Here in Finland we have 8% for books, 17% for food and for everything else 22%. And you can see it in the prices, almost everything costs a lot. It's always nice to go to Japan knowing that practically everything is cheaper than in your own country. And still, many people here think that Japan is much more expensive than Finland, though on many things it's quite the opposite or at the same level.
And bargaining is quite rare, you might be able to do it in some small stores where the salesman is also the owner, but not really... (
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