(Sept 9) Many of the more entertaining shops in Sapporo can be found in the Tanukikoji, a covered shopping arcade that extends for 8 blocks in the southeast quarter of the city.
A monk chants. Most people ignore him.
The “Little Spoon” sells somewhat overpriced ice cream.
The shopkeepers would have you believe that this is what a tanuki looks like, but we know better, don’t we?
Japan has a lot of “100 Yen stores”, which are equivalent to American “dollar stores”. But there are also a lot of stores like this.
I’m a little puzzled. Why 1050 Yen? Wouldn’t a round number like 1000 Yen be more appealing?
The name of this hotel is the “Hotel Dormy Inn.” This is the kind of thing that can happen if you mix languages.
Animated manikins try to lure customers into a curry shop.
It is common for inexpensive noodle shops to require you to place your order by purchasing tickets from a vending machine.
The local baseball team is called the “Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.” They are very popular and you can buy all sorts of memorabilia, including hand towels, purses and marimokkori figures.
All sorts of noisy singing toys are for sale, some of them sound-activated.
Buy something or we’ll bite you!
A number of shops sell used American clothing.
You thought that used clothing went to the poor, didn’t you? However some of it goes to Japan where it is sold at a substantial markup to trendy teenagers.
Presumably new American clothing would be even better, but that is hard to find and extremely expensive.
There are also several underground malls, which extend from the major subway stations and run on seemingly forever.
I didn’t take many pictures of the underground malls because they are full of typical high-end stores that aren’t all that visually interesting.
Here’s a display of expensive handbags, sitting out in the open in the middle of a mall, apparently unguarded. You wouldn’t see that in New York!
As in Tokyo, a typical department store will have an upscale food court in the basement.
The prices aren’t as high as in Tokyo, but still aren’t cheap.
Colorful Odori Park forms a long strip through the center of the city, with the landmark TV Tower at one end.
