Mi Kasa, Es Su Kasa

Rain.

I think it rains here in the past 4 days then it ever did when I was in London. And that was 8 months (subtracting the two months I went home for school holidays).

One thing that I have noticed is that Japanese take their umbrellas seriously.

Very seriously. Hence the pun in the title. "Kasa" is Japanese for "umbrella."

When I went to Takashimaya in search of Muji, I went to the umbrella section. They have an UMBRELLA section in the accesories department.

Needless to say, they have gorgeous umbrellas. I wanted to get one, but they are a bit expensive. Maybe towards the end of my stay. Get a big one, a medium one and a small one. Contrary to New York, you see more big ones than small ones.

Which is why it was so hard for me to find a decently priced small one. I have seen big ones for like 600 yen, 390 yen, but the small ones even in the conbini's go for like 1990 yen (about $18-$20). What the hell! I wanted a small one to carry around with me so that I don't get wet, and because I didn't want to carry a big one.

Another way I can tell that Japanese take their umbrellas seriously is that outside restuarants, post offices, ward offices, combini and some of hte smaller shops, they have umbrella stands. Mainly for the larger umbrellas, but you usually see more umbrellas than people, so many people have probrably fogotten their umbrellas. Hence the large number of the clear, 300 yen plastic umbrellas amongst the Japanese (mainly Kyoto, as far as I have seen) populace.