Shopping & Driving

Shopping is cool here. The stores don’t really look very much different than in the US. They even have a 100 yen store – with a much better quality of junk in them. Jeff had wanted a wine glass and they were running ¥800 to ¥1000 ($8 to $10) each everywhere else. The ones in the store were of pretty good quality and he’s delighted. Since we still need more gadgets, we’ll probably be back there on numerous occasions. The shops don’t use large shopping carts the way we do. They use the hand carried baskets and if you don’t want to carry it, there are small carts that you can put the little basket on. It works great. When you check out, they put the stuff into one of those baskets, put a bag on top, and then you go over to a table and pack your own stuff. Quite efficient. There’s also a little tray for the money to be put in. They leave it there until they give you the change. We had tried handing them the money and they really looked at us strangely.

It’s funny the way that the people just keep right on talking to us like we’re gong to suddenly understand them. American tend to just keep getting louder and louder, the Japanese tend to just keep saying it, still softly, but getting more nervous because we’re not responding. I only catch a word or two periodically – not enough for meaningful discussions of any sort. Oh well.

Driving is a trip here. We have a new mantra “to the left” that we repeat at every intersection – especially those pesky right hand turns. On the main roads it’s not too bad. There’s enough traffic to keep cars to follow and we do fine. It’s the little tiny roads that you’re driving down the middle of and then a car comes. The first inclination is to veer right and that’s when the mantra really takes over. There are also light and utility poles right in the street (on the sides). The white line actually goes around them in some cases. You have to pull over to the side to take turns with cars passing. It’s really crazy. Sure wish we had one of the narrower cars. We have a Camry and while it is nice, it’s wide compared to some of the new models here. They have some of the tiniest cars I’ve ever seen – even smaller than ones we saw in Ecuador. The drivers are very courteous and let people in. They do pull out at some crazy times but they count on people slowing down. It’s getting a little easier to get around. Mostly we just drive to school and one of the big stores that is farther away. The mall is on the bus route and there’s a grocery store 2 blocks away so we just walk over – much easier anyway and the parking lot is very tiny anyway. All of the people here back into the parking spots – at home and in the lots. You rarely see a car that just pulls into the spot. I think you could count on those being the gaijin!