Big in Japan

I ran across this article about the knitting boom in Japan.
It's actually sort of interesting to me because one of my yogabuddies married into a Canadian Japanese family and lived in Japan for a number of years. She describes going to huge craft malls where attendants would direct you to the appropriate shop for what you wanted. Bags of 10 skeins would cost something like the equivalent of five dollars, and she and her MIL would fill huge bags of wool and drag them back on the commuter trains with them.

That was something like 10-12 years ago, and she says she's still knitting with that wool, transforming what remains of her stash-souvenir into hats and mittens for her family.