99 Yen, Again and Again

They opened a new ￥99 shop across the street. It's like a dollar store, except they sell useful things and most of it is also edible. In celebration of the grand opening, they placed a man from Ghana out front in his traditional attire (he chose a pink gown and cap), eating 99 yen mangoes and cracking jokes for shoppers. Do you like cheap? He asked me this with a very humid smile. I said I LOVE cheap. I can take home two rice balls for a hundred yen and they're just as good as the kind that cost over a hundred and fifty yen apiece! Mr. Ghana, you cannot beat these prices! He really was getting paid to stand there. I asked him. Then I entered the store.

The floors reflected the feelings inside me. Immaculate, like virginal yen. From every corner, voices welcomed, then darted past to straighten errant packs of marshmallows. Stunned by the matchless efficiency, hygiene, selection, and courtesy of the place, I stumbled back to work, buzzing like a ripe cactus. I must tell everyone.