One thing that I noticed in several clothes shops was how neat and tidy everything looked. Just have a look at the picture below - I don't remember stacks of trousers being quite so meticulously arranged (and sorted!) in Germany.
Another funny thing I saw was this t-shirt:
What is this slogan supposed to tell me? Is there anything special - or particularly desirable - in working in an office? Or is there some hidden meaning only accessible to Japanese people? Or is it just the translation that made the slogan weird? As the sign on the top left says, they apparently believe that the designers are brilliant geniuses. Maybe too brilliant for me?
A little further on our way, we came across this building:
Apparently, this is a wedding chapel. From this perspective, the only thing that looks really wrong are the trees on the roof - the original buildings that this one is modeled after did certainly not have a flat roof! Once you look at it from the other side, however, it becomes clear just how much of a fake the building is:
Notice how they kept up the front part just long enough so that it would look good from the front. Apart from that, everything is very cheesy of course - designed so that the wedding photos will look good, if nothing else.
The next stop was Den-Den Town (geek town would maybe be an appropriate translation), an area consisting mainly of shops selling everything related to video games and computers. The shops resemble normal supermarkets - with the difference that they sell CPUs instead of rice. Just as in Germany, however, the prices in real-world shops can't really compete with the prices you get online. Here's an impression from one of the shops:
On the way back home, I noticed a small hardware store that was displaying a selection of pretty plain-looking screws and nuts in a glass case. Yes, one of those display cases that are usually reserved for the really special and pricey items in a shop. And no, I don't think the screws were all that special - or pricey. Just regular Japanese weirdness, maybe? Unfortunately, I didn't stop to take a picture, so you'll just have to believe me like this ;-)
