Jan. 11 - One can sometimes see "lucky bags" for sale at shops in the United States as well, but nothing like Japanese merchants at New Years time. Ann told me she was interested in trying her luck by purchasing a bag. Being an avid fan of Apple products (she has an iMac computer, an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad and an iTouch) she decided to go to the Apple Store in the Ginza to select her lucky bag.

We woke up early and headed down to the Ginza before the store opened at 8 a.m. As we walked down the street, we admired the many New Year's decorations in front of the shuttered stores. When we arrived at the Ginza intersection, we could see a long, long line of people waiting in front of both the Mitsukoshi and Matsuya department stores. "Luckily we are not going there," I said, perhaps too cheerfully.

When we crossed the street we saw another long line in front of the Apple Store. We could tell the people waiting patiently there were Apple fans because many sported white earphones or were using touch-screen telephones to access the Internet as they waited. We walked all the way down the block and finally spied the end of the line.

"This is not too bad," I thought. However, as we reached that spot, a nice guard pointed across the street where the line began again! We crossed the street and traced back to the very end of the second block. At the end of that line a nice guard explained to us that the Apple Store's Lucky Bags were all sold out. We were welcome to enter the Apple store without waiting but would not be able to purchase a bag. We had arrived too late!

We were very disappointed. We decided to go have a coffee at Starbucks to console ourselves. There was no line at the Starbucks! As I was ordering our coffees, Ann noticed that this shop was also selling lucky bags. We purchased one and took it home. It contained a variety of cups, coffee beans, coupons for free drinks and other things for coffee connoisseurs. Our trip to the Ginza had not been in vain after all! We would start off 2011 with a bag of good luck.

Until next time,

Jim