convenience stores

The ubiquitous conbini that you look to whenever you need to buy a beer, dish soap, hot meal, or even an emergency necktie (because you may or may not have spilled ramen on the one you had on before) is definitely the answer to many a prayer in most Japanese neighborhoods. Open 24/7/365, these little stores may become the place you associate with more in your part of Japan. But like all things here, there’s more to your local bodega than just food and beverage sales. Allow me to clue you into some of the other things you can do at the convenience store that you may not have known about before. Buying and paying for furniture (and almost anything else off the internet) Cash is still king in Japan, and unlike the West, the e-commerce boom didn’t really change the status quo all too much over here. The banking industry already had everyone using ATMs to perform bank-to-bank wire transfers to receive and make payments. This is why many people here have no idea what PayPal or Western Union is! But what about those who still need to pay for things in cash? Usually when you buy something online…