Ikea

Tim and I joke about my country club life.... having lunch with other ladies and shopping the afternoon away. But as you can see, this is pretty much how I spend my time :)

Since my hair gel got confiscated in Hong Kong, I needed to get a new bottle. After much research, we determined that my favorite kind does not exist in Japan. So I went back to the hair salon to buy another American product. This was a safer bet than going to a regular store where I can't read any labels.
The adventure part of the day was taking a new train to a different station to go grocery shopping. Unfortunately I couldn't find the main road that goes back to the house, so I took a longer way home. I did find the fruit and vegetable stand and got some really good plums. Or were they nectarines? Hard to say :)

Thursday I went to Ikea to get pillows for the guest bed. To get to Ikea you ride the train and then take a bus. Here is a quick picture of the Easter Island Head outside of my train station:


Getting to Ikea was no problem, and I got to read my book on the train. Ikea is the same in Japan, funky modern furniture and cool accessories. Here Ikea does home delivery, so you just put all your purchases into a box, and they bring it to your house. This way you don't have to haul it home yourself on the bus/train. Then I got on the bus to go home, but I apparently got on a different bus because I ended up at a different train station. So I got on the train and figured I could switch somewhere to get home. Then I followed some people onto another train. Then I finally saw a city I recognized and got on a train to there, and then home. The great thing about this was I could figure it out on my own. Of course, I do have a cell phone here so that I could have called Tim and had help figuring out how to get home. So I wasn't really lost. Also, I should point out that the train system, while complicated, does not feel like NYC. Tokyo is much safer. You are never worried you will be mugged. Children ride the trains and buses alone all the time, and no one harms them. So it is safe, which means you don't have to panic about ending up in a bad neighborhood. When I got home, I realized that I should have asked for a date on the delivery. Apparently in Japan they don't just leave boxes on your doorstep. So you have to be home to receive any packages. I couldn't really understand the label for delivery, so I didn't ask for a date. In the end, I called the delivery company and ikea, trying to figure out where my box was, and then Tim called and tracked it down for me, and everything arrived safe and sound.

Friday a friend and her kids and I were going to go to a park and rent bikes and have a picnic. But she hurt her foot, so we just went out to lunch. And then it was raining, so it was a good thing we didn't go to the park. Instead I went shopping since I hadn't been up to that particular part of town yet. I found a cute store that had fun bags and things, and then the Gap was having a sale, so I got a tshirt. Gap has universal sizing, which means that in Japan I am still a size small, which is so much better! Oh, but you still get a Japanese style bag.... first, they place the item in the regular bag and tape it shut, then they put the special rain bag over top, and tape that shut.

As I was wandering through one of the department stores, I found a store named after me: