I did a lot of shopping in Tokyo and bought many souvenirs for my family and friends. I thought carefully about each person while choosing their gifts. I bought clothes from different stores and spent some time shopping around Kinshichō, visiting Marui and Termina.
While moving around the city, I also noticed some interesting details. For instance, Tokyo’s subway system reminded me a lot of the Delhi Metro. This is because the Delhi Metro was developed with significant support from Japan, including technical expertise and funding. One clear difference was security, in Delhi, bags and passengers are scanned at station entrances, but not in Tokyo.
Another thing I noticed was how store staff communicate. They repeat polite phrases very consistently, sometimes even when no customers are nearby. At first, I wondered if I was supposed to respond, but I soon noticed that most shoppers simply continued browsing without reacting. So, I learned that this is just part of Japan’s customer service culture. Sometimes, I couldn’t help but think about how tiring that might be.
I bought a muffler and a T-shirt for my dad. He wore the T-shirt to work the very next day. I also bought a sweater and a warm muffler for my mother.
I bought several items for my brother, but he ended up losing three of them at school, which honestly made me quite upset. I also bought clothes for my best friend, and she was really happy with the souvenirs.
I bought a lot of chocolates and snacks, mixed them together, and shared them with many people so everyone could try different flavors. Interestingly, no one seemed to enjoy the matcha KitKat, which made me curious about how Japanese people feel about that flavor.
Along with all this, I bought books. I had planned to buy Higashino Keigo’s books in Japan, as I had already read many of his works in English and wanted to own them in Japanese. In Akihabara, a bookstore staff member helped me find all the books I was looking for and even introduced me to a new release. Buying original Japanese books in Japan and reading them in their original language had always been on my wishlist.
I bought three books by Higashino Keigo and later got another, making it four in total. I also bought two manga from Animate. While Akihabara felt more expensive, likely because it’s very popular with tourists, Animate in Ikebukuro felt like a dream place for anime lovers.
In the end, packing everything was a challenge. My suitcase was already full of bulky winter clothes. At Haneda Airport, I used the remaining cash I had to buy a jacket and a T-shirt from UNIQLO, which felt like the perfect way to end my shopping in Japan.
The next article is about some other well-known spots I explored in Tokyo.