts (see here and here). So I thought this time I'd write about 'things I bought today in Kawasaki'. ^_^

I include some prices so you can get a feel for how much things cost here (prices would be similar in Yokohama or Tokyo). The current exchange rate is 100 yen = $1.15 (Australian) but I will just roughly translate the prices.

Books

At Maruzen in LaZona (near west exit of Kawasaki station, go down to the bottom floor), I bought these books:

Kanji for intermediate level (￥1890, $22). It is a functional book and looks practical. It doesn't look exciting. I have never seen a single Japanese textbook that is anything other than completely boring and uninspiring visually. (To be fair, most of the English textbooks published in Japan are similarly uninspiring.) I hope to take level N3 of the JLPT at the end of the year.

A Geek in Japan (￥1890, $22). I've been following Hector Garcia's blog, Kirai Net for a long time. He posts interesting content and great photos of his experiences in Japan. This is his book; I had planned to order it online, but I found it in Maruzen. It is not a re-hash of his blog posts, but a guide book full of great photos, with lots of information about Japanese culture, travel information, and some geeky stuff (despite the title, this book is certainly not only about geeky stuff but much broader ^_^).

If this was Australia, a nice-looking book like 'A Geek in Japan' would definitely be at least $40, so I'm really glad to come to Japan. So many cheap books. ^_^

Book Off

At Book Off in Kawasaki More's (across the road from the east exit of Kawasaki station, on the 3rd floor), I bought these CDs by nobodyknows+, Going Under Ground, Bonnie Pink, The Yellow Monkey and Hitomi Yaida. I don't know if they'll be good, but I like other songs by these artists, so...
Considering how expensive new CDs are here (often close to ￥3000/$34 each), second-hand CDs are super cheap. And second-hand CD shops abound. In the case of Book Off, there are different sections with different prices; all of these were from the ￥250 ($2.90) section.

At this Book Off, you can also find an English book section (prices generally range from ￥150 - ￥500 per book, but may be more for particularly large/nice books). You can also find cheap video games (in Japanese only). For comparison, I found Pokemon Diamond for ￥950 ($11). In second-hand game stores in Australia, I've never seen it for less than $55!

I also got the iTunes card from Yodo-

Sorry, pause to say that there's an earthquake happening at the moment. It's lasted a full minute! The hangers in my wardrobe are bumping against the wall. It's gentle, so nothing too scary, but I must admit I feel differently about earthquakes since the recent disasters. Before, I found the small tremors rather fun, since they were only small, but now they are a reminder of how nasty things could potentially get.

Anyway, got the iTunes card from Yodobashi so I can download Japanese music. But Japanese iTunes is not like the English one. English iTunes has pretty much any English song you can think of, while Japanese iTunes has a much more select range; even quite famous songs are not necessarily on there.

Speaking of music, I did drop into Tower Records (in Cinecitta, in the 'Tower of Pisa' building near the movie ticket box office). It's a nice way to check out the latest Jpop releases, since they have lots of music listening stations set up, where you can listen to albums on headphones. I plan to get the new album by 'Unison Square Garden' before I leave, but I feel like I already spent way too much money today...

Shoes

I got the shoes in Azalea, Kawasaki's underground mall, just outside the east exit of the station. This mall has seasonal displays and temporary sales in the centre - I've seen them sell traditional Japanese cultural paraphenalia, second-hand books, fruit and vegetables - depending on the week. And they often have a section where they sell cheap clothes and shoes; that's where I got these. They are not especially great but I needed a pair of comfortable sandals for the hot, humid weather here. Cost about ￥4800 ($55). There are many cheaper pairs around, so I plan to buy a few more pairs before returning home.

Azalea is always my pick for reasonably-priced clothes in Kawasaki. In general I'm not a big fan of Japanese fashion, at least for myself. Having pale skin and dark hair, the pale pastel colours don't favour my complexion, and not having a willowy figure, I do not want big, baggy clothes that hang on me like sackcloth. Also, there are a lot of fashions that are in roughly the same pattern and fabric as pyjamas.

What I do love buying in Japan are shoes. Having rather small feet, and coming from a city with ridiculously expensive footwear, I love Japan. I can't help feeling amused to see the shelves of shoes where 'M' - medium - is '23.0cm - 23.5cm'. That's an Australian size 6 or 6.5, folks.

Supermarket stuff

Well, I don't need to go into much detail here. This stuff is from the supermarket in LaZona (ground floor). I got salad (boasting '12 types of vegetable', but it's half cabbage, as most supermarket salads are) and beans to snack on, because I feel like eating out in Japan, it's difficult to find dishes that have many vegetables. I don't know if home cooking is different, but think of all the main types of Japanese restaurant - soba and udon, ramen, tonkatsu, sushi, curry, donburi - and very few of these dishes have vegetables. Nabe, I guess, but this is summer and I don't want to eat nabe.

The beans and salad were about ￥200 ($2.20) apiece (for pretty tiny servings). The apple juice was nice and cheap at ￥148 ($1.70). The two-minute noodles were about ￥100 ($1.15), the nori (seaweed slices) ￥138 (for a lot of pieces!)...

I like these 'granola' bars. I doubt they are especially healthy, but they're tasty. I discovered them when I was living in Nagoya and needed some alternative to muesli bars (which don't exist here).

The bread - ￥138 for three slices - is from the bakery in the supermarket. The bread is super soft, but you can actually taste the sugar in it. It's really not very good for you. I must try to find some tasty, but less outrageously unhealthy, bread today. ^_^

100 yen shop stuff

There was a great 100yen shop in Kawasaki Le-Front, on the 9th floor. It's no more, but there's a new one on the 7th floor. It's okay... and the sorts of things you can buy at a 100 yen shop are pretty good, I think. Back-up headphones, socks, gift bags, a camera case, post-it notes, hair ties, blah blah. I hope to buy lots more sockettes, the little foot covers that fit inside shoes. 

Everything 105 yen (including tax), or $1.15. Nothing to note, except that little notebook with the hamster on it. It's actually a kanji practice book for kids; inside, it's not a lined notebook, but ruled into grids, so kids can practise writing kanji in the boxes. Hopefully, if I have a book dedicated to kanji, I will actually use it. Ha ha ha...