Sensory Overload

Grocery shopping in Japan will cause sensory overload.  The overall background music is loud.  Then every other product display has its own music (and sometimes video) which blares on a loop and without pause.  If you stand in an aisle that has three or four going at the same time, it can be overwhelming.  And, if like me, you shop once per week and visit several stores in a row, it can be exhausting.  I can’t imagine how excruciating it must be for someone with sensory sensitivity like a person on the autism spectrum.  Department stores are the same.  I guess it never occurred to anyone that customers might prefer a more peaceful shopping experience. 

When I mentioned to my British friend, Rakeem, that I wanted to purchase a used phone, he took me to Akihabara, a major shopping district in Tokyo specializing in household and personal electronics as well as video games, anime and manga.   Understandably, it’s also considered to be the center of otaku culture.  It is blocks and blocks of stores selling home appliances, computers, and cameras, used and new, cheap and expensive.  The sidewalks were filled with crowds of tourists sight-seeing and residents going about their business.  We stopped in to browse at a few cellphone stores.   

It was cool to pass by all the themed coffee shops, like robot and maid cafés.  One building was topped with a life-sized replica of Godzilla.  Rakeem tried his hand at a place that was full of nothing but claw machines.  Quite a few cosplayers were out in their finery, which was fun to watch.  We even popped into an adult shop to giggle and marvel at the latest sex toys on offer.  After a while, though, being bombarded by frantic anime music, bright lights, garish-colored displays, and shop clerks with unnaturally high-pitched voices clamoring for attention became too much.  I left empty handed. 

In the end, I bought a phone at a Book Off second-hand store in Shinjuku where the atmosphere was calmer, and clerks were patient.  It was a much more pleasant shopping experience.