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$450 for a School Bag?
11–20 of 122 posts
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#12The article tries to articulate the value add through attention to detail in manufacturing "so the bags survive 6 years of rough and tumble ", but I'm not really getting it. What am I missing? I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and…
Three cheers for the Jansport!
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#13While I think Japanese society has lots of good traits and outcomes such as a low crime rate, and a ethic to involve everyone in process improvements, this is another clear example of what the English call "keeping up appearances". It seems Japanese call it "tatemae" -
https://japan-dev.com/blog/honne-and-tatemae
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#14I _love_ Japanese dedication to craft; really any hyper-focused efforts, but i digress. The problem that I have with this of course is families who cannot afford these really well made pieces of gear (touched on at the end of the article) and where children who can't afford it are ostracized because of it. Growing up I was on meal plans due to our financial status and paying in physical tickets, made me and the other…
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Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#15The article tries to articulate the value add through attention to detail in manufacturing "so the bags survive 6 years of rough and tumble ", but I'm not really getting it. What am I missing? I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and…
Three cheers for the Jansport!
I buy Jansport because the zippers never break.
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#16The article tries to articulate the value add through attention to detail in manufacturing "so the bags survive 6 years of rough and tumble ", but I'm not really getting it. What am I missing? I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and…
I enjoyed the article but like much of online content about Japan it comes off like obsessive fan service.
Can you imagine carrying 1-2kg empty backpack with you every day? Just because something took long to make doesn't mean it's superior in production or quality or even perception. It's pretty, fashionable and the tradition is wholesome but that's where it ends.
I got a free backpack with my new Thinkpad laptop recently. It's light, well designed, mass produced, easy to personalize - would take this over the 450$ school bags any time of the year.
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#17"That's ludicrous!", he says, as he avoids looking at the Filson bag next to his chair.
(Although, in fairness, I don't expect to ever have to buy another bag, and I'll take better care of this than I would've any bag my elders gave me as a child.)
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#18I _love_ Japanese dedication to craft; really any hyper-focused efforts, but i digress. The problem that I have with this of course is families who cannot afford these really well made pieces of gear (touched on at the end of the article) and where children who can't afford it are ostracized because of it. Growing up I was on meal plans due to our financial status and paying in physical tickets, made me and the other…
In retrospect, the most ridiculous thing about kids giving each other shit about money is... they're kids.
Until they get to ~14+, they don't have any claim to having earned any of their family's wealth.
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#19These humans are a curious species.
Re: $450 for a School Bag?
#20I was talking about randoseru with my daughter just the other day. She and her sister both attended Japanese public elementary schools and used the same randoseru for all six years. Though she was tall for her age, she complained about the weight of it then and doesn’t have fond memories of it now. Her son will be starting at a public elementary school in Yokohama in a couple of years, and she doesn’t seem eager to get a randoseru for him. While some of the kids I see walking to and from that school have randoseru, most are carrying lighter and more versatile cloth backpacks.
This grandparent will be happy to pay for whatever my daughter wants for her son, though it’s likely that she will insist on paying for it herself.