We went to Ginza on Sat, and had fun old style shopping. We went to Matsuya department store, and they had Geta (Japanese Wooden Clog) summer store on the top floor. I've been looking for the one with Tatami covered and we were just looking around. Then, there you go, a veteran senior lady was there in Kimono, came to help us. Renfield was the first victim. Once he started searching for Hanao (sandal thong) to go with the sole, her comments became more and more severe, as she knows what's cool and what's not with Geta style. Everything he picked was rejected. It was so funny and piquant that she's got such a frank disposition. While he was looking on in blank amazement, a brown hanao that she chose was fixed to Geta sole by a couple of senior men, just to fit to his feet. While guys were working, she gave me one which has a little stain on the sole but perfectly fine to wear, for a discount of almost 45%. She said she couldn't sell it because of defective goods, but since she likes Renfield, she was giving me such discount. Thanks to Renfield, I could get what I've been looking for at almost 1/3 of what it costs usually in the market!
Then we went on to the Antique fest the department store had on the same floor. We looked around, stopped at a store which has some sword stuff, then the earth quake hit. It was a pretty big one. Despite the threat posed by nature, we continued shopping in the Kimono area, and there they were: more senior ladies waiting for Renfield. He's been looking for man's summer Kimono, but it's really hard to find good one which fits him. Poor Renfield, surrounded by senior women, arguaing over what fits him and what doesn't, how fluent he speaks Japanese, etc. Then one woman pulled out a black kimono with yellow stripe which fits him fine. It's made with rare fabric called Miyako Jofu, which is ramie fabric. It takes 3 months just to make thread enough for a kimono, then die thread, both warp and fill, according to the pattern, then weave. Even skilled professional can weave only about 20cm a day. Not many people make this fabric and it has prices of over a couple of million yen easily in the market these days. She said she didn't really bother selling it to him because no one would be able to find such fabric kimono anymore. Can we miss the chance of getting a fine fit summer kimono? Off course not. We left the store with many senior ladies waving at us.
Since we didn't have lunch, we stopped at Midori Zushi, waited patiently in line for about 30 min. and had good sushi at reasonable price.
That was our Saturday Ginza strolling.
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