Shopping for a X-Mas Gift in Tokyo 2008

So, it is that time of year when people start singing silly X-mas songs and stringing enough lights to be seen from the moon. Many people will be taking time out to remember the birth of our lord Jesus...wait a second this is Tokyo X-mas is not about Jesus!

That`s right, in Japan J.C. does not get any birthday wishes with people worshiping at his feet. In fact, most Japanese have very little idea as to why X-mas is celebrated in the first place. What they do know is that the gaijin seem to love the holiday and there is plenty of money to be made. Here in Tokyo X-mas is all about getting gifts and spending large sums of money to impress our loved ones. It would seem that the more money you spend the more love you can express. Store owners know this and usually go all out in a bid to attract customers. With that said I too jumped head first into the holiday shopping madness looking to buy the perfect gift for my honey.

I must admit that I have never bought her anything really expensive before. Now that I do have a little money to burn I thought this year I will buy her something really nice while I have the chance. Now just not any place in Tokyo will cut it when looking to get a kick-ass X-mas gift. The only place in Tokyo where I guy can get that perfect X-mas gift for a special gal is Ginza. This part of Tokyo is famous for its up scale shopping and great restaurants. All the big international high end shops are located in Ginza. As you can imagine I do not venture to Ginza very often. Yet, in my quest to buy something really nice I hopped on the Ginza line of the Tokyo Metro to buy that perfect holiday gift.

I was keen on only one shop for my purchase. Tiffany`s is the only store I could think which can impress even the highest maintenance gal in all of Japan. While my wife is not an extreme example of a high maintenance gal she is expecting something nice. She said that she would be happy with something around 20,00 yen but I know that amount of money will not buy something so good. I decided to go all out and buy something in the 80,000 yen plus range. I have the money right now to spend a little extra so I pulled no punches. I walked right into Tiffany`s looking for something great. Now, Tiffany`s is an expensive place usually reserved for people making some serious cash. As soon as I walked into the place I stuck out like a sore thumb. It is not everyday you see a guy wearing leather biker jacket, tight blue jeans, and black military boots shopping at Tiffany`s. I few of the store attendants looked at me with glaring eyes but I paid them no mind. I had enough money in my wallet to shop there and got to the business of picking out something nice.

They have a lot of really nice things at Tiffany`s. Some of the necklaces look like the kind of stuff royalty would be seen sporting. I felt a little guilty that I could not buy the gal one of those high end platinum necklaces. It would have been really cool to hand her something which cost several thousand US dollars. None the less they did have many things which I could afford. After looking around for a while I finally zeroed in on some nice gold necklaces with diamond charms. They were not extremely high priced but still rather expensive compared to what I am used to buying. The lady behind the counter was quick to start making the sales pitch. She was nice enough but it was obvious that she wanted me to buy something and get the hell out of there. I paid her attitude no mind and asked a few questions before shelling out the cash.

Walking out of Tiffany`s I felt good about what I bought. This is the best gift I have even gotten for my gal. I gave to her this evening and she loved it. When I told her how much it cost she almost cried. It made me feel so good to see her so happy. She stared at it for a long time and showered me with praise. This X-mas is turning out to be one of the best for us. We got a trip to Tokyo Disney Land planned on X-mas day and a trip to Beijing for new years. It`s X-mas in Japan!