April 5, 2005

I have had a perfectly splendid day all on my own today. I did some laundry, hung it all outside until it was dark. Oh, that reminds me that I need to bring one more hanger in. I cleaned, I put the futon out to air. I did dishes, tidied and vacuumed. I grabbed my list of things for around the house, then headed off into the sunshine in my tenneys to see what I could find. I hoped that what I would find would include a bike. I walked for about an hour weaving in and out of neighbourhoods. I thought I had seen a Jusco while I was on the train one day and I was determined to find it as I had heard they had new bikes on sale for like 7000 yen. That’s a REALLY good price. I did finally come across it, back on the same side of the tracks as my house and school. I was a little confused, but whatever, I found it. The main floor is a giant grocery store. Seeing that I live like two blocks from a giant grocery store and still choose to hit some of the smaller ones down the road, I bypassed that floor quickly. I headed upstairs to see what treasures I could find. Well, I found a little section of the department store that was a hyaku yen shop (Dollar Store, only every thing in the store is truly 100 yen, as opposed to the North American "Dollar Store" that has crap for like ten bucks). I snooped around and decided that I would see what else the building offered before deciding to purchase anything. As I walked out, lo and behold, there are the bikes. Racks of them. None of which were even close to 7000 yen. The cheapest I could find was ten thousand yen. I’m not willing to pay that. So on to the next floor to see what I can find. The third floor was a housewares department. I found an iron for 985 yen, dude, cheap, a little closet sized ironing board for like 700 and something yen, again cheap, and a really nice wash cloth for more than I should have paid for it, but seeing that the iron and ironing board were like 20-30 dollars off each what I would pay back home, and seeing that I didn’t bring body lotion with me as I figured I could find some here and that the hand lotion Riley gave to me as a going away present is the only thing saving my skin currently, I allowed myself the luxury of the nice soft washcloth. Washcloths here are different. They’re often called skin scrubbing cloths or sponges. They are serious about their bathing here. You have a shower head and you’re supposed to lather up and scrub everything off your body with these sometimes very rough cloths, then you rinse and then when properly clean and polished, only then do you get into the piping hot bath. This is the way to take care of the body in my books. So seeing that I had decided to get these big items, I headed back down to the hyaku-en shop to see what other goodies I could find. I got containers for my stuff, I got a wash basin for the kitchen sink which is too big to actually warrant filling to do the two dishes I have), and a bunch of other containers to organize my stuff like papers and keys. Then back up stairs to get the iron. While I had been shopping I passed by the electronics section. On one giant tv was a Japanese pop music channel (where very briefly Avril Lavigne appeared, much to my surprise), on the other was the News Hour with what’s his name Lehrer. I think I spelled that wrong. It was then that I learned of the Pope’s recent death. Having just written some thoughts on my own funeral it makes it difficult to say that I am sad, and yet that is the emotion I feel. Sadness. I had written that no one is allowed to be sad for me when I die, and I still hold to that as I know that I will be sitting with my Lord when that day comes, but I do feel sad for the world’s loss of a figure head. I’m sure he is sitting with his Lord now, and so I won’t allow myself to feel saddened. Maybe through his death others will come to know Him as they start to question why the life of this man would mean anything to anyone. And then some inane Japanese shopping channel came on. So back to my own materialism. I headed out the road, still a little turned around and hoped to find my way back without too much difficulty as my bags were very big and a little heavy. I did manage to find the main road back. I also found another bike shop that had a big sale. Nothing for 7000 yen, but there were a few really nice ones for just under 9000. I didn’t have enough money on me anymore so I couldn’t buy it then, maybe tomorrow if I can’t find a used bike place. I also found a Shop 99 store with mostly groceries and everything in it is 99 yen. I found some really good deals on produce and tofu and snack food. I had heard before coming here about how expensive Japan is, and really it can be. This weekend I spent 780 yen on a pint of Guiness and another 1320 on just over an hour of pool. But in reality there are some really good deals out there that end up being way cheaper than anything at home, you just need to be patient and willing to find them. I finally made it home with my SI joint referring pain into my right thigh, oh how I love it when my old back injury comes back to haunt me. I put everything away and was able to organize some of the receipts and papers that had been floating around the table, had some dinner, did some dishes and now I’m all clean. Ah, the wonderful feeling of a home that is nicely organized and clean. It’s quite splendid.