The Golden Market

Yesterday I went to the Golden Market. It was a bit of a last minute thing, but the day turned out pretty awesome. I arrived outside the front of the dome really early, so I waited around for Sofie and Drew to come. I got a lot of looks from people, which really started to annoy me. Luckily, I saw Lindsey and three other Japanese girls, so I wasn’t alone for long. The other girls were her host sister and her two friends. They had already been inside and had come outside for lunch. Oh, I guess I should explain that outside the dome there were a whole bunch of food stands and tables and chairs set up. There were some food stands inside, but very little.

We sat down at one of the tables and started talking, waiting for the others to arrive. Soon, these two guys came up to our table and started talking to us. They looked like they might have been in their early twenties, and were in fact university students. The one guy spoke good enough English, and the other one remained silent the entire time. We talked about where we were from, why were in Japan ect. I was a bit cautious at first, of course, because this guy was a complete stranger, but he proved to be very nice and had only good intentions. We also found out that he owned one of the shops inside the dome, and that he could get us free tickets (it costs 500 yen to get in). So this was pretty awesome. He went back inside the dome to get the tickets, and in the meantime Sophie, Drew and Ellie showed up. I didn’t know Ellie was coming but that’s ok. We got all got in for free.

Oh, and I should also mention the weird old guy that sat down at our table around the same time the two guys showed up. He talked mostly with the Japanese girls, but when the university guy went away we (me and Lindsey) started talking to him as well. He seemed really happy to be talking to foreigners, and his English was really bad, but that was ok. I got to practice my Japanese. Anyway this guy really loved Mickey Mouse. He even whipped out two Mickey Mouse toy things to show us. But he only likes the authentic ones from Tokyo Disneyland. He was pretty neat.

Once we were inside we mostly looked around at all the little shops. The Golden Market is kind of like an indoor flee market that only happens once in a while. It’s a free market, so you can haggle.

Being foreigners, it seems we have a special super power energy that surrounds us and makes (most) people like us instantly. Or so it seemed in the GM. Some of us got free stuff for no reason. And we talked to a lot of cool people. Like this one guy that ran a t-shirt and jeans stand. He was all gangster-like and pretty cool. He lived in Tokyo but I think he originally came from the States. And then there was Bonny. He came from the Caribbean, but also lives in Tokyo now. We talked for a long time with him about Tokyo and about a bunch of little random things. He was really nice. We also visited the university guy’s shop. He had with him three other girls as well, and one of them spoke very good English with a perfect accent. We got some free stuff from them, for no real reason, and I almost felt bad because they had already gotten us in for free. Me and the university guy and Lindsey stayed at the shop a bit longer than the others, talking to the guy. We had a very cool conversation about religion, too. There isn’t really any hardcore religion in Japan, and everyone is pretty open-minded about things, which I love. They believe in something being out there, but they don’t believe in a set deity or religion, just like me and Lindsey.

More about the Gaijin Powers; There was this little girl and her father who I had passed a couple of times. Each time I passed them, the girl waved at me, so of course I would wave back. The third time we passed each other, I got the urge to take a picture with them because they were just so randomly happy to see me every time they did. So I got a picture with the dad holding the little girl (who was 3 years old). Then, the dad basically handed her to me, which was kind of shocking. Plus, the girl was really excited to have me hold her, and reached her arms out towards me. Wow. I got another picture of me holding her, and it looks like I stole her from the dad.

Yet another Gaijin Power moment; I was with Drew in a really expensive brand name shop, most of the names being European or Japanese. I tried on a jacket, which I instantly loved because it was just so freaking cool. However, it cost 7000 yen. Which is about $70. Yeah, a little much for a jacket. Plus, I only had 3000 yen on me. The guy who was helping me and Drew said that we could haggle, but I sadly explained to him how much money I had on me. I didn’t think for a second that he would accept it, but with a look on his face like I just stabbed him in the chest, he said he would sell it to me for 3000 yen. Now I felt really bad. But incredibly happy at the same time. He said, and I quote, ‘kawaii kara…’ which means ‘because you’re cute’. Man it was awesome. I tried to avoid that shop for the rest of the time we spent there though, because I felt really bad for getting such a crazy good deal.