So in this blog, I'll be listing any miscellaneous thoughts or observations I had while in Japan. Then we'll go into my swag / purchases. That section is kinda photo-heavy, but not as photo-heavy as in my earlier entries. Since I'm trying to be more minimalist, I used tons of willpower and resisted many, many temptations from many shops. This doesn't mean I bought nothing for myself -- I just had to be super picky.
If you want to jump straight to the purchases section, do a search for "swag/purchases" (make sure there are no spaces between the "/").
I should note that some items I bought aren't shown here, since they were gifts. Annnd some items that are shown I don't have anymore, since they were given away as gifts, and I'm too lazy to do re-takes. I'll mention in the captions what I don't have anymore, lol.
If you wanna read my previous entries to see what thoughts / observations I had before, here they are:
2018 entry
2016 entry
2014 entry
MY MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS OR OBSERVATIONS
- Almost everything is Individually wrapped. I've noticed this before but never thought to mention it. While I think having almost everything individually wrapped shows care for the product, I also think it can be wasteful at times. I think for a box of chocolate sticks or a bag of cookies, I'd be fine with there being no individual wrapping.
- Tons of deep fried dishes. I never really thought about this before but Japan offers a variety of deep fried foods. There were days where I had to think about what I wanted to eat if I ate a lot of deep fried dishes the past couple meals.
- Too much gacha!! This is currently one of my pet peeves in Japan. It felt more manageable in the past with it often being limited to 100-500 yen gachapons and some randomized mini-figures and such, but now I think it's gone overboard. There were some plushies and T-shirts I was thinking of buying, but the only way to get them was through gacha (as in you buy a box or a covered container and the contents inside are 1 out of maybe 7 or 9 different options). I understand why more products are sold this way these days:
1-it's designed to nab more profits if the customer didn't get what they originally wanted and possibly spend more to get another chance.
2-it provides some kind of excitement you wouldn't normally get if it was a regular purchase
However, I'm getting so tired of it. It's one thing when there is gacha for small-ish things or digital goods that hopefully only uses somebody's disposable income. It's another thing when there is gacha for higher priced physical items that might be needed or take up more space. I don't want to spend 2000 yen on a chance to get a T-shirt design I want. I also don't want to be stuck with a bunch of T-shirts I didn't want just because of "bad luck". Granted, this wasn't happening everywhere, but seeing it does give me concern. Just how much further will the gacha system extend to? :(
- Much fewer public trash bins. There never were many public trash bins to begin with, but after the pandemic it seemed there were much less trash bins around. We found a couple in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, and in the Aeon Malls in Saitama, but outside most of the trash bins were for the vending machine drinks.
- Sushi is using one ingredient with rice and seaweed. My boyfriend pointed this out to me when he said he missed the sushi back at home that had multiple ingredients. There were some sushi places that had California rolls and other rolls with a multitude of ingredients, but in Japan, sushi is largely made with one main ingredient and the rice and seaweed. This is not to say that California rolls and such are better -- just to be aware there is a difference and adjust expectations if needed. I love both types of sushi so I understand having a longing for one or the other.
MY SWAG/PURCHASES
A SINoALICE gacha charm, and a Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage wafer snack with a gacha card. I sent that SINoALICE charm away to my SINO partner-in-crime. :)
This is what I got from the Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage wafer snack. The card quality was pretty decent.
From top to bottom: Super Mario-themed cookies, Harry Potter-themed chocolates, two power-up bands, and that 1-up soap-tasting chocolate. If I were to recommend any of these, it'd be the cookies and the power-up bands.
From top to bottom, left to right: A mini-chair, a tiny foldable poncho, some clear gift bags, some trash bags, a wooden bowl, shades, fancy envelopes, empty card container, a pair of socks, a black tie, and a black bowtie. All of these were from Daiso (100-yen shop). Many of these I don't have anymore.
From top to bottom, left to right: A Kurama figure, Mikey mini-figure, a three-level stand, and a box of Demon Slayer gacha charms. I don't have the mini-figure nor the charms.
Napstablook mini-plushie charm and a keychain for my boyfriend. The Napstablook mini-plushie is currently on my purse.
What I got from one of the gachapons. It's Azami Mochizuki from Sakura Wars (I've only watched the original anime series and I don't think she's in that one).
A gacha mini-standee from Cafe Roanapur. It's not shown here, but I got Balalaika.
A pen and a ruler from the Parasite Museum. My boyfriend bought these for me. :)
Our amateur attempt at playing go.
From left to right: a bunch of gachapon goodies, an Attack on Titan cat-themed gacha figure, a Zhongli standee, and a Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage-themed notepad.
A Shin Megami Tensei Alice mini-standee and a Junji Ito-themed gacha. I don't have the latter anymore.
A Mitsuru card, Persona 5-themed notepads, and some Shin Megami Tensei-themed bookmarks. This was my way of spoiling myself.
Cost of Swag / Purchases (in Yen) (NOT counting what I gave to friends)
Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage wafer with gacha card: 165
Power-up Bands (2): 8400
The various things from Daiso (that I kept): 770
Kurama figure (from one of those "shops"): 1800
Three-level stand: 1500
Napstablook mini-plushie: 500
Sakura Wars gachapon: 300
Cafe Roanapur mini-standee gacha: 800 (I am happy to get Balalaika)
Go board: 630
Zhongli standee: 1430
Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage notepad: 550
SMT Alice mini-standee: 1250
Persona 3 Mitsuru card: 500
Persona 5-themed notepads: 1500
SMT-themed bookmarks: 700
Grand Total (excluding gifts for friends): 20795 yen
This time I didn't need somebody else to declare my goods, nor did I have to mail anything away. For once I had no worries when it came to declaring my goods. :)
Thank you so much for reading!! For those who have celebrated Lunar New Year yesterday, Happy late Lunar New Year! XD
One more to go and the Japan blogs will be done!! Take care, stay safe, and until next time! :)
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