Asakusa Diary - The Staff Blog

because it's raining today, I want to write about an useful thing, totally common in Japan, but really nowhere to find in my homecountry Germany!

The transparent umbrella! :D

They are called biniiru-gasa (ビニール傘/ plastic umbrella).

These transparent umbrellas you can see everywhere, when it's raining.

You can buy them almost everywhere, too. ^^

They are really cheap - you can get them for a price around 100 to 500 Yen, depending at where you'll buy one (for example, many 100 Yen stores offer these umbrellas, but not everyone), which size the umbrella has (there are bigger and a little bit more stable ones) and how the weather is (yes, right...the base of economy...supply and demand ^^).

I think, I've found out, that the transparent umbrellas with the white grips are often the cheapest sort of these umbrellas and the ones with the black grip seems often a little bit larger and more stable (but maybe that's only my theory and can't be used in general). ^^

The transparent umbrellas are somehow funny. ^^ When entering some stores or a restaurant and you put your transparent umbrella in an umbrella stand there...later you found your transparent umbrella between twenty other the same looking umbrellas (the picture below is really totally harmless ^^). You have really to remember, on which corner of the stand you had put your umbrella. ^^ Maybe my umbrella had belong to many different owners while my using time and I don't know. :D

Because the transparent umbrellas are really cheap, they can go easy broken. So after a windy day or really heavy rain, you can see many broken, transparent umbrellas around the area.

After the typhoon at the end of last year, on the sides of the streets there were so many broken ones lying on the ground, forming little umbrella hills. On this day, two umbrellas were broken in my hands. The first one 50 meters / 1 minute away from the store, where I've bought it.

Of course, the sorts of umbrellas, all of us know, are available here, too.

The big black, brown, dark grey or marine blue umbrellas - used by serious looking businessmen in dark suits (I've never seen a woman with such an umbrella...only me). ^^ My huge, black umbrella with a wooden grip has cost 500 Yen and is my umbrella for the bad days, when it's really windy...because it's much more stable than the transparent ones...a really manly umbrella! :D

The foldable mini umbrellas. They are a bit more expensive (think around 700 Yen to 1500 Yen) and I've only seen them in use while the rainy season in Japan, which takes place from the beginning of June until the beginning of July. At this time, you'd be lost without an umbrella, so you have to have one with you whenever you leave the house. But out of this rainy season, you can't see this type of umbrella very often. They get used by man and woman and are available in many colours.

Or the cute mixture of transparent umbrellas printed with little patterns, like dots, flowers, stars or butterflies etc.. ^^

I like the transparent ones. To see them on the streets or standing in huge amounts (from other housemates, too) in a corner in the Sakura House, where I'm living, belongs to my daily life now.

But in Germany, you can't find transparent umbrellas. Really. Nowhere.

When I lived in Germany, I always tried, to get one...but no chance. Even in the capital Berlin, where I've lived, you can't find one of these umbrellas. And I don't know why. They are convenient, good to use and of course better for safety, because you have a much better field of view. ^^

So when you visit Japan (and of course I hope, you will have superb weather with much friendly sunshine) on rainy days you will see so much of these transparent umbrellas! ^^

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