Being visitor in another country gives us the possibility to learn a lot about another culture, even when you are shopping!

Buying stuff was one of my favourite activities while in Japan. Why this? Well, it’s not that I had much money to spend but I was able to learn more about this fascinating country and sometimes even about it’s way to think.

My first encounter with a japanese supermarket was incredible. In Nürnberg, where I live, you get lost trying to find the counter for fresh fish at bigger supermarkets – smaller ones don’t even offer it. It’s about 15 square metres whereas in Japan it’s ten times bigger! So big, I even got lost in the fresh fish section. How do you like that?

Please don’t ask me what they sell since I could only recognise some different salmon and tuna types, squid, caviar and a lot of different fishes I don’t even know the names. It’s common sense Japanese love raw fish, but what else do they love?

Electronics

As my friend was looking for a mobile we went to a store. It seems each mobile phone provider has it’s own unique range of different cell phones and there are at least two or three major providers.

So what were we after? easy enough – we were looking for the mobiles with lowest buying price. I was glad about this, since it was a rather simple task. You could also try to decide by colour but among sixty to hundred different mobiles you will still have a hard job. Just for example, we saw about five to seven in purple. How many purple mobiles have you seen in your store lately?

Even it took over half an hour to get the contract done I enjoyed discovering all this new things to me:

- Charging stations for your mobile

- Sitting in front of a sales clerk in a comfortable chair

- Getting tea served for free as a client

- Logical games (puzzles) on each desk for the customer’s child (or the non-japanese-speaking friend)

- gifts for waiting time – Have you ever entered a mobile store to sign a contract and walked out with a wrap foil for your kitchen?

In my path to discover shops in Tokyo I entered a Kinokuniya Bookstore – the biggest bookstore chain in Japan. This was my only hope to find a Travel Guide about Japan in English, since I didn’t buy it in Australia. I am not sure what surprised me more – the tiny variety in foreign language books or to use the lift to get to the fourth floor and find out somebody’s working inside pushing buttons for you! But no worries! I found my travel guide and was happy to buy it!

Not only in Japan buying can be a completely new experience: In 2008, a small chinese girl in a Beijing supermarket was very eager to help me shopping! I felt she was following me all around the supermarket so I decided to pay quickly and almost run away!

A lot of funny things can happen while shopping abroad! Don’t miss the chance!

Best regards,

Andrés