While traveling through Japan, I tend to visit a lot of shopping arcades: for me these are places where I always manage to spend a few hours of fun. I’m not doing anything special, I just try to blend into the crowd (well, sort of speak… as you can imagine, in a Japanese crowd I kind of stand out). I visit the shops, eat in the restaurants, drink a coffee, watch the UFO Catcher players and I’m always astonished by the noise coming from the pachinko parlours. The shopping arcades are also very good as temporary shelters against the scorching sun or sudden rainfalls…

Since they are very popular in Japan, you will find them in most of the cities and they’re easy to spot: the entrance is often marked by a gate or a metallic arch, like the one in this photo from Namba, Osaka.

Shopping arcade, Namba, Osaka

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Japanese Traditional Food, Teishoku