th3dogcow

Here in Japan, travel agents are still around. The brick and mortar ones have actually branched out to offer their services online, too.

I assume they mostly survive on people who want to book a package tour, which are insanely popular here.

Some of them will now charge a consultation fee whether you buy something or not, so you can see how the industry is hurting.

Although I’m not a boomer, I did use one last year as they are great for just showing you all the options in a very clear way. With just an hour to spare to book a family trip, it was the way to go (for me at least).

I do think that next time I will use them to consult, but then book online to avoid their fee. Also, it seems that booking though the agent makes the ticket less flexible (the airline will lock out some parts of their website and tell you to have the agent do the thing which you wanted to)

So, yeah, it’ll be just like shopping. Go to the store to look and get info, then buy online to save money.

It would except for the fact that shoe sizes here, from babies to adults are only sized in centimetres. If there are international sizes printed on the shoes, they have no meaning to residents in Japan. Check the tag inside your shoes; If they have international sizes printed on them, you’ll see Japan’s is in centimetres, and may have EE (or more Es) next to it to denote width. If there is nothing, then they are standard width.

Children’s clothing is also sized in centimetres. Makes things really simple.

It looks similar to what I drive. I like it. It is spacious enough for a family. It is also roomy enough for a tallish person (around 190cm) to drive comfortably. My partner uses it for their commute daily, and we use it for family outings or shopping.

I do also walk or cycle for certain things, but where I live a car is a necessity if you have a family.

They use a lot less fuel and have a much smaller footprint, which is good. But have just enough oomph to go on the expressways here.

Japan here. I’ve never seen them.