Every country has their equivalent of a pound store/dollar store. Actually I have no idea if that's true, I just made it up. But Japan definitely does. Whilst poundshops in the UK usually just sell out-of-date chocolate bars and weird deodorant, hyakuen (100 yen) shops are genuinely nice, like some kind of Paperchase-type fancy shop you might spend ages looking in but feel guilty about actually buying anything from. Except every item costs just 108 yen (100 yen plus tax), which equates to about 50p, which is very hard to feel guilty about. There are a few different big chains of hyakuen shops - Daiso is the biggest, and feels slightly more vibrant and eccentric, like a cross between a Wilkinsons and your grandparents' attic; whilst its main rivals, Seria and Can-Do, are light, airy and colourful. In fact, Seria's slogan is "color the days".
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| One of the only English slogans in Japan that actually works quite well. |
As a Westerner it's extremely weird to go into a discount shop and see loads of genuinely really nice things that I could actually buy and use, many of which would easily reach ten times the price in the UK. When we first came to Japan we used Seria - the hyakuen shop I most commonly use in Nagoya - to purchase pretty much all of our stationery, cooking and cleaning equipment, decorations and storage, and the lightness of the bill was very much appreciated when we'd yet to receive our first payslip. I'm not sure there's much you can't buy at a hyakuen shop - makeup, whistles, chargers, slippers, spatulas, maracas.
Recently I've been trying to make myself more efficient by writing to-do lists in a cute notebook with multicoloured pens, and giving myself a sticker if I complete all my tasks for the day, because apparently I am five. (Surprisingly, the atavistic lure of primary colours turn out to be a pretty good motivator and I am definitely getting more done in the last few weeks.) I wanted to get some stationery to help me out with this, and I also needed some general bits and bobs for the flat, so the other week I took a big trip to Seria and got:
If my counting is correct, all of this cost me Y2268 (£12.38), which I believe is about the cost of half a panini in London. This included:
- some general cute stationery, such as mini-envelopes with parakeets on them which I wanted just because;
- some little foldup storage units for my wardrobe, because Nick and I have to share quite a small space for our clothing; I only have half a coatrack and the bottom of the wardrobe, which I have to crawl into like a goblin if I want to find anything. These units have helped enormously - all my stuff is now separated neatly, so when I do my goblin-crawling I can do it with the minimum of effort.
- A soap dish (because just leaving the soap on the sink leads to scum.)
- A toothbrush-holder (keeping your toothbrush in a normal cup leads to scum.)
- Socks (I needed socks)
- Two battery-operated candles, which turned out to look a lot tackier than I imagined and I'm not sure I'll ever use them. Bit of a damp squib, but not a problem at 100 yen each
- And my personal favourite, these stickers for when I've done well at clearing my to-do lists:
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| "Taihen yoku dekimashita" = "you did so well at doing stuff". |
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I hope I've proved to you how good 100 yen shops are. If you aren't quite convinced, let me present to you Exhibit B, from which I'm currently drinking my tea:
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In case you can't read the text in the second picture, the dancing frog is saying "I am excited very much!" You and me both, my friend. You and me both.
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