One Dollar Bling

With the Wall Street Journal reporting today that Bling is no longer the thing, lost its luster, has been traded down, etc (Culture of Bling Clangs to Earth as the Recession Melts Rappers' Ice), is now the to take this as a contrarian signal, and buy gold?

Regardless of the phylosophical debate this deserves, it is fair to say that main street has been downsized, and downsizing is in the mainstream.

Surely there is no place better to test this theory than in downtown Osaka, amongst the maze of covered shopping promenades.  So I decided to go without delay and apply an ear to the well-kept ground of the downtown commercial street.  And, in fact, even I could not help noticing that while there was a distinct lack of bustle in the ramen shops, shoe shops, whaleries (see photo) and the charcoal shop (yes there is a shop just selling burnt wood tied in silk ribbons - it looks very nice, but a little too expensive for an average barbecue), there was at the same time a significant interest in the goods offered by the 100Y ($1) shop.  

Looks feisty, but unfortunately closed - "Whale Food - Super Cheap - the taste of Showa" (Showa is a period of history, 1926-1989)

Now, in Japan, you must understand that nothing is ever merely what we call "popular".  Once a good thing starts drawing attention, say, a well known celebrity lets it out on national tv that she applies mature cheddar cheese on her face each evening and puts a kiwi fruit under her pillow, well, with such intelligence out there you can be sure that there will be nothing short of a run on mature cheese and kiwis by ladies young and old, across all provinces of Japan, starting promptly the very next morning.  What in other countries is called popular is a condition somewhat less well developed than the all-engulfing manias that regularly sweep the whole of this country, and, not dissimilar to a black hole sucking in matter and energy until some important physical limit is breached, it is an equally sure thing that the good times will be over in short order.

Again leaving aside the important debate of cycles and sustainability, I found myself irresistibly drawn to this shop, crammed full of neon-plastic articles, all of which were labelled 105 Y (despite the "100 Y" name of the shop).  And once I had walked in, I sound found that I stepped into a new world of shopping possibility - all of these products - for $1 each !  Why, I could buy so many things for the price of one starbucks visit! 

Now, the important thing to note with Japanese dollar stores, or this one at least, was that firstly, there was a good mix of useful things in useless quantities (5,000 toothpicks), useful things which I wouldn't normally buy (electric extention chord), and utterly useless but must-have items (penguin fridge magnets).  I tried to focus equally on all three categories of opportunity.

But how difficult realising such a strategy proved to be!  At only $1 per item, everything is a giveaway.  Such as, in the I-can't-believe-people-buy-this category:

Beautiful Face Cup.  The idea here is to squeze it, apply it to your face, and let the sucking action take out the dirt and other bad things in your pores (Suggested sales message: "That's why I've been ugly all my life!").  Look at the bottom-left corner for a visual explaination.

Or how about...

...a Jinglish wooden box!


This has all the robust design characteristics of a cornflakes packet, but with the all-important Jinglish message, in order to lift your mood when feel down during periods of intense gardening. However, how this is possible for most people is not clear, as gardens tend to consist of four or five potted plants on some concrete.

I was somewhat tempted by the Black Skull brand lunch box (you can also get this in smaller sizes which fit inside each other).


And the Love of Black candle did have a modestly amusing phraseology:


Then there was the rather fetching bear lunchbox ("Let's enjoy a time with me."):


Also available in the same style but with a squirrel and mini chick:


Or how about an origami paper holder - with mandatory cartoon bears doing origami themselves:

"Contains 50 origami explainations! After you have enjoyed making the origami, you can tidy it up by putting it into the case!".  A real time saver for those who have a heavy origami component to their schedule.

In the that's cool but I would never use it category, there was a selection of glow in the dark sticks:

Incidently, if you are going to get one of these, you probably ought to go for the more colourful one - this one has three colours - just remember that for next time, ok?

Now here was something I was so very close to buying - a fantastically simple and probably useless book strap - tie all your books together so they are easier to handle!

I felt that this item had a very strong sales message ("Wide peeler - a fashionable kitchen tool, makes your life colourful and pleasant")

And what home would be complete without....


...a tyranasourus rex!


But in the end, I went for the extension chord.

And this reminds me a little of the market.

Just because something is cheap, doesn't necessarily mean you need to load up.