The story behind this was my mom (the one in the phone) had an upcoming wedding event to attend, which a gift is also expected to be given to the bride and groom, and one of the common gifts to be given is always the kitchen necessities, so we came to this thrift shop to buy a ceramic gift. This is a different thrift shop from the ones I blogged before, which I rarely go to here because, one they are a little bit pricey, and two it's far away from home compared to the ones I often go to.
This store categorizes its items, the ones inside are new and well picked while the items outside(refer to picture below) are their old products and on sale which are the cheapest ones. The minimum price of it was 10 PHP/ 0.18 USD (ceramics only)
While I was walking around and waiting for Ma to finish looking for the items she wanted inside, I was surprised that they have a bogu set here, i was like "Wow, now this is something you don't see every day in a surplus" Why? because this gets sold out in a Swift and I wondered how much this costs I bet it gets priced around 3,000PHP/53.51USD since that's how it's usually priced according to my instructor who happens to buy all Bogu set armors in thrift shops, I swear he has a lot and by a lot, I mean this!
photo credit to our kendo club
he sees a bogu armor in a thrift shop, he buys it, and be rented by his students who can't afford to buy new sets, or if one likes to own one he sells them for 4,500PHP/80.30USD and I think it's good business too... clever, I say...
This is me in class and I rented this armor set which costs 300PHP/5.35USD for a day, so imagine spending that money for a day is a pain in the pocket right?
So going back to the part where I saw the armor outside the thrift shop, I asked the staff how much it costs, and they said that it costs (500-1000PHP/8.92-17.85USD) set, 500 are for the small size, while the 1k is for the adult size. It's very shocking of how cheap it's priced, and a lot of thoughts came in my mind.
I bought the armor so that I won't rent it anymore which saves me from spending 300PHP/5.35USD a day during class and have the thought that once I'm done doing the sport, I can always sell this thrice the amount it originally costs. so it's a win win situation 😁
A new set of kendo armor is priced at 20,000 PHP/356USD, I did mention in a previous blog that I'm stingy, I wouldn't dare spend that huge amount of money for a sport,
Anyway, time to celebrate! BUYING A QUALITY BOGU ARMOR FOR ONLY 1000 PHP/17.84 USD! is THIS IS THE BIGGEST WIN FOR ME! I'm very DELIGHTED with my find!
Happy that I got to buy it first before anyone else 😭 because I swear it's a rare find. Well.. to my area, i don't know about in your thrift shop though... but do share if you seen a lot of this in your thrift shops 😌
Kendo is an expensive sport, from its enrollment fee to its uniform (kimono called hakama and gi), and to its armor
I enrolled in Kendo for my love of watching anime and Japanese culture, let's say I want to experience what I see in anime. It was a dream of mine to wear a kimono although this one is different from the ones you have in mind. However, they are still in the same line, anyways do you see the connection why I love going to Japan surplus thrift shops so much? To experience a little bit of Japan's culture since I can't go to the place yet hahaha!