#8 : Shopping at DEPACHIKA

At the basement floor of department stores in Japan, there is a shopping complex of food, meat, fish, vegetable and confectionery. This basement floor is called "DEPACHIKA", which is the combination words of DEPA (department store) and CHIKA (basement). Depachika is always full of visitors (almost house wives) all through the day. Depachika is usually open from 10am to 8pm. Although the prices at Depachika are more expensive than those at supermarkets, Depachika foods are popular from their high qualities.

Japanese department stores are close to large railway stations. Since railways are the major traveling method in urban areas of Japan, the department stores are located nearby railways terminals for business prosperity. The department stores try to offer one-stop shopping service for living items, wearing items and foods. Many people visit a department store just to look for high quality foods at Depachika.

Confectionery array at DEPACHIKA

Vegetable salad shop

DEPACHIKA cake shop

The price of a cake slice is between 400-600 Yen at Depachika

#9 : Crossing over Hodou-kyo (pedestrian overpass)

Hodou-kyo is a pedestrians' bridge over a busy road. There are many hodou-kyo built over major roads in urban areas. The traffic in Japan is so heavy that the government has been building these overpasses for the past 50 years to prevent automobile accidents with humans. The first pedestrian overpass was built in 1959 in Aichi Prefecture to prevent school kids from accidents with increasing automobiles. There are 80 million automobiles in these small islands of Japan, whose total square miles are smaller than that of the state of California! We always have to watch out the cars to keep ourselves safe! Jaywalking across a major road is quite dangerous!

Pedestrian deck around Shibuya station

Overpass along Kan'nana-dori Avenue in Tokyo

#10 : Dropping by Konbini shop

Konbini is the Japanese-English abbreviation of convenience store. Japanese konbini are open for 24 hours and you can find them here and there. They sell foods, lunch boxes (Bentou), tv dinners, sweets, beverage, cigarettes and sometimes alcohol. They also sell stationery and magazines. An ATM, fax and copy machines are placed at Konbini. Konbini is a kind of mini-supermarket widely utilized by Japanese people. The total sales of convenience stores make up 100 billion Yen market.

Students drop by Konbini to buy beverage and sweet rolls after school, young people drop by to buy magazines and tv dinners, salaried workers buy lunch boxes, and housewives buy foods and vegetables.

Generally speaking, Japanese people buy items in a small quantity, and Konbini is a convenience place to shop when people feel necessity. In old days when there were no refrigerators, people bought what they needed for the day. This might be the cultural origin of buying in a small quantity.

Now Konbini culture is spreading over to Asian nations, and you will find convenience stores such as "Family Marts", "Seven-Eleven", "Lawsons" and "K marts" - they are Japanese origins.

Family Mart convenience store

Inside convenience store

#11 : Kanban (Advertisement boards) wars

Japanese cities are full of Kanban (advertisement boards) which are not so beautiful. These chaotic Kanban are spoiling city beauties. Selling and buying activities are so huge in Japan that there is little regulation that protects city scenery from Kanban. How about in your country?

In Japan, people do not pay much attention on consistent beauty of a city and town. In spite of the cleanness of each building and street, the overall look of a city is not so beautiful nor consistent. This kind of Japanese mentality may be derived from the complex landscape of Japan in which farmers needed to increase productivity in a small field.

At Shibuya

At Shibuya

At Shinjuku

At Shinjuku

#12 : Eating noodles at Tachigui-Soba

Tachigui-Soba is a fast food shop that serves Japanese noodle (soba or udon) bowls. "Tachi" means standing, "Gui" means eating and "Soba" means noodles. As the words mean, customers eat standing up at a counter and no seats are provided at the shop. (However, some shops are starting to equip seats to offer more comfort.) At most of Tachigui-Soba, customers need to buy tickets at the vending machine inside the shop prior to placing an order. One ticket for one menu. A noodle will be served soon after giving the ticket to a cook. It's very easy and fast! Inside the shop, chopsticks and Japanese spices called Hichimi are provided. The price of a noodle bowl is from 300 Yen (noodle with soup only called "kakesoba") to 700 Yen (with nice toppings).

You can find a tachigui-soba around a railway station and also on a platform of the station. Train passengers drop by this fast food shop to save time. Especially, hasty businessmen and easy-going young people like tachigui-soba.

Tachigui-Soba traces its history back to the Edo period in the 17th - 19th centuries. In those days, there were many food stands on streets selling Sushi, noodles, fruits, etc. People at that time were also busy and they loved to have meals at those fast food stands for saving time. Nothing much changed for 400 years...

Tachigui-Soba at the platform of Shinagawa railway station, Tokyo

Tenpura Soba

#13 : Having Bentou lunch box

A benou is a lunch box. Everything is cooked and ready to eat - cooked fish, chicken, meats are packed with rice in a bentou. Bentou is sold at supermarket and at convenience store. There are many variety of bentou boxes - sushi, sandwiches, beef bowl, etc, and the prices are from 500 Yen to 1,200 Yen depending upon the size and contents.

Bentou shops are found at large railway stations, because many people like to bring bentou boxes into long-running trains (express trains like Shinkansen bullet trains) to save time and also to enjoy eating them on trains. Moreover, some people like drinking alcohol on express trains! The bentou boxes sold at a railway station are called Ekiben (station bentou). There are so many kinds of Ekiben in Japan, and some department stores often hold events of Ekiben collection.

Bentou box

Inside of bentou box

#14 : Business talking at Kissa-ten

Kissa-ten is a cafe utilised for a business talk. Many businessmen talk about business by having coffee and tea. Kissa means to have tea and Ten means a store. You can find Kissa-ten almost everywhere in Japan, especially around railway stations where many people gather. Kissa-ten is a convenient and economical venue to meet collegues and customers.

Kissa-ten usually serves sandwich, spaghetti, pizza toast, cakes, parfait besides coffee and tea. At morning, Kissa-ten servers "Morning set" which is a breakfast menu with coffee and small sandwich (about 400-500 Yen) and at lunch "Lunch set" is served (about 700-900 Yen). "Lunch sets" have more variety like spaghetti, pilaf, curry rice, sandwiches. However, we rarely see "Evening set" because Kissa-ten is not a common place for businessmen to have dinner and talk. At night, Japanese busineemen go to Izakaya (a bar).

Kissa-ten entrance

Lunch set with coffee, sandwich, small salad

Kissa-ten menu (big parfait!)

Kissa-ten menu (pizza toast)

#15 : Senbei (rice cracker) stores disappearing

Senbei is a traditional baked rice cracker loved by many Japanese people.　Senbei is a little bit hard to bite, so infants and old aged people with artificial teeth cannot bite them. The shape of a senbei is typically round and flat less than one centimeter thick. People often eat senbei with Japanese green tea for refreshment.

There is a saying (joke) that makes fun of abundance of time of housewives or old aged persons - they eat senbei watching TV soap operas.

There used to be many senbei stores (just selling senbei), but nowadays they are gradually disappearing. Maybe, you can find only one senbei store in a town. People buy senbei more at supermarkets because they are cheaper. As you see price tags in the picture below, a piece is sold at around 80 Yen. Each piece is wrapped by a small plastic bag.

Senbei is backed after being dipped in soy source. You can enjoy varieties of Senbei - beans mixed, sugar sprinkled, seaweed wrapped, sesame mixed, round ones, square ones, thick ones, and thin ones.

Senbei store in Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Senbei displayed in glass showcases

#16 : Ekiben lunch box on train

Many people in Japan enjoy having boxed lunch called "Ekiben" on trains. Rice and cooked meats, fishes, vegetables are boxed in an Ekien. You can get an Ekiben at a kiosk on a railway station and the price is around 1,000 YEN. On Japanese trains, meals are not served even on the first class seats (called "Green Car"). In these days, very few trains connect buffet cars because the trains speed up and the ride time gets shortened. So, people bring in their own lunch.

The first Ekiben in Japan appeared in 1885. The first Ekiben sold at Utsunomiya railway station at the that time was only two rice balls. Nowadays, the repertory of Ekiben has grown bigger and there are more than 1,000 Ekiben all over Japan.

Ekiben package

Ekiben contents

#17 : Advertisements in a train car

There are many advertisements hanging from the roof of a train, and also attached to the wall of a train. These advertisements are updated every week. Commuters might not gaze at these advertisements so much, but the advertising cost on trains is fairly expensive. You have to pay at least 1 Million JPY (approx. 10,000 USD) to a train company in Tokyo on a single day basis if you wish to display your product's advertisement on train cars. However, advertising sponsors reckon that the ads on trains are very powerful, because the trains carry millions of millions of people every day.

For a train company, the train ads is another source of income. The train companies have stable source of income both from commuters and sponsors, that's why the train companies are able to invest on train cars renewal and on expanding railways. Japanese train railways are getting more and more like "spaghetti".

Tokyu Toyoko Line

Tokyu Toyoko Line

Tokyu Toyoko Line

Tokyu Toyoko Line

#18 : Automated order taking at a Kaiten-Sushi

At some Sushi shops in Japan, an ordering process is computerized. You use a front touch panel to see the menu, to order, and to display your ordering record. Your order will arrive by the belt conveyor in front of you, and amazingly the Sushi plate exactly stops at just front of you, not in front of a person sitting next to you! Sushi cooking is sometimes half-automated with a robot in the back kitchen.

In Japan, people love "automation". This is not because of cost cutting reason, but because the people are just interested in automation. The Japanese automation sprits are derived from "Karakuri" puppets creations in Edo period in the 17th-19th centuries. The "Karakuri" were moving puppets such as carrying a tea cup to a master, and playing an archery game. Japanese people tend to make automated machineries and products just because they are able to make them. The Japanese people often do not hold clear ecnomic goals for inventing automated machineries.

Order Menu

Ordering

Order Confirmation - Thanks Message

Order Record

Order Arrives!

Belt Conveyor carrying Sushi plates