One street near my apartment had a Family Mart convenience store on it when I moved here about 10 months ago. It takes me maybe 5 minutes to walk there. After a few months, for some unknown reason, another Family Mart opened up one block from the first. I remember the moment I rounded a corner one night and saw the new store; I was absolutely dumbfounded--"Ya gotta be shitting me!" I said to myself. It takes less than 1 minute to walk from the door of one Family Mart to the other. Completely ridiculous.
Oh, but it gets better. Yesterday morning I got up early to catch a bus. It was about 7 am, and this being winter and all it was still a bit dark out. As I was walking up the street I noticed that I could see the first Family Mart sign quite clearly. Too clearly. It looked too close to me, and, as I sometimes have depth perception problems in the dark (though usually only when I am wearing my glasses), I squinted several times to adjust my contact lenses. Nope. Sign still there.
When I got a few hundred meters closer I realised that there was a brand new Family Mart on the same street as the other two. "Fuck Me!"
(I had seen the new retail store spaces being built, of course, but did not know they were completed, and I never would have, in a million years, guessed that one space would house yet another convenience store, let alone another Family Mart.)
The three Family Marts are lined up neatly in a row, all on the same street. It takes 3 minutes, walking, to touch the doors of each one (I tried to get a good night pic but couldn't get the angle). I'm guessing that the middle one will close, leaving the other two an unusual, but currently remote, 3 minutes apart.
And that's not detailing the Family Mart on another street, the two Seven Elevens, and the two GS 25's; I have a grand total of 8 convenience stores in my neighborhood area, each within a 3-5 minute walk.
Guess I will never have an excuse to be out of eggs or orange juice.
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