No need. Just invest 10% of that amount in McDonald’s gift cards that expire at the end of April and wait for nature to take its course. Send the other 90% to Luigi to share with his prison mates.

That’s a BIG question! I mean, traditional arts and related products (like silicone or acrylic bentos) are generally really good, clothes are, as everywhere, from fabulously made and expensive to crap that falls apart if you sneeze at it from across the road, and there is WAY too much kawaii in everything, just – ewwww! Stationary and office supplies tend to be better quality, but personal stationary, like fashion and interior design, suffers from terminal cutes. Anime and manga have become, imho, really repetitive and derivative,and if I see one more tourist souvenir featuring Hokusai’s Great Wave, I will, so help me Daikini Shinten, invoke every tanuki pretending to be a tea pot to come tear every last copy to tiny bits of random fluff.

Now, where was I… Oh, yeah. Good ceramics in Kappabashi.

We’ve used Kenny’s books for maybe 30 years now – so long that neither of us can remember that far back any more. And you’re right, orders are quick and the service is great, but the best thing is the selection!

It seems to take more keywords to home in on the kind of speciality items I look for, and does not always appear to detect connections between those keywords, for example in trying to find certain kind of veterinary support devices made to national specifications. One of the other commentors says Kagi is okay for shopping, so maybe I’ll give it a whirl because I’d love to be free of Google once and for all.

I’m interested, but a bit reluctant. I find DuckDuckGo quite adequate for most things, except shopping online, something that I have to rely on for certain categories of items. How is Kagi on shopping?

True or not, one can avoid the whole issue by using your phone as a phone, maybe to send texts, with location, mike, and camera switched off permanently, and all the other apps deleted or disabled. Sure, Google will still know you called your SO daily and your Mom once a week (NOT ENOUGH!), and that you were supposed to pick up the dry cleaning last night (did you?). Meh. If that’s what floats the Surveillance Society’s boat, I am not too worried.