If you are ever in Japan, I am sure you will visit what is known as a "depa-chika." The "chika" part has nothing to do with me by the way lol
The word "chika" if written with different characters means underground. "depa" stands for department. "depa-chika" is the underground level of the department store - in other words, the food section - my favorite section. The "depa-chika" is filled with gourmet foods, candies, cakes, breads, wines, meats, seafood you name it - it's at the "depa-chika."
It's like a super high end grocery store with a bunch of different brands selling their food or beverage related goods.
For example, this box of Godiva chocolates can be bought at the "depa-chika" along with numerous other brands of confectioneries from around the globe. I don't think you will find anywhere else in the world that has such a selection of brands.
These sweets sold at these "depa-chika"s, although very enticing with their nice packaging and fancy branding, use incredible amounts of paper and plastic for their packaging.
Everything is individually wrapped and then put into a box that is then wrapped and then put into a paper bag (like a nice one with nice handles), and furthermore, if it's raining, they throw on a plastic rain-cover.
It's quite ridiculous. It's no wonder that Japan competes with the US, a country that is 25 times its size, for the top spot in being the biggest waste producer in the world.
The bags that these sweets come in are not your average brown paper bags. They are shopping bags with nice rope handles and cute designs. You will often see girls using these bags to carry around personal belongings that didn't make it into the purse. So there are ways to reuse the packaging, but in the end, it's still paper and after a few uses, gets thrown into the landfill around Odaiba causing polluting gases, etc.
The boxes on the other hand, I think, can be used for quite a long time. The boxes that I get when I receive these kinds of goodies or when I buy some accessories, I turn into jewelry boxes.
Here is the recreation.
A box of chocolates turned into a box of jewelry.
A collection of my favorite jewelry and accessories including a pair of pink gold earrings I received from a good family friend that owns a jewelry shop in Saga and a ring my parents gave me as a celebration gift when I got my job at the consulting firm after college.
Add a few fabric flowers and not only do you get a jewelry box, but a great art display.
It's nice to let your brain take a break to be creative and do artsy things.
I think it helps me to relax and take my mind off of things.
It's also fun just to look at shiny, glittery stuff.
Yeah, I guess I'm a girl.
Before you throw away that nice box that your truffles came in, try and see what fun and use you can get out of it.
