Salvation Army

Ever wondered what the Japanese might donate to the Salvation Army in Tokyo?

Just like in the States: books and old magazines and dishes and clothing and weird knick-knacks and toys and trading cards and stuffed animals and purses and coats and VHS tapes and housecoats. 

Too bad I'm illiterate here and can't read the books.  Really shortens a visit to places like this when there is no point in browsing through the books.  Someone had an extensive collection of a certain magazine that featured 80s music in the US: Madonna, U2, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Prince on these covers. Dishes dishes and more dishes.  I did my dance of indecision (usually seen at outlets and flea markets and auctions, where you have to make a decision right NOW and can't come back later and find it still waiting) and finally got some that are probably too fancy for me to really use much, but they are so, so pretty.  With your fancy dishes you can get a full kimono and obi outfit, plus the toe socks and sandals to wear with them.  Also a guy riding a donkey, which isn't as cool as a Guy on a Buffalo.  Hello Kitty and more Hello Kitty.  Two huge tubs full of Pokemon and other cards, including Japanese baseball cards.  We sorted through and picked out 50 Japanese Pokemon in less than 10 minutes, and for 5 yen apiece.  The kids are really too old to care anymore, but still.  Disney's Stitch is strangely popular here (I surmise it's because he is vaguely Asian looking), but he still gets donated, along with another Hello Kitty. A zillion purses, as always at these sorts of places, but also real fur coats.  Surprising.  Surprising that they are still worn here (which they are; you see them all the time), and surprising that something so valuable would end up at Salvation Army.  You can get all sorts of VHS and DVDs, including these Disney ones and Men in Black and Independence Day and The Sixth Sense.  Abba was playing on the sound system overhead.  The last square is of house jackets people here wear in the winter, as they do not have central heating and the houses get quite chilly.  Look at those amazing fabrics!  

There was some furniture, but none of it of any real value, and only one thing we momentarily thought about buying (a traditional low dining table).  Everything was carefully sorted, and each section had someone in charge of that area to help you and check you out.  When we bought the dishes, (I say "we," but it was really the one of us who could comfortably ask "How much?" and then understand the answer.) the woman asked us to come back in 5 minutes so she could wrap everything for us to carry.  So very nice.