Shopping in Japan: Old School

You Know the Place... 

When you were little, your folks or grandparents took you shopping. Not a huge mall most likely, and (I presume you're not under 15 but if you are, take my word) def not on a phone or computer screen. 

Nope, I'm talking about a little shop where they knew everyone, or a funky strip mall, or even, if you are very lucky, a covered shopping arcade!

Mom, with me on the left and sister Sanny in the background, in late 1967. We shopped in a lot in arcades in Columbus, OH. Dad had the car for work, so we hopped on the bus.

Shopping arcades were largely slain by the big malls by 1980. But a few beauties remain: anyone within striking distance of the Uptown Shopping Center in Richland WA can enjoy its mid-century modern glory.  

Photo from https://www.facebook.com/uptownshopping/. This is on the National Register! (https://www.nps.gov/places/000/uptown-shopping-center.htm)

Before the era of food courts, tiny restaurants and cafes in the arcades were where you put down your shopping bags and rested your feet; kids got cokes and sandwiches, and parents had a coffee and a smoke. Yep, 1970s. 

Now Imagine This Funky Shopping Nostalgia, Japanese Style

In Japan, covered shopping arcades (shōtengai, 

商店街) date to the '40s; before that were unpaved and unroofed. Descended from the old winding shopping streets, shōtengai are slowly disappearing.

North entrance to Ishibashi Shopping Street on a sunny Saturday. There are probably 15 ways to enter this sinuous, dragon shaped shopping arcade.

Luckily, the one near my local train station usually has a steady stream of students and old timers - the elderly probably make up 60+% of shoppers here - and one gaijin  (foreigner), me. I've never seen another here! 

Haircuts, pharmacies, bakeries, flower and veggie vendors, cheap baggy clothes, sneakers with weird names, chicken and octopus tenders, and little bars and ramen joints are all on offer.

After an hour or so I'm all shopped out. Time for a bowl of ramen in one of the teeny noodle joints here ... apparent rule of thumb: down-home Japanese restaurants do not seat more than 15!

 The young guys behind the counter had black do-rags on their heads, and wore white galoshes (is it really that soupy back there?)

Ahhhh, hot miso ramen topped with crunchy tangy green scallions!

Some might say a cold Asahi beer is not needed with a bowl of savory ramen, but they are just WRONG. 

Do the Shōtengai Have a Future?

I am so glad the shōtengai have, unlike American shopping arcades, survived. Even Covid 19 didn't carry them off. But like all my Japanese friends over 40, I bite my nails about their future (https://japan-forward.com/corona-ni-makeruna-shotengai-traditional-shopping-streets-breathe-life-into-tokyos-neighborhoods/ has a nice writeup). 

A haiku quintet to honor the little shopping arcades.

Humble shops dreaming

of profits: "Big sale today!"

"Welcome, customers!"

Old women peering

at price tags: "Too expensive!

Better deals next door...?"

Coins and bills passed from

wrinkled hands to wrinkled hands

"Arigato," bowing.

(Elsewhere, gleaming malls

teem with busy families

paying with smart phones)... 

But, frozen in time,

This shopping arcade abides - 

Shōtengai of Souls.

***

https://blog.gaijinpot.com/shotengai-exploring-the-nostalgic-pulse-of-japans-local-shopping-streets/