Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

Ginza is a major commercial district in Chuo District, Tokyo, Japan. Known as "the most expensive place in Asia", it symbolizes Japan's prosperity and is famous for its high-end shopping stores.

Famous brand products from all over the world are gathered here. Giant shopping malls line both sides of the street. Fashionable and personalized clothing can be seen everywhere. It can be regarded as a shopper's paradise.

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

According to travel magazines, Ginza, one of Japan's three major scenic spots (Mount Fuji, Kyoto, and Ginza) that symbolizes nature, history, and modernity, is one of the three most prosperous places in the world, along with the Champs Elysées 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 moved the silver coin mint from Sunfu (today's Shizuoka City) to its current location in Edo (today's Tokyo) in the third year of Meiji Officially named Ginza.

With the arrival of the black ships, foreigners began to pour 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 sprung up in Ginza.

It was in Ginza that the Japanese ate ice cream and saw electric lights for the first time. It was also from Ginza that the Japanese came into contact with Western science and technology. From then on, Ginza became 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 for sale. The same luxury goods are 20% more expensive than in London. .

Not to mention that Liang En is not a rich man now, even if he is really a rich man, he does not 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 here that look magnificently decorated and contain many good things.

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 before, the Japanese businessmen's customs of selling antiques are completely different from those of the Chinese.

According to the tradition here, in antique shops owned by Japanese people, they will tell you based on their knowledge: This is old and this is new. And in the areas they don't know how to do, they will tell you clearly: I don't know much about this.

This situation occurs because the Japanese antique industry pays attention to a clear price tag. Once a buyer takes a fancy to the object and asks about the specific situation, the buyer will basically be able to tell everything.

For example, if you want to buy a Yongzheng style pastel vase, if it turns out to be a replica of the Republic of China, the customer can return it. The seller will not only refund the money to you, but even cover the postage.

This means that the rules are different. If you change the business rules of China, we will not be responsible for the sale. Unless the seller said at the time of the transaction that there is a problem, it will be refunded, otherwise it is absolutely impossible to return or exchange it for you.

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

Of course, as the largest city in Japan and even Asia, the antiques industry in Tokyo is now a mixed bag. There are many shops owned by foreigners behind them. In addition, the forest is big and there are all kinds of birds, so the probability of selling fakes is not small.

But 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 store here in Ginza has some customers that are relatively rare elsewhere, that is, a group of Japanese women who are obviously housewives.

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

At least the custom here in Japan is that those families with status prefer to use some ancient but well-preserved tableware or tea sets for important occasions and take pride in them.

This is somewhat similar to some noble families in Europe. For example, if they want to entertain distinguished guests, they will take out various ancient tableware from the usually locked cabinets to prepare for the banquet.

The display of antiques in Japanese antique shops is very unique. At least here in Ginza, most of them are divided into two areas: "Japanese antiques" and "Western antiques". Japanese antiques naturally refer to Japanese antiques, while Western antiques refer to are antiques from abroad.

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

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

The 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 scroll of "The Tale of Genji", such as floating boats, dragonflies, cypress and other representative scenes.

Participants in the game need to divide into two parties and sing corresponding songs. After the shells are distributed, the shell holder separates each pair of shells, half of which is in the hand, called the shell, and the other half is placed on the ground in an orderly manner, which is called the ground shell.

Then the game starts. After the two sides come out with shells, they choose the shell corresponding to the shell in their hands on the ground. If the selection is correct and the pattern is exactly the same, the winner is the winner. Finally, the cumulative number of wins and losses is used to determine the winner or loser.

In a way, this is an 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 it on a computer today.

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

Because each pair of shells is one-to-one, it is also considered to be a symbol of steadfastness. In the weddings of famous families, they were packed in specific containers-shell buckets as dowries.

For example, there is a collection of shells from the Tokugawa shogunate period in museums in Japan. There are 360 ​​pieces in a set, packed in a black hexagonal box with a gold foil arabesque flower pattern.

And now Liang En saw that this shell should be the top-of-the-line shell back then. Unfortunately, there was only one. However, the price of the whole thing was not cheap. It would cost more than 200 euros when converted into euros.

Obviously you can't bargain in this kind of antique store, so Liang En initially planned to go to other places to see if there were such things. After all, there are 360 ​​pieces in a set, so even if there are not many left, he should be able to find them.

However, after carefully seeing the pattern inside the shell, Liang En quickly decided to pay for it because the pattern was different from the common patterns and there seemed to be a secret hidden inside.