Jackie in Japan - Convenience Stores

Since Solarsavoy asked, I will talk a little bit about shopping in Japan, mainly convenience stores, as I tend to go there more often than anywhere else. This also comes about because I recently got myself together and started reading Life in Retail. I'm still 22 chapters behind.

While you can find a vending machine on every street, the same cannot be said about convenience stores. But they are usually at rather convenient locations. As an example, there are three convenience stores in the shopping district, one in each end of the street and one approximately in the middle.

There are three different convenience store chains, FamilyMart, 7-Eleven and Lawson. (I view Convenience as the fourth fictional chain.)

Let's go through my most recent trip to Lawson, as that's the one I frequent the most these days.

I go in, and as I enter, there as a little sound indicating that someone has gone inside. It's not a ringing like you hear most often, but more of a beeping sound. I don't have the skill to type it out, unfortunately. Sometimes I'm greeted with the employee saying "いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase)" (welcome/welcome to the store).

If there are people in the store, I'm mostly left alone to do what I want. But as I am visually impaired, if there are no one else, an employee might come up and ask me what I need.

While I look at all the things I could but shouldn't buy (aka. sweets), I listen to the music playing. It's not your standart music with full songs. You might get that if you're very lucky, but usually it's commercials, and they tend to loop the same 1-2 commercials, so you go nuts after a short period of time if you aren't used to it. (I'm sure Japanese people are more or less used to it, but coming from a country where doing this is not normal, it gets very annoying very fast.)

Okay, let's say I finished my shopping now. I go up to the counter. Let's say I bought a bento that is best hot, right around lunchtime, and a few more things. The employee starts by greeting me in the same way as before, regardless of whether they greeted me when I entered or not. They then take the shopping basket with my items and begin scanning them. They grab the bento and ask: "Do you want me to heat this up?". Normally I'd say no, but let's say today is not normal, and I say yes. They heat it up for me and give me some disposable chopsticks if I want them. They will also ask if I need a bag for my items. They didn't do that last I was in Japan, but back then, bags were free. Now they're not, but I bring my own bag, so I usually don't need it. Today I do. Normally, they will bag everything together, but today I had my bento heated, so that is bagged seperately.

It's now time to pay. The employee states the price and I chose my paying method. Usually I pay by card. I ask if it's possible and then scan my card on the reader. Sometimes I pay in cash. For that purpose, there as a little plastic tray. I remember it as being blue, but I think I have seen it in other colors too, but I think blue is the norm. Anyway, I place my money on the tray and they take the tray and accept the money. They then hand me back the change by placing it on the blue tray and send it accross the counter to me. The receipt is usually on the tray with the change. Sometimes they will hand things to me directly, but I don't know if that's a change in behavior from last time, or because I'm just a special case. The transaction finishes by me accepting my bags and leave me while they say "ありがとうございました (arigatougozaimashita)" (thank you/thank you for doing business with us).

I have never worked retail in Japan, so for inside information, I recommend this book: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. It's a fictional book, based on how working in a convenience store actually is. The protagonist is interesting, for lack of a better word.

I have more things to say about convenience stores in Japan, so this will not be my last post on the subject.

Jackie Chan: Dear Jackie (1985)

My Lucky Stars Japanese program (Sammo Hung, 1985)

girl chat 📱\(Ŏ◊Ŏ ‧̣̥̇)

PREMIERE（日本版） 1998年6月号 - Jackie Brown特集

（ Tokyo Dragon Road ）

(via PREMIERE（日本版） 1998年6月号 - Jackie Brown特集 | Tokyo Dragon Road)

ko-fi request for @tekkers of zack sabre jr (aka the greatest submission wrestler of all time) :33

also fyi this is how i am blogging 90% of the time

he is not even my cat

I’ve been gone for less than eight hours

Shinjuku Incident (2009)

One of my favorite movies.

Eng.

Art dedicated to the demoness of the mountains - Po-Kong, when she was still a young beauty and ruled Japan

That's all I can say

Rus.

Арт посвященный демонессе гор - По-Конг, когда она была ещё юной красавицей и правила Японией

Это все что могу сказать

Happy Birthday Jackie Earle Haley!!

Jackie in Japan - Kyoto (Second Visit)

Yes, I'm saying second visit because this is not my first visit to Kyoto. I was there in February 2018 for just a weekend. If anyone is interested, I still have the diary entry from that day, so I should be able to make a report on what I did.

But enough about the past. Here is the present.

As this was my second visit, it was very hard to find new things to do and new places to see. I mean, not a lot is left when the purpose of the first trip was to cover as much as possible in two days. Still, there was something.

I went to Kyoto by shinkansen and believe it or not, that was actually delayed. I met with a friend from my home country who is an exchange student at a university in Kyoto and we went around together.

When I have brought up Kyoto and asked for recommendations, most people mentioned Kiyomizudera, which I have seen, but they also mentioned Arashiyama, which I have not seen. So we went there.

It was okay. We went to the bamboo forest there and it did look very nice. We spotted a lot of people in kimono and wondered whether there was some sort of festival going on, but never found out. No, they weren't maiko. There were too many, they were too spread out and it looked too casual if you ask me. But I could be mistaken.

After Arashiyama we agreed to go to Fushimi Inari Taisha (Fushimi Inari Shrine). I've been there before, but as it's apparently near the university my friend goes to and I wanted to see that, I said we could go see it. I'm happy I did.

Night had fallen by the time we made it there. It was completely dark, but the shrine grounds were well lit up. You can still see the autumn leaves and at the shrine, the trees were lit up so it seemed like they were glowing orange. There were also lamps shining down on the path to the shrine with figures of foxes and autumn leaves. My friend and I walked around the shrine grounds, but we didn't go very far as it was dark. We did pray though, and bought candied strawberries at a small shop next to Inari station. They tasted really good, so if anyone ever visits Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, I highly recommend stopping by there and buying a snack.

After this, we went back to the labyrinth that is Kyoto station, I bought souvenirs and dinner and then went home. That was the end of my trip.

I had a really good time, even if it was my second time visiting and I'm very happy that even if I did go to a place I had been to before, it was a whole new experience and in a way, I think it was more memorable than the last.

If anyone is interested in hearing about my experiences with shinkansen or about my first trip to Kyoto, please let me know.

I started reading Billy Bat manga by Urasawa Naoki (u may know him as the guy who did Monster) and jesus christ its wild. Absolute experience. Judas and Jesus are in it, so are ninjas, so is lee harvey oswald (technically at least 3), theres a bat thats satire about how evil mickey mouse and disney are, there's lying cartoons galore, there's the civil rights movement, the oppressivr terror of the ku klux klan and the structural damage of segregation and fucked up laws, and the pervasiveness of advertising and the coca cola company ("golden cola") there's real events sprinkled with gratuitious fictional shit about manipulative God Billy Bat (or perhaps "administrator/guide to the human race"), a scroll that could control the world, Fake walt disney has hired killers, the looming brutality of imperialism and corporations buying out poorer areas, killing in other countries and breaking laws and whatever else is needed to acquire what they want, there's a cartoon dog kennedy assasination, a baby kevin inherits the powers of an older kevin, there's ninjas and priests, there's a small town out west full of cowboy larpers who are this comic artists biggest fan club, a secret agent Smith with a heart of gold (one hopes), a teenager named jackie whos seeing visions, there's a good and evil fake "mickey mouse" bat but frankly theyre probqbly both evil cause either way they lie and manipulate to get people to do what they want, judas cameos not only in his jesus arc but as a little kiddo, and like. Im not even halfway done. Einstein JUST showed up.

Past and present day fashion

In the of both medieval Asia the women in kimono and hanfu show both royalty and living in a perfect Society they are in.

The oni girl in medieval Japan 🇯🇵 live in well full architects and building in their day to symbolize her people of the night of the oni clan.

In medieval Chinese era women in society wear makeup and put a ornaments on their hair to show passion and beauty in their work, the female dragon wear red for royalty and power they show.

In present day now people wear what ever they want to wear from wearing black all day and wearing something irresistible. Like both female dragons wearing baddie girl outfits and emo outfits styles.

Live in Japan, 1977

In Jackie Brown (1997), Bridget Fonda’s character, Melanie, has this photo of herself on her wall that’s of her in Japan. She can hardly remember the name of the guy who has his arm around her and his face isn’t even in the photo.

‘Well, you can't trust Melanie, but you can always trust Melanie to be Melanie’ - Ordell