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Towards the tail end of our lunch with my mum’s friend on one of the days we were in Japan, she overheard us mentioning the name of a renowned 100-yen store. Almost immediately, she offered to take us there! In my heart, I was thinking “My God, I was just joking!”

Next thing you know we were in her car on the way to one of the biggest Japanese variety stores. Maybe she was secretly excited to bring us there! ???? It felt so surreal! I guess that’s a plus point of knowing a Japanese family. (They had hosted my mum under a JICA friendship program back in 1989!) Well, in any case, it’s always helpful to have someone familiar with the local culture.

At the same time, my family and I were whispering to each other, “Hey, I think we had better not buy too much when we’re there.” We wanted to make room for the remaining days in Tokyo. (We were in Tokyo earlier, but broke our journey by going to an area out of Tokyo called Gunma Prefecture.) If anything, the visit to a 100-yen store was impromptu.

The journey took 20 minutes. But what happened next was more interesting. Instead of heading to the entrance of the outlet, we found ourselves taking pictures of the spacious parking area, pick-up and drop-off bays, and of course, the large sign with its brand name on it. I can safely say that we took at least 10 shots altogether!

After all the exclamations and snapshots, we said “Fine, we’ll give ourselves half an hour”. I nervously entered the outlet, which had an orange exterior. The outlet turned out to be much more spacious and larger than I had initially thought. The colour pink filled the interior of the shop, which had multiple, unique sections. It’s easy to get lost in such an inviting environment, especially when you’re absorbed into the assortment of items on the shelves.

I’ve always had the presumption that out-of-the-city outlets would be smaller. Out of curiosity, we surveyed some fancy yet peculiar items and discovered that some of the items were above 100 yen.

If there’s one thing I must add is that I don’t usually pay much attention to trolleys. However, the ones at this 100-yen shop appealed to me due to its compact size and unique shape.

Perhaps the fact that it coincided with a national holiday that day was why there was quite a crowd at the store. As usual, when it came to paying, we had a tough time deciphering the coin denominations at the counter. Thank goodness the Japanese are polite and patient.

Guess what? We bought a hair-drying glove, which makes my hair bouncy, a stack of collapsible cups, some cloth-made items, and a medium-sized umbrella (that we forgot to bring back to Tokyo!) to help us deal with the rather unpredictable weather.

It’s definitely an experience worth penning down, especially if it’s your first time in such a retail outlet. After all, very few travellers would have the chance and time to visit one.