Culture Shmulture

Okay, I vowed this cherry blossom stuff would be my last highlight of traditional Japanese culture for a while. Because what I am equally, if not more so fascinated with is Japanese pop culture or just plain weird stuff. So I'll begin at the beginning. Most people, coming to Japan for the first time will go to Tokyo, and once in Tokyo, after a fitful night of sleep in a hotel, will venture out into the streets. And for most, hoping for a little normalcy and comfort from home, will do what they often do at some point during the day, and that is stop into a convenient store. Convenient stores, or "com-bee-knees" as they are called in Japan, have been just that for me, comforting, if not normal. I’m sure this obsession is just something I inherited from my dad, whose passion and compulsion for convenient stores would be hard for even me to match.

My favorite chain here is Lawson's, which I recently learned is named after a defunct chain that didn't make it in the US. The other top dogs are 7-11 (just like at home), Poplar, Daily Yamazaki, Sunkus, and Family Mart. What makes Lawson's so special in my heart, is for one, its color scheme and employee uniforms. The bubble gum pink, blue, and white stripes smocks and a big milk bottle as it's logo smacks of a seventies revival of the 1930's milkman/ ice cream parlor. I also believe Lawson's to have the highest quality of crust cut off sandwiches in Japan, (A good sandwich is hard to come by here, and it's even harder to find one that doesn't have the crusts cutoff already, but Lawson's does a good egg salad and ham) as well as a superior selection of bottled beverages and chocolate.