-Shop cute Japanese products and cool products from Japan. This cute blog is about Japanese kawaii, kawaii Japan, kawaii fashion, Japanese pop culture and more. It's a kawaii blog from Japan, Japan blog in English by a Japanese girl.

Gosh! I needed so much time until I finally update this post since I came back from Osaka…late December! x__x

There’s a famous zakka shop (zakka means daily goods in Japanese) in Shinsaibashi, Osaka. That’s Tiger Copenhagen! This is the only store we have in Japan. Yes, the very first store in Japan isn’t located in Tokyo, but in Osaka! The store is so famous for its popularity, because people make a long long line to come into the store for shopping. Well that was the news I heard when the store opened and I didn’t think the line is still long even today!!

I was accompanied by my Osakan friend who hasn’t felt like checking this store out until that day with me because of too many people’s waiting all the time.

When we got there, we were shocked to see many people making a line, waiting to get into the store. A security guard told us, “Here’s the end of the line. I think you’d wait for 40 minutes or so.” I’d give up waiting if I were alone but having my long-time-no-see friend with me, I thought I could chat with her while we were waiting.

As it turned out, however, 40 minutes was not necessary. The line moved so quickly and I guess we only waited for 10 or 15 minutes. So this is a picture I took from inside the store. Still many people waiting, huh?

I’ve never been to Copenhagen and so I have no idea how the original shop looks like, but speaking of this store in Osaka, I have to say it’s not shopper friendly! Why? Well, it’s sort of difficult to explain this, but we, the shoppers have to go one way because the goods are displayed along with a series of arrows. So what happens there is…like there is a long line of people inside the store too that moves into only one direction. So when you want to skip a certain area because you are not interested in those goods, there’s no way you can do that. You have to wait until the people in front of you move forward.

I made a big mistake, which I noticed when I was on upper floor. I didn’t pick up a shopping basket that was only available at the entrance of the store. I only noticed that after I reached the upper floor. This is nothing serious at any other stores, but in this store, it means I had to move reversely in the flow of the people. Against the people moving forward, I had to go back, weaving my way to go back to the entrance, and after I picked up the basket, I had to take extra unnecessary time and effort to wait for the people moving forward again because there’s no shortcut, only one way to get back to where I was in the upper floor.

It’s quite useless, very inconvenient and totally nonsense to the shoppers!
As for the goods there, I’ve noticed there are too many boxes. Some are cute but some are not.

Some cute containers, too. As for stationary, I saw some black and white simple notebooks and etc. But then I’d prefer MUJI. Some had a sort of kawaii pictures on, but that was not really my taste.

Oops, this sounds like I’m complaining, but not really. I found some really cute zakka as well. I bought some as souvenirs to my friends and to myself.

I also saw something weird and funny. This is connected to an iphone or a smartphone. How would you like to use such a thing? Do we need it? lol

They sold some really cute shopping bags for 50 yen or so. I liked a few of them!

My overall experience of first time shopping at Tiger Osaka was honestly something like this: I might want to come back there one day again but not for the next few years even if I lived in Osaka. I don’t think the shopping experience and what I can get there is competitive to those of other stores. I mean, some goods are really cute there but some similar goods can be purchased at a 100 yen shop, a 300 yen shop (such as 3 coins) or a MUJI or whatever others. Being Japanese kawaii seeker, I also perceived the cuteness they had (such as a post card, notepad and etc.) was slightly different from ours. I could easily imagine I’d get cuter one at a shop like OUTLET, FrancFranc or SWIMMER for example.

Have you been to Tiger in your country or in Copenhagen? How was your shopping experience then? Was it better than mine? Did you find something kawaii there? Share with us your experience!

« Hide more

Continued from a previous post, I’d like to share more about my short trip to Osaka.
Here’s “Mizukake Jizo” filled with moss or alga because it’s watered every time we pray.

As we entered the gate…there was a line of people who came to pray.

Can you see some green statues? I kinda refrained from taking photos from front of Jizo, as that attitude may look fool against God. It’s only Jizo statue but as a Japanese I somehow feel like showing some respect to it.

Nice small alley that connects this small shrine and commercial area filled with drinking places.

Speaking of Osaka, it’s also famous for “Owarai geinin” or comedians especially who are good at Manzai style of comedy. Many professional comedians are from Yoshimoto group in Osaka and it’s natural we can find Yoshimoto shop to purchase some popular comedians goods.

Osaka Takoyaki charm was kinda cute! My friend just said, “That’s because you’re from somewhere else. The locals are already bored.” She never enters Yoshimoto souvenir shop, which is just the same as I never visit Tokyo Tower since my childhood. ^ ^;

Tsuutenkaku tower is a symbol of Osaka. It’s located in Shinsekai, which is a place for men again. There are many many Kushikatsu bars and Japanese chess or “igo” game or several analog types of game places. All these atmosphere just made me feel as if we were back 30-50? years ago. I’m afraid young women wouldn’t like this place. Most of the people were middle-old aged men and tourists.

A fake Billiken-san statue. The genuine one is inside Tsuutenkaku tower, according to what I heard. But we didn’t go inside the tower then.

Again this area looks…what to say…”vulgar” to be honest. The scenery is messed up with too many individual signs but that even looked delightful to a tourist like me.

There was no way we didn’t try the most famous Kushikatsu at the most famous Kushikatsu bar “Daruma“!! As you can see, so many celebs have visited this bar and left autographs that are kept all over the wall above menu.

Original Kushikatsu for 105yen. I have no idea why they don’t open a branch bar at…such place like Shimbashi in Tokyo. Shimbashi is also a place for mid-old aged men to hang out for drink.

“Do not soak the Kushikatsu twice into the sauce!” This is repeatedly warned and is a basic rule that we have to follow. That means, we should not soak the Kushikatsu after we had some bites because the sauce container is to be shared with others. Cabbages were free. Kushikatsu was fine, but I found myself not very fond of this type of place. I’d prefer Tapas or Bar. To be honest, I like western foods and wine more than Japanese foods and sake. :p

I like Osaka and I wonder how it’d be like if I move to live in there. People are funnier and things are cheaper. The city is very small compared with Tokyo, and so everything is so close and convenient. I could visit grandma more often. But I know I’ll miss Tokyo a lot more! The main purpose of this trip was to see my grandma, but in this public place I just share my Osaka tour with my Osaka friend who kindly spent time with me from 10am to 9pm.

I’ve visited Osaka (only my grandma’s house) so many times since my childhood because it’s a hometown to my father. But it was my first time trip to look around the city like this, thanks to my friend from Osaka. She always says that I am as funny as Osaka people. It sounded so interesting when she said that my skin (outside) is the one from Tokyo but my mind (inside) is totally the one from Osaka! Yeah, that’s possible. I found compatibility in Osaka, while many Tokyo people don’t like it. (Basically there’s a cultural difference between Tokyo and Osaka, and each people do not like others very much.)

I’ve been away to Osaka to see my grandma for a couple of days and I came back last night. My father is originally from Osaka, although no Osaka culture or Osaka dialect were shared with me who was brought up in Tokyo area. It’s always fun to hang around non-familiar places whether it’s inside or outside Japan. Again I find I like travelling!!

1st day -with local friend-

Osaka subway~. If you’ve ever come to Osaka, you remember this. Compared with Tokyo subway, it’s very small and less complicated with less people. But I always felt that the ceilings, because they are not very high, somewhat gave me the feeling of pressure, nevertheless I am very short. I don’t think there should be much difference between the ones in Tokyo. I have no idea where that feeling came from.

Kanidouraku! One of the most popular Doutonbori photo~.

Kuidaore doll was there, even though the Kuidaore restaurant has been closed for a while.

These are all familiar symbols in Dotonbori. Especially the Kuidaore doll character with red and white bordered outfit is still popular even after Kuidaore restaurant was closed some time ago. I understand that. Osaka people would not want the restaurant go. People still love Kuidaore, and that’s why they keep the character left.

My friend took me to the Ootako Takoyaki stand that is famous for its big lump of octopus inside Takoyaki.

You don’t know Takoyaki? Here it is. A light snack with small pieces of octopus inside the dumplings with sauce and dried bonito flakes over them. I don’t eat Takoyaki usually because I don’t know what else I should eat it with. Only Takoyaki for meal is too little but with rice or noodle, it looks like too much carbohydrate…

Anyhow this day we had another carbohydrate after Takoyaki, that was Ramen at Kinryu. It was not too oily, not too heavy, and was good with some kimchi.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was…what to say? It was designed for men. What I miss in Osaka is nice cafe or restaurant with good atmosphere. The ramen is only 600 yen with a couple of Chinese-style barbecued pork, free kimchi and steamed rice as much as we want. No wonder men like it!

Interior was a bit odd but fun to explore.

…to be continued to the next post. Stay tuned!