today was "first sale" day (初売り), where a lot of the shops in sendai get rid of last year's merch or otherwise put stuff on sale. apparently sendai's is the biggest in japan. some are really huge sales, like 50% off EVEN items that are already discounted; others are 10%, or 30% "if you buy 3", and some other shops (like all the traditional japanese goods shops, and the 100 yen shops) have no sales at all. a few places, definitely not as many as i were led to believe, have grab bags but there's always photos of or a store attendant telling you about what you're going to get inside the bag, so it's not actually a mystery. the grab bags i saw included candy, shoes, women's underwear, tea, and prices for them usually ranged from 3,000 to 10,000 yen.

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