Why I Love Shopping in Japan

Japan is my most favorite country to shop at. Yeah, Hong Kong only comes next, and Bangkok comes third. While many think that shopping in Japan is ridiculously expensive, I'm here to be a myth buster. Shopping in Japan could be more expensive than shopping in other Asian countries. However, the technique here is to know where and when to shop in Japan just so you could get a good deal, most especially for signature items.

All of my previous trips in Japan were during Spring; and as far as I can remember, I was able to catch a lot of bargain items due to the changing of the season from Winter to Spring. I remembered shopping a lot from H&M and in Harajuku. Well Shibuya 109 is their fashion center but everything there is just expensive no matter what season it is. The brands there are all local designer brands and those shops really set the trend.

The best time to shop in Japan is from mid-December to mid-January. This is when you see the SALE sign everywhere! One weekend in December, we went to Yatsugatame Resort Outlet (outlet shops of local and foreign brands) and we've gone crazy shopping at Coach Factory where we shopped for an hour. We got 2 wallets, 3 bags, 2 bangles for just 100,000 yen or less (around Php 40,000). The Japanese people are too shopaholic that there are a lot of outlet malls/parks all over Japan. The biggest of which is the Mitsui Outlet Park Shiga Ryuo in Kyoto with 237 stores. The one we went to was the nearest to our place (less than an hour drive), located at 4000 Kobuchizawa-machi (town) Hokuto-shi (city), Yamanashi-ken (province).

The craziest shopping day is the New Year's Day! Yeah, what a way to spend so much on the first day of the year haha! Every New Year, most of the shops, most especially the local brands are preparing HAPPY BAGS. Each happy bag is filled with an entire set of outfit or multiple random items from a store and it's available on promo price. The usual price of a "happy bag" is 10,000 yen or Php 4,300. But its content is actual worth more than that. However, the catch here is that, you don't know what exact items are inside -- the style, design, color. What you only know is the size and the actual worth of all the items inside. Well, I've seen some that displayed the actual content of the bag but they're more expensive than the surprise ones. I watched in the news that there's this shop wherein a lot of people have already lined up at dawn to get HAPPY BAGS worth 10,000 yen each but are filled with items worth 100,000 yen or Php 43,000. Can you just imagine how awesome of a bargain that is?!? (I actually took photos of the happy bags but I lost them 'cause I failed to sync them to my laptop before deleting them)

So on New Year's Day, I went shopping in Tokyo with my cousin and aunts and I spent 2 hours in H&M because there were a lot of ridiculously discounted items and a lot of customers as well. I bought 10 items for only 5,000 yen of Php 2,200. That's a mix of dresses, shorts, tops, and skirts. I could've bought more but I limited my spending and my family has been waiting for me for so long at a resto across H&M. haha!

H&M Harajuku

at the roof deck of Tokyu Plaza (Harajuku)

will never get tired of shopping for bargain finds

In Japan, we live in the province but we're just a minute or two away from boutiques and department stores. I think we go shopping like at least twice a week. On weekends we go to the malls in nearby cities such as the Aeon Mall in Kofu (Yamanashi), Don Quijote (Matsumoto, Nagano), etc. Imagine how much this trip damaged my pocket. But still, I was thankful 'cause I got a lot of free shopping from my aunt, uncle, and cousin.

my cousin is my forever shopping buddy

Japanese New Year: Oshogatsu Festival 2014

The New Year celebration in Japan is called the Oshogatsu Festival. It's more solemn and traditional as compared to that of the Philippines, and other Western countries.

For the New Year's eve, we travelled to Tokyo to celebrate it with my Japanese uncle and his mother. But before heading to their house in Tokyo, we stopped by Hachioji to shop for food at Costco. There were so many shoppers getting ready for the NYE.

When we arrived at my uncle's house, we cleaned it up a bit then we headed to the onsen (public bath). There were actually a lot of customers that night. After that, we picked up my cousin and aunt's bestfriend at the bus station and we went to Don Quijote to go shopping. Imagine, it's around 10pm and we're still shopping on NYE.

We all went back to the house and got ready for the NYE dinner (Media Noche in Pinoy culture). We had a very simple NYE dinner. The staple food for NYE dinner in Japan is the soba. After dinner, we headed to the Jindaiji Temple. It's a tradition in Japan to visit shrines/temples on NYE. There were a lot of people lining up to throw coins and pray or make a wish. Surprisingly, I saw a lot of groups of young people at the temple. While some were at the New Year countdown at Shibuya crossing and in some clubs/bars, there were still a long of youngsters who still celebrate the NYE traditionally. 

year of the horse

wine

food!

small temple

main temple (while we were in line)

that's a small fountain

while waiting for our turn

where people get their omikuji

The next day, we had brunch. We shared the "osechi", a set of traditional Japanese New Year food in a special box called, "jubako". Each food symbolizes something, such as health, wealth, and good fortune. After brunch, we hit Harajuku area for shopping. New Year's Day shopping is probably the craziest shopping day of the year in Japan. I'll be making a different post about it, as this post focuses on Japanese New Year.

Anyway, the next day, my aunt's friend gave me an "otoshidama" or New Year money, along with an "omikuji", a piece of paper that talks about my fortune. Unfortunately, I got bad fortune, or "kyo". I must get at least a "kichi" or blessing. To reverse the bad fortune, we went to Suwataisha Temple and tied the piece of paper containing bad fortune at the temple. Then I picked a new number. When I got the piece of paper, it read "kichi", or blessing. Finally! Well, you can check Wikipedia on their meanings.

really bad fortune (1st omikuji)

Suwataisha Temple

me and my aunt

Onbashira

big Japanese drum

people waiting for their turns to pray

must let go of the bad luck by my first omikuji

getting a number (it's written on a stick)

then there's a corresponding omikuji for the number that I got

it's their version of holy water

the main entrance

tried it for the first time

traditional Japanese house

So that's the traditional Japanese New Year. Far from how I usually celebrate it in the Philippines, but this experience has been really worth it.


xoxo,

city girl

KSP visits Kanlungan ni Maria

It's our barkada tradition to hold an outreach event every December of the year. But since we were too busy, our 2012 outreach was moved to January of 2013. It may be late but we won't forget to give back. We've been so blessed the entire year of 2012, and the best way of thanking the Lord for all of His blessings is to share them with those in need.

On January 13, 2013, we visited the grannies who were housed in Kanlungan ni Maria (Home for the Aged) in Antipolo City. For the past years, we've been extending help to the kids and families of Payatas, but this year, we decided to make the old ones happier, most especially those who didn't have families to take care of them. 

A lot of friends contributed in any way they can. The donations we've gathered were used to buy diapers, masks, medicines, and food for the oldies. Vans Philippines and Toby's Sports also donated prizes for the fun games. Other than the members of the barkada, some friends of our friends also joined the outreach. Our friend's aunt also gathered a few doctors to conduct a medical mission.

We had so much fun bonding with the grannies. They're so blessed because a lot of people were helping them. We saw some photos of other outreach events that have been held there. We're so thankful that we were given a chance to help them too.

I'm really looking forward to more blessings this year, and I can't wait to share them to more people who are in need. I'm so proud of my friends who have been very helpful and never selfish.:)

New Year 2013

We were back from Ilocos on New Year's eve. We headed to Ayala Ave. to catch the "One Makati" countdown. I loved the fireworks display! I took a video of it but it was quite long so I didn't upload it anymore. (I'll try when I get a faster internet connection one of these days)

After the countdown in Makati, we headed to Skye for the after-party. Got the passes from PLDT, one of the event sponsors. But since some of my friends were in 7th High, I joined them first. It's only at 5am when we decided to go back to Skye to catch the countdown to the first sunrise of 2013. I really had a blast with new friends!:)

So I went home at 7am and I was asleep almost the entire 1st day of the year. LOL! And when I woke up at around 6pm, it's time to prepare for the KSP barkada's annual New Year's party at Filinvest 2. It's the 4th year of our tradition and this year's theme was "Masquerade". However, I didn't have time to find a mask haha. I just wore a long black gown with a lace back, but I never had a photo of the back of my gown.:p

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May we all have an awesome 2013!:)


xoxo,
citygirl