Selling Your Stuff in Japan

Just had another first time experience here in Japan that I've wanted to try for a long time, but never knew how: selling stuff back. Basically, I had a pair of shoes I bought before my last trip here in the fall, that just absolutely hurt my feet and were taking up space. Wanted to just get rid of them! Fortunately, my fiancee's older bro was also looking to clear up some space in his closet, and knew of the place just to do that. That would be Komehyo, which has several stores located throughout the Osu shopping district in Sakae.

First of all, the buy back center (kaitori center) is located separate of the Komehyo stores, but not too hard to find. Upon walking in to the reception area, you sign up to get your papers and a number for your consultation room. The whole concept is very similar to an emergency room, with different people being "treated" for their goods their trying to unleash. Since it is kind of a big ordeal, I turned my shoes over to my to-be brother-in-law, who had brought a collection of short and long sleeve shirts, hats, a jacket, and a belt. We were grouped into the American Casual section.

Waiting was not too bad. They have a lot of magazines and newspapers lying around, and have a free tea machine that supplies very kinds of hot and cold beverages. We waited about 10 minutes until being called into our own private consulting room. We were met by a young gentleman, who decided what would be bought back and give us a price.


The goods were shown and mostly accepted, with the t-shirts and meshback hats as the only unwanted items. The agent was a trip to watch because he was working as fast as possible, scribbling notes about the items down, and periodically pounding the hell out of calculator at lightning speed.

Finally, time for my shoes came, which made the cut. More frantic pushing of the calculator, and the price came back to us: an offer for 10000 yen ($100), which I assume was non-negotiable. We accepted.


We asked about the shoes, and those were said to be worth 1000 yen ($10, later to be marked up and sold around 5000 yen). Also, when asked if a particular brand (Stussy, of which bro-in-law owns a small fortune of) was popular right now, we were given a very firm "I'm not allowed to comment about personal trends" response. Interesting!

Finally, we left the room and took our paper with us. The payout rooms are located separate from the consultation rooms, but still much the same of the private window consulting. I left at this point to go back to the reception area.


The whole selling from start to finish took about 20 minutes, but netted us a quick $100! It was a really interesting experience, and I would like to know if anyone knows of other places like this. Anyway, if you've got fashion to sell in Japan, this is a good place to try out.

Engrish in Japan... More Love!

Just posted a new gallery of Engrish in Japan pics over on my facebook page... check it out for a good laugh!

Oh yes! Engrish never gets old pt. 4 (via facebook).

Week in review!

Been a busy week here. From traveling around Kyushu, to finding my bank account had a whopping $8 left in it, to a golf game and then a nomikai (drinking party) that still has my head ringing, it's non-stop here folks! And that's the way it is. Didn't post as much this week as a result.

Anyway, let's review the happenings!

So while you were sleeping, I was awake doing the following.

- Got to meet my new relatives. It's hard to describe how awesome that was to meet new people I now can call cousins and aunts, in-laws, etc., who were all extremely friendly and generous.
- Found the local frisbee golf course here in Komaki and hit it up for a quick game.
- Posted a picture collection from my trip to Kyushu.
- Gas prices surged by about $1.15 more per gallon.
- Hit up a local game center and played Otomedius and Simpsons pinball.
- Got my golf game on and learned about golfer's insurance.

It's Sunday morning! And I need to go clear my head with a good walk now. Hope your weekend was great!

Golfer's Insurance

Played my first real game of jgolf yesterday with the fiancee's family. There's a local family golf course that has a whopping 6 holes, and you can either play them once or twice. Or more! So we played a 12-rounder yesterday, quite fun. All except one of the holes were around 100-yards, which works well for me since I'm still quite green at the sport. Didn't make any pars, but did manage to pull off a +1 on the 273 par 4 hole.

One particular piece of literature that caught my attention at the reception area was a pamphlet for golfer's insurance. In essence, they cover your charges of paying the people with in the rare case you would get a hole-in-one or an albatross (3 strokes under on a par 5, new term to me!). Anyway, I can only imagine how much profuse bowing goes down when this must happen in Japan.

I'm so terribly sorry! I just got a hole-in-one. Now I must pay you wads of cash for having shown you the ropes.

Pyramid Power Toilet down for Remixing

Chalk it up to a comment about my last video being anti-climatic, I've temporarily pulled my newest youtube clip (Pyramid Power Toilet) in favor of remixing it with a more powerful ending. How Capcomish of me!

Anyway, look for the new remix in the next day. Sorry for getting your hopes up. The new version will be better, I promise.

Game Centers, for the Hard Core

It's hard to describe the feeling of walking into a Japanese game center. Yes, they're still alive and strong here. Yes, they're filled with nerds perfecting their art of the game. And yes, they're very different from that in the states. I should know, I grew up in game centers.

Despite the strong opposition, I managed to drag the fiancee into a center tonight to check out the scene. We headed into a particularly nerdy one in Sakae, the entertainment district of Nagoya. Part medal games (similar to what you might find in any other gambling area in the states), part new arcade games, with a few random ones in between. Classics that stood out in my mind here were Super Bomberman circa 1992, a couple of tetris games, and then the typical Japanese music games: the pop-n-beat games, DJ remix, Drum Mania, and DDR. (All of which were employed by master players).

As for me, I finally got to play Otomedius, a Konami game that mocks its own Gradius series. Actually quite a bit of fun! Basically, it's a shoot-em-'up with a really modern cartoon worldly setting. Gone is Sci-Fi space theme, in its place are girls with large jubblies! Would like to play this one some more!

But the real highlight of this particular game center was a Simpsons Pinball Party, which is rather rare in Japan. The good part was they had the free replay set at what I could only assume to be the lowest level, 6 million, which I managed to snag. Yatta!

Gas Price Surge is on!

Today was a big day in Japan for everyone that drives a car. Which is most people! Gas prices spiked today by about 30 yen a liter (about $1.15 per gallon more!), in order to meet the government's new gas taxes.

In essence, gas taxes temporarily went away for the past month, bringing gas down to around 120~125 yen per liter (about $3.75 ~ 3.95 per gallon) over the past month. That time has ended, and with the start of the new month, a new tax of around 25 yen per month kicked in, thereby effectively causing gas stations to jack there prices. And these taxes are here to stay. For the next 10 years.

Basically, if you didn't top off the tank before yesterday, boy did you get screwed today.

Hit the jump for the full story about taxes, prime minister Yasuo Fukuda's comments, and
the opposition trying to change this.

Gas tax bill (via Japan Times)