Funbargainbash in Funabashi

From the street, you'd walk right by this unremarkable shop in Tokyo's Funabashi suburb. But don't judge a building by its edifice. Inside delights even the casual bargain hunter: breathtaking bric-a-brac and household goods stretch as far as the imagination can dream. The seaweed on the rice ball: most items cost a measly 100 Yen. Think 94.4 cents store, but with a classier vibe than its American counterpart. Spanning seven floors makes this shop the largest of its kind in the region. For a coupon clipper like me, this was a plastic paradise found.

I squinted under the fluorescent lights. Multi-colored merchandise swirled before me. J-pop music massaged my eardrums. I lost myself in the impressive selection of neon-colored wastepaper baskets of all shapes and sizes. I flirted with donating a dozen to the municipal sanitation department for placement on street corners. I rode escalators ogling at an endless supply of essential items that on second thought maybe weren't so essential.

A week's salary could be well spent here. Okay, maybe I could live without gardening implements, but I snatched up pink Hello Kitty chopsticks, a Hello Kitty toilet paper roll holder, melon-scented glass cleaner, Kanji magnets of meanings unknown, no parking signs in Japanese, and a soy sauce bowl to prevent future spills onto my keyboard.

What didn't make the cut? Fake sunflowers and palm fronds, pet rodent cages, chicken wire, badminton rackets, beer funnels (maybe it was for gasoline?), plastic eggplants, safari hats, sumo wigs, ceramic tea sets, police vs. bad guyz action hero set, Mr. Shinkansen (bullet train) child scrub mitts, warship bath toys, tall boy cans of Coke, Hello Kitty everything, and pocket ashtrays emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty -- the ultimate accessory for the smoker on the go who has everything. Funabashi, you have not seen the last of me.