Fun in Tokyo... every year!
Today was our first day in Tokyo.
As Oakwood Apartments has had some problem with the Japanese government (they were apparently trying to get around paying the 14% occupation tax on hotels by renting apartments on month leases and then allowing you to break them with a week's notice at check-in) we were unable to stay at our "winter home" here in Tokyo, which was a bit disconcerting.
However, since Pete's Starwood Platinum and seems to be on good terms with the GM of the Westin Tokyo, everything has worked out just fine. More on that in another post.
Anyway, today is January 2nd, which is the start of the big new years sales in Japan, and the day for fukubukuro, or "lucky bags"... pay a set rate and get somewhere between a 40 - 75% discount on the goods inside.
In recent years, because people are so picky, this has meant they have started to reveal what the goods are inside the bags. Since I don't fit in the clothes here, and other such stuff, I always liked the element of surprise, so it's not quite as fun now, although I do have a few hair and jewelry accessory shops I go to for specific fukubukuro that aren't revealed ahead of time. I went and got those today.
I also got some more Pylones rings. I will post more about these things tomorrow, once I have opened my fukubukuro.
For now, I will post the following photos. Pete sat down today next to another "sleeper" on the train... this looks really uncomfortable!
Pete then proceeded to try and do his best "sleeper" imitation, although I don't think he was quite as good as the real thing.
Finally, when we were wandering through the train station, trying to find an empt locker to deposit all my fukubukuro purchases in (a feat nearly impossible on this particular shopping day... but we finally managed it around 3pm), we saw this sign, which made my day.
Pete feels this is about surfing for porn on the internet while in the trains. In any case, it's pretty hilarious. Haha!
And seriously. Please do it at home. Nobody else wants to see you doing that. Whatever it is! Oh, the mind reels.
As Oakwood Apartments has had some problem with the Japanese government (they were apparently trying to get around paying the 14% occupation tax on hotels by renting apartments on month leases and then allowing you to break them with a week's notice at check-in) we were unable to stay at our "winter home" here in Tokyo, which was a bit disconcerting.
However, since Pete's Starwood Platinum and seems to be on good terms with the GM of the Westin Tokyo, everything has worked out just fine. More on that in another post.
Anyway, today is January 2nd, which is the start of the big new years sales in Japan, and the day for fukubukuro, or "lucky bags"... pay a set rate and get somewhere between a 40 - 75% discount on the goods inside.
In recent years, because people are so picky, this has meant they have started to reveal what the goods are inside the bags. Since I don't fit in the clothes here, and other such stuff, I always liked the element of surprise, so it's not quite as fun now, although I do have a few hair and jewelry accessory shops I go to for specific fukubukuro that aren't revealed ahead of time. I went and got those today.
I also got some more Pylones rings. I will post more about these things tomorrow, once I have opened my fukubukuro.
For now, I will post the following photos. Pete sat down today next to another "sleeper" on the train... this looks really uncomfortable!
Pete then proceeded to try and do his best "sleeper" imitation, although I don't think he was quite as good as the real thing.
Finally, when we were wandering through the train station, trying to find an empt locker to deposit all my fukubukuro purchases in (a feat nearly impossible on this particular shopping day... but we finally managed it around 3pm), we saw this sign, which made my day.
Pete feels this is about surfing for porn on the internet while in the trains. In any case, it's pretty hilarious. Haha!
And seriously. Please do it at home. Nobody else wants to see you doing that. Whatever it is! Oh, the mind reels.