This is a continuation of my RTW diary from November 2003.Just as Hong Kong was full of Mercs, and surrounded by water, so you cannot escape two things in Tokyo. David Beckham and Louis Vuitton.
It’s ironic really as I’ve never seen so many Louis Vuitton handbags in one place since the Beckhams were last photographed together (please tell me the dream couple aren’t really on the rokku!)…
David Beckham is everywhere, advertising everything and his biography is stacked high in the bookshops in both English and Japanese. Thinking about it that means it can’t be selling!
The streets are also awash with women carrying Louis Vuitton shoulder bags, handbags, clutchbags and gloves! But then Louis Vuitton would be commonplace in Tokyo as they sell their handbags in the supermarkets here... for £800!! “I’m just popping out for a pint of milk and a designer purse!”
Going back to my earlier point, it is not surprising the Tokyo-ers are looking gloomy all the time. It isn’t gloom – it’s shock – permanently frozen on their faces at the precise moment when they realise that their life long soulless corporate salaried job still isn’t going to by them a bowl of noodles!
I have been to a few places that are reputedly expensive; the best example is Stockholm. OK so beer in Sweden costs £4 a bottle – have you never bought a drink in London? Just get over the mental block and go for goodness sake! It’s the most beautiful city in Europe. It is NOT as expensive as Paris or London, and the saving on hotel rates for a weekend in either of those cities will pay for the flights. (Try the Hotel Reisen on Gamla Stan – ask for a waterfront view or a corner suite above the 6th floor).
Anyway my point is that I’d heartily recommend Stockholm. When I went to Stockholm and Copenhagen, I discovered that the alleged Scandinavian expense wasn’t that bad. But Tokyo… well Tokyo is just ridiculously, horrendously beyond expensive.
It is so far beyond any Japanese definition of expensive that they are even having to refer to their city as extortionate-u. Well that’s an elaboration but you get the idea.
£5 for a half pint of lager; £15 for a half bottle of sake with dinner
£80 for a sabu sabu dinner, which basically amounts to chicken and spring onion soup,
£20 for a 7 minute cab fare from the station to the hotel
£65 laundry bill for 4 shirts, 2 polo shirts and 4 sets of socks and underwear
£3 for a single ticket on a single line on the subway. If you want to change lines you need a ticket per line! My trip to the tourist information office involved going 3 stops but changing onto three lines - £9! Still cheaper than the day travelcard rate of £10 though and definitely cheaper than the taxis.
I’ve been reduced to drinking at Starbucks as it’s the only coffee we can find that costs less than £6 for a small cup. Barcelona syndrome! Where are the authentic coffee-shops that in-the-know Tokyo-ites frequent?! Two more days in Tokyo and my budget for 3 weeks in New Zealand would have been down the tubes!
If you run a business you basically take a price, double it, add 23, triple it, add sales tax and then wait for an unsuspecting customer. The streets are awash with empty taxis in Tokyo. They are empty because they are so expensive no one can afford them, but as they cost so much, each driver only has to manage one fare a day and he’s sorted!
A good example I can give you of the truly expensive nature of Japan is this. Top designer stores such as Boss, Zegna, Prada, have an international universal pricing policy, short-term exchange rate fluctuations apart. They will not discount their goods to suit the local market. So a shirt at £100 in London will be €140 in Paris or Frankfurt, 1100 Rand in Cape Town, 7500 Indian Rupees in Delhi. You get the picture.
You will remember that when in Hong Kong I saw a fabulous jacket. I can tell you now it was in the Zegna shop. It was HK$8800, or £676.92. My winnings from the horses would have bought me an arm. In Tokyou I would have had to have sold an arm... and a leg to be allowed to try it on! I came across the same jacket when I was browsing round Tokyo. Maybe finding the jacket just before I head to chilly Beijing was a sign that I should treat myself… At Y180,000, £1028.00 or 50% higher than Hong Kong, that price tag gave me a sign alright. “GRAB YOUR MONEY AND HEAD FOR THE HILLS WHILE YOU STILL HAVE SOME” it said! So I did. Next stop, Mount Fuji.
It’s ironic really as I’ve never seen so many Louis Vuitton handbags in one place since the Beckhams were last photographed together (please tell me the dream couple aren’t really on the rokku!)…
David Beckham is everywhere, advertising everything and his biography is stacked high in the bookshops in both English and Japanese. Thinking about it that means it can’t be selling!
The streets are also awash with women carrying Louis Vuitton shoulder bags, handbags, clutchbags and gloves! But then Louis Vuitton would be commonplace in Tokyo as they sell their handbags in the supermarkets here... for £800!! “I’m just popping out for a pint of milk and a designer purse!”
Going back to my earlier point, it is not surprising the Tokyo-ers are looking gloomy all the time. It isn’t gloom – it’s shock – permanently frozen on their faces at the precise moment when they realise that their life long soulless corporate salaried job still isn’t going to by them a bowl of noodles!
I have been to a few places that are reputedly expensive; the best example is Stockholm. OK so beer in Sweden costs £4 a bottle – have you never bought a drink in London? Just get over the mental block and go for goodness sake! It’s the most beautiful city in Europe. It is NOT as expensive as Paris or London, and the saving on hotel rates for a weekend in either of those cities will pay for the flights. (Try the Hotel Reisen on Gamla Stan – ask for a waterfront view or a corner suite above the 6th floor).
Anyway my point is that I’d heartily recommend Stockholm. When I went to Stockholm and Copenhagen, I discovered that the alleged Scandinavian expense wasn’t that bad. But Tokyo… well Tokyo is just ridiculously, horrendously beyond expensive.
It is so far beyond any Japanese definition of expensive that they are even having to refer to their city as extortionate-u. Well that’s an elaboration but you get the idea.
£5 for a half pint of lager; £15 for a half bottle of sake with dinner
£80 for a sabu sabu dinner, which basically amounts to chicken and spring onion soup,
£20 for a 7 minute cab fare from the station to the hotel
£65 laundry bill for 4 shirts, 2 polo shirts and 4 sets of socks and underwear
£3 for a single ticket on a single line on the subway. If you want to change lines you need a ticket per line! My trip to the tourist information office involved going 3 stops but changing onto three lines - £9! Still cheaper than the day travelcard rate of £10 though and definitely cheaper than the taxis.
I’ve been reduced to drinking at Starbucks as it’s the only coffee we can find that costs less than £6 for a small cup. Barcelona syndrome! Where are the authentic coffee-shops that in-the-know Tokyo-ites frequent?! Two more days in Tokyo and my budget for 3 weeks in New Zealand would have been down the tubes!
If you run a business you basically take a price, double it, add 23, triple it, add sales tax and then wait for an unsuspecting customer. The streets are awash with empty taxis in Tokyo. They are empty because they are so expensive no one can afford them, but as they cost so much, each driver only has to manage one fare a day and he’s sorted!
A good example I can give you of the truly expensive nature of Japan is this. Top designer stores such as Boss, Zegna, Prada, have an international universal pricing policy, short-term exchange rate fluctuations apart. They will not discount their goods to suit the local market. So a shirt at £100 in London will be €140 in Paris or Frankfurt, 1100 Rand in Cape Town, 7500 Indian Rupees in Delhi. You get the picture.
You will remember that when in Hong Kong I saw a fabulous jacket. I can tell you now it was in the Zegna shop. It was HK$8800, or £676.92. My winnings from the horses would have bought me an arm. In Tokyou I would have had to have sold an arm... and a leg to be allowed to try it on! I came across the same jacket when I was browsing round Tokyo. Maybe finding the jacket just before I head to chilly Beijing was a sign that I should treat myself… At Y180,000, £1028.00 or 50% higher than Hong Kong, that price tag gave me a sign alright. “GRAB YOUR MONEY AND HEAD FOR THE HILLS WHILE YOU STILL HAVE SOME” it said! So I did. Next stop, Mount Fuji.
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