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Why you should go second-hand shopping on your next holiday
Souvenir hunting at vintage stores and flea markets can be a sustainable and meaningful way to feel more connected to the places you visit.
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The Oedo Antique Market is the largest and oldest outdoor market of its kind in Japan and offers an eclectic range of second-hand finds.
PHOTO: KAREN TEE
Karen Tee
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Souvenir shops all around the world overflow with mass-produced magnets, postcards or other random trinkets. Like many travellers, I have always found the urge to pick up keepsakes while on vacation irresistible. But over time, as I watched those trinkets pile up into a gaudy, dust-collecting heap at home, I realised something had to change. They felt disconnected from the places I had visited, and worse, failed to spark memories of my adventures.
So how could a shopaholic traveller like me satisfy the urge to shop, but in a more meaningful way?
