We
did nearly all of our shopping in Japan when we got to Tokyo at the end of our
trip. Tony quickly became accustomed to my saying wherever we went
"wait until we get to Tokyo." I did not want to carry a lot of
stuff all over Japan. Nevertheless I did buy a tea set in Hagi, and did
carry it all over the country. When we got to Tokyo we found a small
exhibition of Hagi ceramics on sale in the Mastuya department store in Ginza, and I ended up buying
three more boxes of "Hagiware".
Tony was quite diligent in working
on a list of presents to bring back to all his relatives. As it turned out
this was quite useful in organizing our shopping for gifts. My sister had
specifically asked that we bring back some "gel pens" which at the
time neither of us had heard of before, so wherever we went in Japan we were
always on the lookout for gel pens. It turns out, I think, that "gel
pens" are just a common type of pen sold in Japan, but since we didn't know
what they were it wasn't clear to us what we were looking for. I think
when we got to Tokyu Hands in Tokyo we finally found some pens that were
actually identified as "gel pens." Searching for "gel
pens" was one of the themes of our 20 days in Japan.
Shopping
