Adventures of Anette: Shopping

Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Sighteeing in Karuizawa: Old Karuizawa Main Street

Anette 11:17:00 AM

Old Karuizawa Main Street (旧軽井沢)

Karuizawa is an area famous for its many high-end resorts and luxurious summer houses owned by the country's many billionaires and celebrities. In the summer it is a popular destination for people who want to get away from the hot and humid city life in Tokyo, and in the winter the area attracts visitors from people interested in winter sports.

Old Karuizawa Main Street (旧軽井沢)

Last weekend I went to Karuizawa along with my friend and co-worker Kristian, some of his friends and my boyfriend Yuma to spend some time outside the increasingly hot and humid Tokyo. The first day was spent mostly relaxing, but the second day we had the chance to do some sightseeing too. We went to the old shopping street known as the Old Karuizawa Main Street, sometimes also is referred to the Old Karuizawa Ginza. Here you can find both expensive brand stores, but also interesting local stores that offer some of Karuizawa's local specialities.

Pictures of a man with a bee beard

Totoro!

Kristian trying on some gigantic crocs

You can also visit a small bakery called the France Bakery where John Lennon apparently used to stop by frequently. There is a picture of him on the wall inside the bakery taken during one of his visits.

Another place that might be worth a visit is the small Karuizawa Photo Studio (軽井沢写真館) situated further down the Old Karuizawa Main Street. You can have your photo taken with dresses that make you look like you've just been traveling back in time to Europe in the 18th century or something. Apparently this photo studio is quite well-known, and it has previously been introduced on Japanese TV as well. Next time I visit Karuizawa I might want to get my picture taken here, it looks pretty cool.. Haha..

Some of the dresses you can try on for your own back-in-time photo

But of course, Old Karuizawa is also packed with more traditional Japanese places to visit. You can shake off most of the tourists and shoppers once you get further down the road, and see some nice old buildings at the same time. At the end of the road you'll find yourself almost at the brink of the forest. So if you get tired of the swarm of shoppers at the beginning of the street you might want to head over to this part of the street instead.

Typical Japanese 雰囲気

An old house at the end of the Old Karuizawa Main Street

How to get there
You can easily get to Karuizawa by Shinkanzen from Tokyo, a trip that costs 5000 yen and takes little more than an hour. If you're on a budget you can also get there for only 2000 yen by bus leaving from Ikebukuro Station. The bus trip takes about 3 hours (during the weekend you usually have to add an hour due to the congested traffic). To get to the Old Karuizawa Main Street from the station you walk north and turn right after about 1km.

Other Pages:
Karuizawa Tourist Guide
Some information about Old Karuizawa in Japanese (w. pictures)

Related Blogposts:
Rakuten Travel Hotel Training: Karuizawa Prince Hotel

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Shopping

About Cheaper Grocery Shopping in Japan

Anette 3:48:00 PM

You can find a wide range of food on sale in Japanese grocery stores.

One thing that is really good about Japanese grocery stores is that they usually have sale on food which is about to expire. As a result customers who have a low budget, or just simply want to try something new but doesn't want to pay a lot for something they might not like, have the chance to enjoy a wide range of products at a lower price. Not to mention the environmental aspect of it: every day tons of food is being thrown in the garbage all over the world because the stores can't sell it. One can thus argue that it benefits the environment that the Japanese stores sell their nearly expiring groceries at a reduced price.

With the price reduction system its nicer to try out new things

Or, at least that's what I like to think.

About a month ago I moved to a new apartment, and the place couldn't have been better: I'm the nearest neighbor to the local Kyoto Coop grocery store. Although the prices of their groceries don't vary that much compared to their competitors I have discovered that they give pretty nice discounts at the end of the day. Every day between 7 and 7:30 pm some of the employees walk around in the store giving out waribiki for different kinds of products. They start with small reductions, but depending on the product things that haven't been bought by around 19:25 end up being sold for half price. One can thus save quite a lot of money (or alternatively affording to eat more than normally) just by going to the store at the right time. As a student living abroad with more or less no income it is particularly nice to be able to get a little price reduction, haha..

Yesterday I went to the Coop store at a quarter past seven to buy ingredients for dinner, and I looked at some chicken with a 30% price reduction. I wondered whether to buy it or not, so I went for a short stroll to see if I could find anything else I wanted to buy. When I came back, the price reduction of the chicken had changed to 50%.. Yay!

Whenever you shop in a Japanese grocery store, you should look for this sign, which says "half price" (hangaku)!

Especially nowadays with the yen being higher than ever it is really good that it is possible to get the food cheaper than usual by using this method. For busy people it can also have some advantages to check out the stores around the time they give out their offers, as you can find ready prepared meals such as Japanese bento-boxes and sushi for a fraction of the normal price. I wish we had such a system in Norway too, I really think it would have reduced the amount of food thrown away by the grocery stores.

What do you think? Should this concept be implemented in other countries as well?

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Temple

Sightseeing in Malaysia: One day in Kuala Lumpur

Anette 11:21:00 AM

Above: China Town

Yuma and I arrived by plane to Kuala Lumpur as the second destination of our 1 month back backing trip through South-East Asia after a 6 hour-long flight from Seoul. After spending the last few days with temperatures reaching down to minus 5 it was good to finally be able to wear thinner clothes and enjoy the weather.

Entrance to Chinatown

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur we headed for our hostel situated in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, using the metro to get of at the Pasar Seni station. At first we were a bit lost, because the map we had with us weren’t exactly the best. A guy asked us if we needed any help, and it turned out he actually knew about our hostel and helped us find the way there. We soon discovered that it was quite easy to find your way around in Chinatown though; it is much smaller than it first seemed like. And you can find anything here; they sell the usual stuff such a bags, sunglasses, clothes etc. If you don’t mind fake copies then it is really the place to go for shopping.

Local food in Chinatown

Yuma with a coconut

A couple of sunglasses for 25 ringgit

The gate to Chinatown

After having explored the area for a while we decided to go by metro to see the PETRONAS Twin Towers, and we soon discovered that Kuala Lumpur is a really cheap place for public transport as well. We though it would cost us a bit to get all the way up to the area with the tower, but in fact the price was only a couple of Ringgits (Malaysian currency). The tower itself is right next to a shopping mall, and if you prefer the “real thing” then this is the place to go if you prefer buying the more expensive version of the things you find at the market. Yuma and me preferred to save our money instead, and stuck to some window-shopping before checking out the towers. For those interested it is possible to take the trip to the observation deck of the tower to take a look at the view, which costs 50 Ringgit for adults. For those who however already have had enough of the view from towers (I mean, they are everywhere..) you can just snap a couple of photos and move on.

PETRONAS twin towers

Us in front of PETRONAS twin towers

Checking out the map of the area

There isn’t that much to do in the area if you aren’t up for shopping, so we soon decided to go back to Chinatown. There are more things to see here; for instance they have an Indian style temple in Chinatown, Sri, Mahamariamman, which we stopped by for a short visit.

Entrance to Sri Mahamariamman temple

Indians playing music in the temple

Some statues in the temple

Lights and prayers

The core of the temple

If the outdoor shopping in Chinatown turns out to be too hot for you, they also have a big market hall close by where you can find everything from antiques to clothing and food. This market hall opened in 1936, and is considered a heritage site by the Malaysian Heritage Society. The nearby metro station has even gotten its name from the Malaysian word for this market: Pasar Seni. A little side note: In the Central Market they also have one of those pools where you can pay to have small fishes eat the dead skin of your feet..! Some last pictures, these ones from the Central Market:

Central Market, Chinatown

Inside Central Market

More shops

You can buy both new things and antiques in the market

..or what about a bat on sale..? (>.<)

Central Market

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Malaysia

Label: South-East Asia Trip 2012

Recommended Hotels in Kuala Lumpur

More KL hotels

THE FACE Suites Kuala Lumpur

Villa Samadhi by Samadhi

Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa

One World Hotel

Sunday, February 12, 2012

South-East Asia Trip 2012

Sightseeing in Seoul: Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장)

Anette 9:33:00 PM

After the trip to Gyeongbok palace we decided to do some shopping, or at least check out one of the biggest markets in Seoul: the Namdaemun market. This name of the market originally came from Japanese, and literarily it means South Big Gate (南大門). The market is quite touristy, and if you want to buy something you should be aware that the people working there will definitely try to trick you into paying a lot more than the locals would. We spent some time walking around in the marked looking at the things they were selling, but we didn't really buy a lot.
Anyway, it is easy to get there, so combined with Gyeongbok Palace it was a nice way to spend the day. If you go by subway you can just take line 4 and get of at Hoehyeon Station.!