After New Years...

The most of the shops are closed on New Year's day, but on the next day, 2nd January, the big sale begins. As I first thought, they sell everything with a discount, in reality - only clothes and accessories are on sale. Now the good advice - never go to a famous shop or shopping centre on 2nd January. It's very crowded, people gather in queues to enter the shop. I wonder, whether I told you this before: in Japan, they have shop assistants standing near the entrance saying "Welcome!", "Thank you!" and a lot of other things to every customer. This turns into screaming on a first day of sales: "Come to our shop!! We have the best offers!! Don't miss the opportunity!", or something alike. When you  the screams comming from every side, it becomes simply a loud noise :D When I first came to Japan, the economist in me thought that it's a waste of money to hire some people, who are just welcoming customers inside the store. But having some time to think this through, I realized that Japan is a crowded country, they need to hire more people in order to have the employment level high. The second reason is common Japanese courtesy - it's just polite to say "welcome" to a customer, they expect to hear it when entering a shop.

Now, I have found a new purpose for policemen: on the first day of sales in one of the most popular shopping centre for young girls and women they controlled the crowd and helped people get by (that goes on top with helping to find a direction and giving advice about most popular sports in the area :D ).

This picture is going viral now - New Year's sale in Osaka, enjoy: