[ Dec.2014 ] I cannot remember when was the last time I went to Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo.
On this day of the end of December, this street was extremely crowded because many people came here to buy some foods for the New Year.
I had heard about it, but this was the first time for me to experience it.
I wonder there were some professional people pushers there, as we were pushed around like crazy.
We could just about walk through this 400 metre street.
From the shops on the both side, we heard voices saying “Only 1000 yen!”.
It seemed that 1000 yen was the key word, but a lot of goods were much more expensive.
So the strategy was that they pulled the people to their shop with the word “1000 yen” and made them buy more expensive stuff.
There was a corner for people to eat something, too.
Also, there was a second hand fur coat shop near Ueno station, which was attractive.
When I got back home later and talked about this, a member of my family said “I won’t go there because one time I bought some bad quality gerring roe without knowing it”.
You need sharp eyes to judge the goods in a short time in that jam.
By the way, this Ameya Yokocho, shorten as Ame Yoko was started just after the WW2 as a Black Market.
Apparently there were many shops which sold sweets (ame in Japanese), so it was called Ameya Yokocho (Sweets Shops Market).
And during the Korean War, a lot of US army goods were sold, so it became American Market.
Both had “Ame” word in, so it has been established as Ame Yoko.
