I just got reminded again of how ridiculous the convenience stores are here. What happened, you might ask? I bought some books from Amazon Japan. At a 7-11 (well, 7&iHoldings).
They have this system where you can pay almost any bill--cell phones, electricity, health insurance, internet stores--at any national chain convenience store. All you have to do is bring in the bar code or the payment number, hand it to the cashier, and pay in cash or credit card. This obviously completely eliminates the need to ever mail in a bill unless you have to send a company some kind of documents that can't be dictated over the phone. It also means that the whole "Sending a bill two days before the due date and hoping it gets there in time" business is no more. And they don't even charge a fee for this service!
They also have a wider selection of stuff here, carrying things like stationery, clothing, and iPods. Yes, the iPod that plays music. I don't know what kind of market they're appealing to with that--I guess the people that are like "Oh crap! I'm on my way to work and I left my iPod at home! I'll never be able to handle this boring train ride without--wait a minute, I can swing by 7&iHoldings and pick one up for only 10000yen! I'm saved!"
I think I mentioned this a long time ago, but unfortunately the 7&iHoldings here don't have fountain drinks, which pretty much is their only flaw.
Also during the writing of this I got a call from Noli, and the conversation led me to look up 7-11 on Wikipedia, where I found out that ALL the 7-11's in the world are now owned by a Japanese company! Not only that, but there are more 7&iHoldings in Japan than there are 7-11's in America! Consider my mind officially blown.
Oh, and I'm pretty happy because I just realized that I'm only going to my middle school two more times for the rest of the month. Unfortunately after that I go to elementary schools maybe two times in December, followed by 10 straight middle school visits. Ugh. I've really been getting used to having the middle school monotany broken up by elementary school, and it's going to be rough during that stretch. At least I'll have the holiday to look forward to, not to mention the possibility of more elementary school visits scheduled next semester if any more northern city ALTs quit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I love the middle school photos. does flashing the 'peace' sign in japan mean the same as here? I notice it is a favorite gesture for many middle schoolers. maybe it secretly means something obnoxious when displayed to a foreigner- you know how middle schoolers can be. Kyle we can't think of anything to send for christmas that might actually make it there. know that we will be thinking of you, as we will be on Thanksgiving, when you will hopefully be eating something a little more filling than ramen noodles. love, becky and phil
EVERYONE in Japan does the peace sign for pictures. I've read some explanations on it, but no one really knows for sure where it came from. It's funny because in my elementary photos that I'm going to upload I'm going to make some comments about how about 95% of the photos involve someone flashing a peace sign.
You forgot another downfall (although related to the fountain drinks): what is 7-Eleven famous for? Slurpees! And what is 7&iHoldings failing to provide?
Did you actually manage to pay the health insurance at 7&iHoldings? If so, that's pretty badass.
Post a Comment