Convenience stores

On Wednesday night I went down to the local convenience store to buy a plane ticket. A plane ticket!
When the thing came up on the airline website telling me to pay at the convenience store I didn’t believe it; I had to ring them to make sure.
But it’s just further proof that Japanese convenience stores are amazing.
The dinky terminal where I bought the plane ticket also sells tickets for trains, concerts, sports matches, events, just about everything.
And they’ve got ATM machines so you can do your banking.
And they let you pay your bills (gas, electricity etc etc).
And they’ve got photocopiers that can scan, copy and print, including photos. What’s more, people without printers (like me) can even bring documents on a USB and print them out. (Seven-Eleven stores go one better with a service that lets you mail your document directly to the photocopier then go down and print it out.)
And they sell stamps and envelopes so you don’t have to go to the post office, and they can arrange courier delivery for just about anything else that fits in a truck.
And they sell all manner of sushi and other bento boxes as well as sandwiches and cakes.
And they sell alcohol 24 hours per day.
And of course, they sell all the normal 7-11 type supplies, although possibly with less emphasis on chocolate goodies.
Our local Lawson convenience store has all this and is conveniently located on our daily walking route — perfect for picking up lunch. Another five minutes down the road is the Poplar, a rival convenience store with an even bigger range of sandwiches, cakes and bento boxes. It’s like having all of Carlisle St. in the one shop! Although the cakes are all mass-produced fodder. Nothing as good as Cafe Bruce’s muffins I’m sad to say.