Yongfook is a web producer and usability consultant based in Tokyo

The Promised Land has muzak and red price tags.

I have found utopia, ladies and gentlemen, and it exists in the form of Japanese 2nd hand shops. These shops (usually called “chuko” or “risaikuru” shops) are veritable Aladdin’s caves of wondrous shite, with everything priced well below anything you could have ever expected beyond your wildest electronic wet dreams.

The shop in particular that I visited - “HARD OFF” - is part of a chain of 2nd hand shops all over Japan. I’m not sure what ‘hard off’ is supposed to mean, whether it’s a reference to having no money, erections, or whether it is just meaningless like a lot of the other engrish that you see around Japan.

I expected to be faced with a sea of unsorted rubbish to sift through, but the shop is in fact separated into departments like any other store, the only difference being that all the goods are sealed in shimmering vacuum-shrunk plastic.

My mouth started salivating as soon as I entered the electronics section. An entire spectrum of different cameras. Pretty much any stereo component you could ever want. A vast ocean of old Super Famicom games. A wall of guitars. Recording Equipment. Original Gameboys. Apple Mac Classics.

Everything was so cheap that the gadget-hungry red devil on my shoulder kept offering up suggestions such as, “buy 5 tvs”.

Truly a shop that if I ever visit again, I will need some kind of wallet chastity belt. As it is, I was able to be strong and purchased only a camera tripod, for about as much as a McDonalds Happy meal. The fact that I left all that glorious bounty behind has haunted my dreams ever since I left the store.

I will return- (dramatic pause)- some day.

To hell with social stigma’s - buy peoples garbage!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 24th, 2003 at 3:57 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.