The first customer arrived at 1:30 in the morning. He was in for a long wait until the store opened at 10 am. A bit disturbed by all the attention he just grabbed his vouchers and took off. Apparently he didn’t even buy anything that day. Guess he didn’t expect a marching band and all.

What makes 30 000 people cue up to shop for furniture they have to assemble themselves? If you knew that you’d be rich. A brand unknown in Japan buys the most expensive land in the world only to have their store so packed with customers they have to close the doors temporarily on the opening day. Country manager Tommy Kullberg said it right: “You need to be lucky when you buy property in Japan, and we have been.” Well, there is no such thing as luck. Just being in the right place at the right time.

They expect a lot from this store. Yokohama is considered more prosperous than Chiba where the first one opened earlier this year. So is it special? Different? Better? Let me explain this in a somewhat confusian way. The biggest difference with Ikea here in Japan is that it is made so similar to Ikea elsewhere.

If you go to Ikea in Stockholm, you drive south on the E4 freeway where there is plenty of space until you reach Kungens kurva. A place of “grandes surfaces” with equally big stores on the lots next to Ikea. Same if you go to Ikea in LA. From the 405 freeway IKEA looks like all the other box stores next to the freeway. Large parking lot, trolleys and inside pallets of products. Not so different from Office Depot, Staples and what have you.

In Japan you would expect Ikea to be squeezed in like McDonald’s is here. For a Japanese person, McDonald’s is not a large funny looking house on the side of the freeway. It is a small slot in a building with seats 2-3 floors up. TV monitors show seat availability as you pay for your stuff. Now, Ikea here is as large as everywhere. That’s the difference. The size and spaciousness make it stand out here.

Here is three things that you’ve probably heard about Japanese people: The can be very into a special interest, they like to take photographs and they pretty much do what everyone else is doing. I have defended against this way of stereo typing many times, saying that people of all nationalities take a lot of photos when they go on vacation and that I have found more individuality here in Japan than in other places. Well, sometimes not. As I took the top picture in this article two girls saw me do it, and did the same. Click photo on the right to see. Mahalo.

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