Hello Kitty Shopping Adventure Episode 4: Kanazawa

From Komatsu Airport I arrived at the Holiday Inn Kanazawa Sky at almost 8:00 in the evening, tired because I flew from Hokkaido to Haneda prior to my flight to Komatsu. I was already very hungry at that point and expecting a decent amount of food choices in the room service menu (after a great food experience at the Holiday Inn Sapporo Susukino days earlier), only to be sorely disappointed by the staff telling me that they could only offer five dishes after 8 PM. The room service staff I spoke with was sympathetic (it definitely helped that he turned out to be a fellow Filipino), though he admitted that there was nothing he could do other than recommending places where I can still get food. He mentioned some nearby restaurants, though they were already closed or about to close around that time (that should say a lot about the remoteness of this place). We ended the conversation with him giving me directions to the nearest convenience store.

Fortunately, I was able to find the convenience store quickly, and there still were plenty of tasty-looking bentos even at that late hour. As I was about to proceed to cashier to pay for my dinner and drinks, I suddenly saw a section filled with…yep, Gotochi Kitty Kanazawa items.

Yes. At a convenience store. What a pleasant surprise!

If you have read my Hello Kitty shopping adventure at the New Chitose Airport (if you haven’t yet, check it out here), that shopping spree and the Gotochi Kitty shopping I ended up doing at a Family Mart in Kanazawa happened on the same day.

Just when I thought I would have a bad start for my Kanazawa trip because of the poor room service, turns out, it wasn’t so bad after all. Unlike my Hokkaido trip where the Gotochi Kitty shopping happened after I had done my obligatory Starbucks tumbler picture taking (the main purpose of my 2022 travels so far), in Kanazawa the Gotochi Kitty items were bought first and the picture-taking and exploring happened after – notwithstanding the rainy weather during my stay.

Also, unlike in Hokkaido where Hello Kitty merchandise was almost everywhere, almost all of the Gotochi Kitty items I found were at that convenience store. I managed to find a Hello Kitty Shinkansen plush at the Kanazawa station, but that was it. Overall, I would say that trip to Kanazawa was still a good one, in terms of my personal travel goals and of course, Gotochi Kitty.

Now that I have an additional purpose for my domestic travels, I am looking forward to my future ones.

Next episode: Hiroshima

Hi City-Cost Readers! If you have friends from outside of Japan who are interested in exclusive Hello Kitty Japan items, please invite them to check out TokuDeals at https://www.tokudeals.com/. They are also on Facebook and Instagram.