You’ve been in Japan too long when you pay over $70 for a Captain Santa T-shirt and realize a few days later how much you really spent. It’s true: Japan can be an incredibly expensive place when it wants to be. Virtually everything, from construction materials to gasoline (currently up to the equivalent of $6 a gallon now, although the average Japanese doesn’t drive 75 miles round trip to run some errands, which you can find yourself doing in California), is pricier than in other parts of the world, and food costs consume a quarter of the average household budget. One problem is that the ways goods are sold in Japan is still too structured, with products coming into the hands of consumers through established routes and multiple levels of distribution, for example the multi-tiered book distribution system that J-List has to deal with when ordering artbooks or manga. But there’s something about living in Japan that compels a person to want to own things he wouldn’t otherwise bother with, like the above-mentioned T-shirt I bought in 1992 featuring Captain Santa, a line of high-end clothing featuring images of Santa at the beach. It was the best T-shirt I’ve ever owned in my life, but at $70, I probably should have had my head examined. From toilet seats that wash your butt to the 20+ varieties of massage chairs they sell here, there sure are a lot of ways to spend your money in Japan.
