Japanese department stores are a great place to get some culture shock. Traditionally, I would recommend exploring the basement food halls, but there are some store brands that are worth a visit to explore entirely.
Hands is a chain offering everything and anything from greeting cards to luggage and even pets. Their Shibuya store spans many floors with each having a dedicated theme, signs in English, and tax refunds for tourists.
Starting on the ground floor, there is a small food section that pales in comparison to a Don Quiote's selection. However, you can find various types of Kit Kat. Japan is obsessed with this brand, offering all sorts of flavours you would never see elsewhere, such as wasabi and even sake (alcoholic). Kit Kat is distributed by Hershey in the US and Nestle elsewhere, with the brand arriving in Japan in 1973. But it took a while for Nestle to embrace regional and seasonal flavours for the local market. Kit Kat is now its biggest confectionary brand, a contrast to Hershey offering a more traditional familiar assortment in the US.
Continuing upstairs, I browsed around the travel section for all sorts of organizers, replacement rubber for your luggage wheels, and weird versions of UNO.
In Japan, lucky cat statues, or maneki-nekos, are frequently seen at businesses. Their origin story goes back to the Edo period when a feudal lord thought a cat waved and invited him into a temple in today's southwestern Tokyo, escaping from a rainstorm that arrived soon after. He would later fund the temple's renovation in the 17th century, and a shrine for the lucky cat was built nearby after the lord's death.
You can easily find stores selling cartoon and cute figurines all around this area, and this Hands is no exception with its own decent selection.
The more interesting floors feature traditional Japanese products, such as tenugui, which can be used as a hand towel or gift wrapper.
What amazed me most are small models of old shops, which are made with intricate details.
If you don't need a full model but just select items, they also offer individual items for sale. Japan is famous for its plastic models, and the assortment here is quite extensive.
Greeting cards are also elaborate and have beautiful designs.
Japan is also obsessed with capsule toys in these gacha vending machines.
