Marui Nakano opens tomorrow!

Marui Nakano is re-opening in its new building tomorrow, January 28. I admit I am pretty excited for this burst of renewal on the south side of the JR Nakano station.

They are advertising a Tokyo Hands. I hope they’ll also have Le Petit Mec, their great French bakery, or the Italian gelato store (both at Marui’s Shinjuku San Chome store). Will there be a food court in the basement?

I took this photo a few weeks ago, and marveled at the pride of the construction workers who line up their super-clean equipment in front of Nakano’s only department store.

Subway mirrors

It is amazing that every Tokyo Metro and JR station has these free-standing mirrors. It is not uncommon to see men spend five minutes or more publicly adjusting their hair. Primping, fluffing, biggen’ing, slicking, and moving strands from one side to the other. I love how natural, unselfconscious and public all this male vanity is.

As my blog theme attests, there is a fine and delicious line between male vanity and delinquency. Male vanity is one of Tokyo’s most remarkable and unremarked features! In the photo above, it seems the four mirrors are there to accommodate rush hour grooming!