Uniqlo is an international Japanese clothing brand that can be found in just about every decent-sized urban center throughout Japan (and some outside of Japan). While these stores have good clothing for the whole family at a decent price, they are not the mega-stores many countries have come to known and love. However there does stand an exception — a 12-story exception in the form of Ginza’s Uniqlo store. Recently Ruth and I went to this store for the first time to see what, if anything, makes it stand out not just from other stores, but from other Uniqlos. What we found was interesting, to say the least.
I love coffee shops. It’s not just because I love coffee, which I do. I think it’s because one place can do so much. A good coffee shop is not just about a cup of coffee, but it’s about community, warmth, interaction, ambiance, music — in short, it’s about a warm and inviting environment.
That’s why, over 5 years ago, we started a new endeavor as the Paz team: to open a local coffee shop. The undertaking was epic, because although we had a lot of experience drinking coffee and going to coffee shops, we had no experience running a coffee shop, let alone figuring out setting up a business in Japan where the laws, customs and language are so different.
Fast forward 5 years. Now we’ve survived COVID and the coffee shop has been well established in the community. It is all those things we love about a good coffee shop and more. The more is the fact that the coffee shop is also the place where our Paz Church has its Sunday services. Our Paz Coffee Shop is about so much more than a good cup of coffee and a nice environment — it’s a life-giving environment.
So when the opportunity came to make a commercial for Paz Coffee Shop, I knew we wanted our first official commercial to be special and unique. So I enlisted the help of my friend Geordie, an actual filmmaker with a very different set of skills and we went to work.
We’ve lived in Japan since 2014 and have had kids in the Japanese school system ever since. There are certain things that define the Japanese school system (lots of study, clubs, kanji and school lunches to name a few), but of all those things the Sports Day is certainly on the list.
Sports day has taken different forms over the years, especially effected by corona and the subsequent steps taken to continue the sports days, like only having one class at a time compete. Another thing that was done was to limit the parents who came — sometimes to one parent per child or even only the parents of the oldest kids! Fortunately this year things are getting more back to normal, which means we were able to see all of our kids compete in two different sports days.
While we’ve been to many sports days, this was the first junior-high sports day to witness. Many things are similar, and yet so many things were leveled up. Months of preparation goes into any sports day, including tryouts for some of the special track events. While everyone participates in the sports day, not everyone competes in the same events (as seen in the videos). But points are scored and the competition is fierce!
Joshua and Sarah’s sports day took the auspicious title not of sports day but of olympics and the whole school was divided equally into two teams, white and red. Olympics was a great new title for it, as the sports day is full of pageantry, competition, dances and so much more. Like commentators from their booth, we could watch the whole sports day take place from our nearby apartment. Not only that, but this was cousin Izzy’s first sports day in elementary school.
A question we often receive is “How does sports day compare to sports days in America?” Since Ruth grew up in Brazil, and I grew up in a small private school (home school!), neither one of us know. So what do you think? If you’ve done sports days in America, are they similar?
We do videos and posts about all kinds of things, but at the heart of Life in Japan is documenting what is happening as our family grows up here in Japan. And although you get a highly edited and polished version of our lives in Japan each week, I try to do my best to really show the challenges and benefits of living here. These aren’t always the easiest videos to make because, let’s face it — it’s our lives! But in the midst of that, there’s something in there that’s very special to share and I hope is encouraging to you as well.
If you’ve followed us for any amount of time, you know that Daiso’s are one of our favorite Japanese stores. Unless it’s marked, everything is ¥100. And while discount stores exist all around the world, you find some really great stuff. So when we got a chance to go to Daiso’s new flagship store in Ikebukuro, we knew we wanted to. Especially when we found out that there’s more than just a Diaso inside the Diaso.
