Olive It!: January 2014

"Put on your Sunday best, kids. We're going to
Sears!" Okay, maybe I didn't really dress up,
but I did put on nice clothes in case my
students saw me.

There are things that make a small town a "small town". But it is more about what an area lacks rather than what it has that gives it the "countryside" title (inaka in Japanese). Country charm and small town splendor are all well and good, especially if you live close enough to a large city in order to balance out the quiet quaintness with convenience.

My city of Shima was a definite inaka contender until recently. On the roads leading to Toba and Ise, there has been construction on what looked on the outside to be a large square. The writing on the walls of this plain building read "Super Center Plant - Medicine, Food, Home Goods." Since this is about 8 minutes by car from my house (and I prefer walking to driving, especially for errands), even after the center opened, I didn't bother going. Around my home, there are various small shops where I can buy groceries and the mall is up the hill from me. Convenient much? But during a recent get together with the other ALTs in my area, this place received so much praise that I decided to check it out. On Facebook, I made the following announcement.

This looks oddly familiar...

Today, I go on a journey of discovery to "The Plant"! No, it is not a secret alien factory, but the newest shopping spot in Shima. Supposedly bigger, better, cheaper, and with more variety than our current options. I am expecting a Japanese version of Walmart or Target, but I won't get my hopes too high.
I go now.

The Center has been open for a while and has lost much of its initial appeal. It is still new and exciting for our town, but they no longer have the opening month, cheaper than dirt pricing that drove people to the store in droves! While it is still cheaper than many other locations around, it has changed to somewhat normal pricing. So while the parking lot was huge, it was hardly full. Going around lunch time also helped cut down on the number of customers I had to contend with.

Walmart with yen signs!!

From the outside, I started to get a familiar feeling, but it wasn't until I got inside (past the policeman/guard guy, hello?) that things really started to register: it felt just like Walmart to me! It was the same size and pretty much the same setup as a Walmart, but less white and blue themed. There was so much to look at and so many options compared to what I have become use to that it was almost tiring. Like, "There is more store to go through? How did they find that many kinds of honey in Japan? These shopping carts are the size of Home Depot carts!"

The lighting and coloring on the inside of the store had a rather Sam's Club or Costco air about it all and I had filled up my little shopping basket well into my first ten minutes at the store. I was hesitant about using one of the American-sized shopping carts in case I filled it up, so I trudged along with my full basket up and down ALL the aisles. Is this what shopping in America was like? I had almost forgotten how there could be so many choices. There was the food, and the clothing, and the home goods, and the toy section, and the garden department, and the pharmacy, and the electronics, and the cleaning supplies, and the pet stuff, and the sports equipment, and it just kept going!

Truly comparing this store to a real American Walmart would have probably been less impressive if I had just gotten back from America, but it has been months, okay? I haven't seen this much of an expanse for shopping in just one store in a while! Even the malls here, even the Meiwa shopping mall and Lala Park, were all tiny stores merged together like transformers. This was ONE LARGE ROOM OF STUFF! I ended up getting a good amount of produce, a basket for carrying my flashcards and things for school, a beanbag for reclining on the floor, and some curry mix.

Japan, you and your tiny tables. Although I do
like the "kotatsutable" - it is a table with a heater
and a blanket around the edges to keep you nice
and warm!

What was helped to remind me that I was definitely in Japan, though, was the checkout area. There were rows and columns of cashiers who, when not assisting other customers, stood at the front of their particular column and directed people down to them. You could have easily seen which registers were operating based on their lamps, but this way they could help anyone who didn't realize that they were free. But cashiers would never have done that in America! First of all because cashiers are hardly ever free in the States and leaving your drawer unattended like that is surely against company policy. However, that is the system they had here, and I found it endearing.

Was this a life changing experience? No.
Will I change my shopping habits now that I've been to the plant? No.
Do I understand why that is the new hangout spot for students? Not in the least.

But it was kind of nice to see Shima getting all worked up over a convenient place to shop and get a little taste of American-sized consumerism in inaka Japan. I'll definitely be back, and I'll definitely have my eyes out for other small town adventures.

Til then!