LOST IN APPLIANCE PARADISE

One of the things I’ve always loved about Japan – apart from the polite people, super-efficient trains, and vending machines that sell everything short of life insurance – are the gigantic electronics stores.

These are not just shops. They are cathedrals of consumer technology, temples where you can lose yourself for hours among the latest gadgets, futuristic household appliances, and mysterious contraptions you didn’t even know existed but suddenly can’t live without.

The undisputed king of them all is Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara, Tokyo’s electric mecca. With nine floors above ground, multiple basement levels, and a retail space of over 55,000 square metres, it’s less a store and more a parallel universe. You can find everything from cameras, computers, and gaming consoles to massage chairs, kitchen robots, and – for reasons I cannot fathom – unicycles.

It’s not shopping. It’s an experience. If Disney designed an amusement park for engineers, this would be it.

But the best part is: you don’t need to go all the way to Akihabara. Even your average suburban electronics store in Japan comes with at least two sprawling floors packed with enough lights, sounds, and salespeople to make you question your sense of direction. You enter looking for a hair dryer and emerge three hours later with a smart fridge that can send you weather forecasts.

It's every tech fan's dream – though their wallets (and presumably their wives) may not feel quite as enthusiastic about it...

This, of course, is very different from Switzerland, where electronics stores are much more compact, and down-to-earth. Whereas Japanese stores are designed as immersive shopping experiences with maximum sensory stimulation, Swiss stores are more straightforward and functional. You go in, you buy what you came for, end of story.

In Switzerland, shopping for a household appliance is a quiet, rational affair. In Japan, it's a festival!

Last week, my wife and I decided it was time to retire our loyal washing machine. After many faithful years of service, the dryer part decided to go on strike – a common fate for Japan’s popular combo washer-dryers. Space is precious here, so having two separate machines is as impractical as having an Olympic-sized swimming pool in your back garden.

I jokingly suggested we could save money and electricity by doing laundry the old-fashioned way – down by the nearby river. My wife did not even dignify this with a response. I probably can't blame her for that.

And so, armed with prior research, we ventured into our local electronics store.

Inside, it was chaos. The kind of cheerful, hyper-organised chaos only Japan can pull off. Salespeople in matching jackets were darting around like caffeinated bees, shouting out special offers through microphones. Somewhere nearby, a child was testing every single sound button on a keyboard. It was part marketplace, part carnival, and part sonic warfare.

Naturally, I had done my homework and educated myself about the latest movers and shakers in the washing machine market. Questions that needed answering: Should we get a front- or a top-loader? A model with heater drying or heat pump drying? A smart washing machine with Wi-Fi and App connectivity?

Or an AI-enabled, fully automated gizmo that will not only do your laundry, but also fold it away afterwards, and perhaps also do the cooking while at it? Oh wait, that one hasn't been invented yet!

In the end, we settled on a good-quality model — easy to use, easy to maintain, and, best of all, it didn’t require taking out a mortgage.

It quickly became clear just how much washing machines have evolved since we last bought one. They now finish a cycle in half the time, use far less water and electricity, and even spare you the effort of measuring detergent and softener. You simply fill a one-litre tank, and the machine takes care of the exact dosage for up to two months.

Technological progress can be as satisfying as it is slightly terrifying.

The purchase took less than an hour – a personal record I was quite proud of.

But just as we were to proceed to the cashier, something happened. Because in Japan, electronics stores are like casinos: they don’t let you go that easily.

Let’s just say we ended up spending another three and a half hours inside, for reasons that deserve their own story.

So stay tuned for Part 2 of the Electronics Store Saga: The Day I Tried to Leave and Couldn’t.