Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Shopping Trip

So I have been hesitant to leave the safety of the house for the past week.
But with the help of my handy dandy iphone and it's walking map application I made it to the mall (or anywhere for that matter) for the first time.

I have to hand it to any Japanese person who got around on a bike as a kid if they actually live to drive a car.
Riding a bike is dangerous. Between the oblivious motorists, the fact you are usually biking in an area of 1 foot wide, on one side a car and the other a 3 foot ditch, and the fact that most corners you can not see around besides the often mirrors which are of no help at all, I can't tell you how many times I have almost been hit.
That was an extremely awful run on sentence.

So, I went and realized that everything in Japan is extremely expensive.

I went into a store and found that all the notebooks were seven dollars. Luckily, I ran into another Westerner, from Massachusetts.
He asked me if I was a teacher and I said no. He was an ALT and it was really nice to spend a half an hour talking to someone in non-broken english.
He referred me to a 100 yen (a little over a dollar) store where I bought two note books and some pencils.

However, I searched high and low in the mall for a school bag.
And I probably circled each of the two levels about 10 times. Around the 11th time I figured people were starting to get suspicious of the foreign girl milling around.

I had a choice between buying a too big, 20 dollar bag I didn't want... and a perfect size adorable slightly more expensive bag.
Slightly as in quite a bit.
So I finally went into the foreign designer imports shop and after a conversation I understood nothing of with the lady, I bought it.
At the counter they explained something to me at which point I said "I don't understand Japanese."
They smiled and said "Cute." as if this covered everything they just said and handed me the bag, in a bag that could've housed a family of homeless people.
No, seriously, the bag was so big I think it made people stare even more.
After a quick stop for a Coke which would replenish me on the long walk around the outside of the mall (You Me Town) to my bike which I had, as a true idiotic foreigner, parked in the mall workers section.

It took me about ten minutes to, unlock my bike, realize my phone had deleted the map to get home as I was unlocking my bike, and also realize the bag my bag was in was twice the size of my bike.

So I used my smarts, left the giant bag in the parking lot, and decided to rely on my sense of direction to get home and then maybe practice unlocking and locking my bike.

I did get home somehow, as I have been using the McDonalds lately as a means of knowing where I am. Because as expected, the golden arches tower over everything else.

I got home and it immediately down poured.

The thing about Japan is you never know when it will rain.
Clouds are not necessary. The rain just simply appears out of no where.

Besides this I had cold udon noodles today. My new favorite food.
Fujimura Mama either brings lunch home every day or we go out. It's been delicious, mostly.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

EVERY thing is an adventure for you now, isn't it.

Just hearing English must have been relaxing :-)

Have you noticed that time passes differently while we are away?

Interesting about the rain. I suppose it is the "Island" effect.

Anonymous said...

Guess who's Dad has a birthday?

Japan Shopping said...

I think you should search the internet about Japan shopping. It will help you save money in your next shopping adventure. Check it out and you will be surprised of the low prices.

Anonymous said...

I am sure that this post did not leave your mother nervous at, fearing for your welfare! Be careful Lex!
A. Lisa