Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 452 Bei He
Ginza is a major business district in the Central District of Tokyo, Japan. Known as "the most expensive place in Asia", it symbolizes the prosperity of Japan and is famous for its high-end shopping stores.

There are famous brand products from all over the world here. There are huge shopping malls on both sides of the street, and fashionable and personalized clothing can be seen everywhere. It can be regarded as a shopper's paradise.

At the same time, the surrounding area of ​​Ginza is also the place with the densest Michelin restaurants in Asia. There are restaurants from Italy, France, Arabia and other places. People can taste delicious food from all over the world in the vicinity of this area.

According to travel magazines, Ginza, one of the three major scenic spots (Mount Fuji, Kyoto, and Ginza) that symbolizes nature, history, and modernity in Japan, is listed as the world's three most prosperous places along with the Champs Elysees in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York. center.

This area was just an ocean hundreds of years ago, but later the Tokugawa shogunate reclaimed the sea and built land, and then moved the silver coin minting from Junfu (today's Shizuoka City) to the present place of Edo (today's Tokyo), Meiji three years Officially named Ginza.

With the arrival of the black ships, foreigners began to flood into Japan in large numbers. They settled in Ginza and brought Western civilization and culture. Suddenly, cafes, Western-style bars, steam baths, Christian churches, and galleries emerged in Ginza.

It was the first time that the Japanese ate ice cream and saw electric lights in Ginza. It was also from Ginza that the Japanese came into contact with Western science and technology. Since then, Ginza has become Japan's gateway to the world.

Liang En and the others naturally don't have much feeling for those luxury goods, not to mention that the land price in this place is too expensive, so these costs will naturally be added to the goods sold, and the same luxury item is 20% more expensive than London .

Don't say that Liang En is not a rich man now, even if he is really a rich man, he doesn't plan to contribute much money to the Japanese in this place.

But this does not mean that there are not many places he wants to visit in Ginza. To give the simplest example, there are many antique shops that look magnificent and have a lot of good things in them.

Of course, like other shops around, the shops here are not low in terms of decoration or rent, so the prices of the items inside will be higher than normal.

According to the information Liang En received from Pierce, the Japanese merchants have a completely different habit of selling antiques from the Chinese people.

According to the tradition here, when the Japanese are the bosses of antique shops, they will tell you based on their knowledge: this is old and this is new.And in terms of what they don't know how to do, they will also tell you clearly: I don't know much about this aspect.

This happens because the Japanese antique industry pays attention to a clear price tag. Once the buyer is interested in asking about the specific condition of the object, the buyer can basically tell everything and talk endlessly.

For example, if you want to buy a Yongzheng famille rose vase, if it turns out to be an imitation of the Republic of China, the customer can completely return the product. The seller will not only return the money to you, but even cover the postage.

This means that the rules are different. If you change Huaxia's business rules, you will not be responsible for the transaction. Unless the seller said that there is a problem during the transaction, it will be refunded, otherwise it is absolutely impossible to return it for you.

In this regard, Liang En feels that Japan is obviously much better for customers than Huaxia, because there are too many people with bad intentions in Huaxia who use this rule as an excuse to deceive customers.

Of course, now Tokyo, as the largest city in Japan and even in Asia, has a mixed market for antiques, and there are many shops with foreigners behind them. In addition, there are all kinds of birds in the forest, so the probability of selling fake goods is not small.

Fortunately, the antique shops here in Ginza are able to maintain this ancient habit, so although the things here are a bit more expensive, at least the authenticity can be guaranteed.

Interestingly, the antique shop on the Ginza side has some customers that are relatively rare in other places, that is, a group of Japanese women who are obviously housewives.

Their purchasing goals mainly focus on antique beads and complete sets of lacquerware or porcelain, of which the former must be bought for themselves, while the latter is for home use.

At least in the habit of Japan, those families with status prefer to use some old but well-preserved tableware or tea sets on important occasions, and take pride in it.

This is a bit similar to some noble families in Europe. For example, if you want to entertain distinguished guests, you will take out all kinds of ancient tableware from the usually locked cabinet to prepare for the banquet.

The display of antiques in Japanese antique shops is very distinctive. At least in Ginza, most of them are divided into two areas: "Japanese antiques" and "foreign antiques". Among them, Japanese antiques refer to Japanese antiques, while foreign antiques refer to Japanese antiques. Most of them are antiques from abroad.

After wandering around in several antique shops, Liang En was quickly attracted by something in an antique shop and in the antique section. It was a two-piece shell that was opened, but the shell was made of gold and silver. And paints of various colors have drawn many patterns.

This is a unique Japanese toy, called Kai, a game that appeared in the Heian period and was still popular among the upper class nobles in the Edo period.

Shells are made of pairs of clams. Gold, silver and various pigments are used on the inside of the shells to draw the contents of the picture scroll of "The Tale of Genji", such as floating boats, dragonflies, cypress and other representative scenes.

Those who participate in the game need to be divided into two parties and make corresponding Waka.After distributing the shellfish, the clamshell holder separates each pair of shellfish, half of which is in the hand, which is called the shellfish, and the other half is placed on the ground without order, which is called the ground shellfish.

Then the game starts. After the two players have released the shells, they choose the shells corresponding to the shells in their hands on the ground.Finally, the cumulative number of wins and losses is used to determine the winner.

From a certain point of view, this is the early Lianliankan game that appeared before the advent of electronic software.It's just that the price required to play this game is much higher than playing on the computer today.

After all, it is not something ordinary people can afford to produce dozens or even hundreds of beautifully crafted painted shells.Even a set of the cheapest version requires the labor income of a dozen farmers for one or two years, so ordinary people simply cannot afford it.

Because each pair of shellfish is one-to-one, it is also considered a symbol of steadfastness. In the wedding of a famous family, it is packed in a specific container-a shell bucket as a dowry.

For example, in museums in Japan now, there are shellfish from the Tokugawa shogunate period. There are a total of 360 pieces in a set, packed in a black hexagonal box with gold leaf arabesque flower patterns.

And now Liang En saw that this shell should be the top shell of the year, but unfortunately there was only one shell, but the price of the whole thing was not cheap, it would cost more than 200 Euros in Euros.

This kind of antique shop obviously can't bargain, so Liang En planned to go to other places to see if there was such a thing at the beginning. After all, there are a total of 360 pieces in one set, so even if there are not many people living outside, they should be able to find them.

However, after carefully seeing the pattern inside the shell, Liang En quickly decided to spend money to buy this thing, because this pattern was different from common patterns, and there seemed to be a secret hidden inside.

(End of this chapter)