Life in Suwa-shi Nagano-ken, Japan in PHOTOS! (Shopping)

Japan is a first world country so we understand why there's a high cost of living here. From taxes to daily necessities; every person in the family needs to work to pay up for those bills. The good side here is that, the cost of labor is enough to cope up with the cost of living. For example, a regular factory worker here earns around 850 yen per hour. With 8 hours of work a day, could earn 6800 yen a day. Less 20% tax, that is 5440 yen, or around PHP 2720 a day...but in the Philippines, the minimum wage is PHP 350 per day. Now that's a great difference. That is why, every time we go shopping, I stop myself from converting prices from yen to peso. haha!

Our apartment is about two blocks away from "Station Park", a place full of shops for leisure, shopping, and dining. It's where we often go for grocery shopping but it also has shops of shoes and clothes, which we truly love.=) But besides Station Park, there are also a lot of shops that we explore within Suwa City. We even visit nearby cities such as Chino and Shimosuwa for more shopping experience.

Here are some of our random shots while shopping...

Groceries

self-service at MaxValue

Megamart

pastries section at Valor

fresh fish & meat at Kakuju

toiletries, beauty needs & med stuff at Kusuri

blame it on the a-a-a-alcohol :))

Seiyu (Chino City)

J-Mart (it also has pets & home stuff inside)

Watahan (plus some appliances inside)

people packing their groceries at Nichigen

Clothes, Shoes, Accessories, and Other Stuff

Shimamura

Hak Yen Shop

Ogino (Chino City)

ShoeMart

Shoe Plaza

kikay stuff

 Daiso (hak yen shop in Chino City)

Jusco Mall (Chino City)

for sports stuff

Brands!

Love Love (kinda similar to Rustan's)

Love Junkie

G.U.

Honey's

Uni Qlo (I love their leggings!)

Tech Stuff, Toys, and Games

Eiden

Yamada Denki (Chino City)

Toy Kingdom (Mister Donut haha)

Game St.

Mandaiteng

Well that's it for now. Will just continue sharing next time. I got a lot more to share: food & dining, health & wellness stuff, etc. So this entry will definitely have a part 2.=)