30DWC Day 28: Village Vanguard Japan.

When I first visited Village Vanguard in Aeon Mall, I never thought it’s a bookstore. Why? Because I saw weird stuff, food and a lot of kawaii things inside, who would’ve thought it’s a bookstore? But when I searched what really is Village Vanguard, I found out that it’s a vintage bookstore, hideout for geeks, nerds, and other otaku. 

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Village Vanguard is a break from the constant nightlife that tends to surrounds each branch; away from all the flashing neon lights, pachinko machines and AKB48 songs, the so-called “exciting bookstore” offers an escape into a retro, random universe. Pop culture abounds, including The Simpsons, Star Wars, Akira, Chibi Maruko, and that one old Japanese anime you can’t remember the name of but know was all the rage back in the 70s.

Teetering columns of candy-colored comics and toothy bobbleheads form a maze of sorts; be careful, though, because a single twist can lead you to an even more bizarre corner. At the store I visited, a right turn from life-sized Beatles’ inflatable dolls led to a “vintage” corner full of creaky fountain pens and fake British East India Company charters, which connected to a series of rainbow afros and maid costumes. Then there was that corner dedicated to the Gothic, stacked with skulls and handcuffs ….

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Let me tour you around, then you tell me it’s a bookstore.

These are chocolates, not a fish.

A plapen case, nope not playpen. Do not google playpen.

Yakult gummy?! They also have a BIG one, like really big.

And a lot of cat stuff. *sigh

Toothpaste, to make it simple. BUT they have 30 flavors to choose from like kiwi, banana, mocha, etc.

and curry, yep. CURRY. Ukh.

Finally, I found the book station!

You can by Happy bags during New Year, I guess these are leftovers, basically the items inside are secret and you will only find out when you buy the item.

These are pens, don’t get fooled.

They also sell posters, at first I thought they sell it like that, I mean the frames included but nope they aren’t.

Those pictures only show a bit of what’s inside Village Vanguard, we spent over an hour just looking at at random stuff. The store is really amazing and just looking at them is really enjoyable. If you’re a collector, you can find stuff here you can add to your collection, if you like weird things you’re in the right place and if ou just simply like kawaii things, well, you can find them here. If you visit Japan and looking for omeyage, this is also a good place, the items are not that cheap but some are, so I recommend dropping by. Hehe. This isn’t a sponsored post. Just hoping. Lol.

Btw they have a website, just incase you’re curious 😀

Bored Sensei.

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30DWC Day 26: Giving Pocket Tissue Ads In Japan.

February 10, 2018

Today we’re supposed to have our open house at school, it’s a strategy to get more students. It’s like a free class but in a more fun way and we give souvenirs to kids and today’s theme was Winter Sports but unfortunately no one booked the said event. Maybe because we’re lack of advertisement. So, since no one booked the event, we have nothing to do at school, no regular classes and only two classes on Sunday.

After the meeting, our manager asked us if we wanted to give out tissue ads, she’s not obliging us though but wouldn’t you feel awkward doing nothing at school? And beside we’ve already done it before plus I already have experience giving out flyers in the Philippines (I used to work as a real estate agent) so we said yes.

I actually feel excited whenever we go out of school during working hours and observe people (isn’t that weird?) but I was worrying about J, she doesn’t like giving out tissues. We both have a hundred of tissues to give out and went infront of the station to give them out. I finished my task within 30 minutes and when I looked at J she seems really awkward giving out tissues so I helped her. I finished fast again, what I do is look into their eyes and smile while saying “sumimasen, ABC School desu, thank you”(that’s not my real company name) and I’d talk a bit if they stop and read the info inside the tissue.

It wasn’t really hard but I do admit that I also find it really hard when I tried it for the first time, I went to a group of people doing the same job and observed them, their spills, movements and everything and copied them. I also wasn’t able to finish my first hundred flyers, but I was happy when I went back to school thinking I did a good job but when I found out that our manager finished her task within 20 minutes, I was disappointed haha. Going back, I took a rest a bit while waiting for J to finish her second bag and reminded her we only had fifteen minutes left ( we were given an hour to five out 100 flyers), I decided to help her again while we’re on our way to school.

When we reached the school, our manager asked us things like “How was it”, “Where did you go”, “How did you give out the tissue”, etc. J explained that I helped her and our manager asked me to give J tips on how to do it. We had ur break and finished decorating the lobby and waited for the time.

Wondering why Japanese give out tissue with advertisements? Why not just a simple flyer or card? Pocket tissue advertisements is an effective form of advertising in Japan and it has been existing for over 40 years now. If you’ve been to Japan especially Tokyo, you must have experienced accepting free tissue with papers inside, I was in Tokyo when I first experienced it and really find it weird lol, but I was thankful because tissue is really helpful (especially during winter or summer) and very useful.

What does this experience taught me? To be on someone else’s shoes. I wasn’t accepting tissues nor flyers before after I had a terrible experience about it. It happened in Eastwood City (PH) while I was on my way to work which happened to be just three minutes walk away from our condo unit when a girl handed me a flyer and as I happily accepted it but she followed me and asked me if I have a car or credit card, and I told her I have none then her smile faded and said “Ah ganun po ba, bawiin ko na lang po yan” and I was really shocked and I felt like na-judge ako dun ng bongga. Anyways, going back lol, after experiencing it (tissue job) here in Japan I realized that this kind of job wasn’t that easy; being ignored by people, some people even run away like you have some kind of disease, the strong wind, the deadly kiss of winter and harmful hug of summer, and I always feel sad whenever people ignore me or when people run away from me. So now whenever people give me ads, I always smile before accepting, even if I won’t be needing the paper, tissue or fan they’re giving. 🙂

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Fun facts about pocket tissue advertisements

— The first appearance of pocket tissue advertising was in 1969. This form of advertising is almost exclusively seen in Japan.

— The majority of pocket tissue advertising is for loans and consumer credit.

Unlike advertisement flyers, which are immediately thrown away, pocket tissue advertisements are usually kept until all tissues are used up. Since consumers keep pocket tissue advertisements for a long time, studies have shown that they have a deep psychological impact on the brain, influencing shoppers to choose the familiar brand or company advertised on the packages.

— Some businesses choose to attach free drink or discount coupons to the tissues as well.

— For companies who use pocket tissue advertising, using tissues of higher quality is said to create a better company image.

Why do companies use this type of advertising?

— Inexpensive – Pocket tissue advertising is relatively inexpensive. Companies only have to pay for the costs associated with purchasing tissues and pay one person to stand in a busy area and pass them out.

— Efficient – It is an efficient way to advertise to a target market. A beauty salon might only choose to hand out pocket tissue advertisements to women, realtors to families who have children, etc.

— Effective – Recent data suggests that pocket tissue advertising is 100 times more effective than advertising in the newspaper.

If pocket tissue advertising is so effective, why is this form of advertising decreasing?

— Decreased advertising budget – Due to the economic recession, corporations and small businesses have less money for sales promotions.

— Fewer opportunities to use tissues – Many companies are creating products that replace the use of tissues, such as makeup removal cloths and soft cloths for eyeglasses. This reduces the utility of tissues and has prompted companies to think of other more useful products to place advertisements on.

Are tissues outdated?

In recent years, companies are choosing to hand out advertisements printed on products other than tissues. Plastic uchiwa fans in the summer, hot pads in the winter, ballpoint pens, bags, and other practical goods that are more useful to consumers and can be used longer than tissues are starting to be handed out on the street.

What do you think about this form of advertising? Do you get annoyed by people constantly thrusting tissues with gaudy advertisements in your hands or do you appreciate the freebies?

Source: Matome Naver/Japan Today

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Bored Sensei.

30DWC Day 24: It’s Another Ordinary Thursday!

Hisahiburi!!

(Long time no see!)

I know. It’s has been three days since the last time I posted a blog and I admit I’ve been too lazy for the past few days, and today I did nothing but spend my holiday just watching random stuff on youtube (tell me I’m not the only one).

I woke up around three in the afternoon and first thing that came to my mind “goodness, what happened to Kayla now?”, I immediately turn my laptop on and checked Kayla (a story game a blogger I’ve been following here on wp started on facebook group page, chessekase) and her story. It’s currently undergoing so I can’t tell about it yet, but I am very excited and thrilled by just thinking what will happen to the story next.

Anyways, I also cooked carbonara for brunch, I usually put ham on it but today as I still have lots of chicken and they’re about to expire this week I cooked chicken instead. It’s my first time to cook chicken carbonara but I really liked it, I made enough until dinner and breakfast for tomorrow (that’s how lazy I am). I am still thinking if I’m gonna cook bento for tom’s lunch and dinner while cleaning my room.

I put all the unopened gifts I received recently in a box together with my moody kit box just to organize a bit, then I realized I have too much junk food, meh. I looked into my closet and I felt tired just looking at it, I just organized them last week but as I bought random stuff again (ugh) I haven’t taken off their paperbags and my closet looks really messy.

This is my moody kit box, this is where I put all my chips I bought in the Philippines and sweets my friends gave me as souvenir. They know how I love pocky because I always bring some when we go out.

These are gifts from students, manager, friends and boyfriend.

The mess.

So what kept me busy?

Monday

It was final test at school, I wasn’t the one who made the test papers though because they’re centralize all over Japan, but what stressed me out this day was that I wasn’t able to tell the students that we’re gonna have a final test today. I was worried and I didn’t wanna see crying babies in my class again. I know it’s my fault, so what I did before I let them take the exam we reviewed and played some games because they all get too excited whenever we’re having some games, and that would save them from crying while taking the test (my students cry when they find something difficult especially presentation and exams). Everything went well, no one cried and everyone got a perfect score, plus they were so happy when I told them we don’t have homework and no classes next week. YAY!

I ate so late but I felt happy after the classes.

Tuesday

It was off from work, it was sudden because we have a winter event happening on Saturday so we have to be present on Friday to do some preparation. I woke up the usual time, ate something I bought from the grocery store, watched related videos and documentaries about The True Cost and I didn’t notice I was crying while watching them. UGH. My conscience was killing me so I decided to stop watching it and planned how to stop myself from buying fast fashion. I was thinking of starting by reorganizing my closet.

But as planned yesterday, I went to the mall to buy some stuff. I first went to May One, it’s a mall above the station and I’ve seen a lot of chocolates because Valentines Day is approaching and there were lots of girls around prolly buying for their loved ones. I bought some necessities (really?), I was walking when I saw H&M and what I normally do before is enter and check what’s on sale, but today I imagined the people in the documentaries I have watched earlier, that stopped me from entering the store. I went to another mall infront of my school instead, I bought a piece of shirt for boyfriend that was on sale before I headed home. It was really cold, d**n.

I drank Strong Zero as I forced myself to sleep because I wanna go early tomorrow to Shizuoka, there’s a huge sale happening so I wanna check it out.

Wednesday

I woke up late as I slept late last night, actually I woke up early because I set too many alarms but failed to get up. Kill me. I went the usual time but still managed to arrive in Shizuoka a bit earlier so I still got the chance to visit the mall I was eyeing for, but as I still have this heavy feeling in my heart, everytime I look at the prices of the items in the store I couldn’t help thinking how these clothes or bags or shoes were made. I walked out the mall without buying anything even if they have cute bags for just 190 JPY or 89 PHP.  I went to the shuttle bus station and slept all the way to the hotel.

I only had 4 students today, I was overwhelmed by the crowd in the hotel, there were three buses full of tourists and that explains why I only have four students today. Ohh and I saw Mt. Fuji again, how’s that? I went back to the station and I was so happy because I didn’t sleep the whole forty minute ride because I was busy looking at Mt. Fuji, I didn’t know that I could still see it all the way to the station, maybe because I was always sleeping all the time plus today the sun sets too late so it wasn’t that dark. I bought sandwiches and chocolates and ate them inside the shinkansen on my way back to school. I finished doing paperworks and had my one hour break , I only ate pizzaman and a pudding I really love and waited for another hour before my work finished. I slept late again because I watched random videos again on youtube, it’s no longer healthy I know.

And that summarizes my four ordinary days here in Japan. I know they weren’t that busy but I have so much things in my mind, so much happening at school I couldn’t stop thinking. I can’t talk about them yet but hopefully things will be okay in the end, this is going to be another exciting yet thrilling year for me. Hopefully.

Bored Sensei.

 

30DWC Day 22: Uniqlo Fitting Room.

February 06, 2018

I love shopping window shopping lang pala kasi wala nga pala akong pera, and being a normal girl, before buying something I love checking whether the clothes would fit me well, to see if it will look good on me or only in the mannequins or just simply wanna try them on. He he. And I do think that fitting rooms are playing a big role in persuading the costumers to buy a piece of clothing, like for instance, I went shopping with an officemate in Aeon mall and we found a lot of good stuff and tried them on but we were really disappointed because the lightning of the fitting room was really bad, it was hanging above us and we couldn’t even see the clothes properly, we also looked bad in the mirror. I ended up returning all the items and my friend just bought one piece of romper. There were also stores that would give you the illusion of being slim and tall in the mirror, you will look good when you try the clothes and will feel different when you try them at home. Sometimes I would ask myself “Did I just get fatter? I just tried them yesterday” haha.

Okay, so let’s move on with this story I’m gonna tell you. As I mentioned in my post I went out and bought a shirt for boyfriend and as didn’t have any idea about the sizes, I sent me a message and pictures of the clothes to him, but this young man here wanted me to try them on, like really?! (I usually borrow his shirts in the Ph haha). And I really hate fitting in Uniqlo’s (in my city) fitting room, why?

1. I have to remove my shoes (but most of the stores in Japan does the same).
2. I find it too small.
3. They don’t have racks to put your clothes on.
4. I HAVE TO WEAR A FACE COVER. They’ll give you face cover before you use the rooms, and you have to follow the instructions.

So I already tried the shirt on and sent him a message. And HE LAUGHED at me.

And that’s why I hated it.

Those were my stuff on the floor. They don’t have clothes rack.

I went out the fitting room after I finished and threw away the cover I used, paid for the shirt and went out the store while Auld Lang Syne was playing in the mall, it is to remind the shoppers that it is closing time already.

I still couldn’t get over how my boyfriend laughed at me while doing him a favor, he wasn’t aware of it because last time he went there the staff didn’t gave him face cover, I was thinking maybe because they didn’t have large face cover at that time. HAHAHAHAHA. Just kidding.

If you happen to have experienced fitting in Uniqlo in Japan, did you experience the same? Or is it only in my city? In my country (Philippines) it is a normal fitting room. How about in your country?

Bored Sensei.