Rainy weekend

This weekend was pretty rainy. And kind of chilly too. I wanted to go to Tsuruga shrine, but didn't really want to go in the rain. Since my main purpose was to take pictures of it, not really pray.

Basically spent the weekend at the apartment. Trying to get everything put away. There is plenty of closet space in the apartment, but not much storage space. I still don't know where to put my deodorant and extra razors.

I went to the dollar store (or the 100 yen store as it is known here) and bought some chopsticks and a glasses case and some notebooks. Hell, I could have gotten plates and dishes there, or reading glasses, or kids' clothes. They have so much stuff at the dollar store it is ridiculous. I don't know how they make money.

Then I went and had some delicious spicy chicken curry to warm me up. Then I went to the grocery store and bought some rice, which I thought was pretty expensive ($15 for about a seven lb bag. seems high to me, especially as rice is the base of Japanese culture) and some jam to make toast with jam for breakfast. Yum.

The grocery store is really really confusing for me. Of course everything is in Japanese, but I don't even understand what most of the stuff is supposed to be. There are bags that look similar to Lipton instant soup all over the store, and the pictures on the bags are of meats and porks and chicken and seafood (sometimes all on the same bag) all on a bed of rice or noodles. I don't know if these bags contain dried product that I add water to to give the flavor of the dish, or if they are spices to add to the dish, or basically what is in the bag. (What's in the bag!). I am going to have to go shopping with an interpreter sometime just to find out what I am buying, or at least, what they heck it is that I could buy. I don't have enough money to just buy random stuff and hope it is something I can use.

Basically shopping is confusing for me. I just wander around looking at pictures and try to find something that I either recognize or can take a good guess at what it is. This goes both for grocery shopping and shopping at the department store. The department store is a bit easier, I can tell clothes (shoes on the other hand, they are all small here so I don't know what are men's shoes and what are women's) and I can identify electronic goods by what they are.

So that was my weekend. I walked around a bit looking for stuff, came home, ate, slept, watched Japanese baseball on tv, got up walked around a bit, came home, ate, slept. Ah, the excitement of living in a foreign country!

I really like not having a car by the way. I like that I am forced to walk places. First off it makes me not be so lazy. The grocery store is about a mile away, it is about a block and a half from Geos. If I had a car I would definitely drive there. But, since I don't I must walk. Walking is good for me. Not only is it good exercise, but I feel like I am experiencing more of the city this way. I don't just drive past eveything, I have to take the time to walk by it. For instance, yesterday I heard people screaming and cheering and took a detour off of my route and discovered a baseball game being played. I stopped and watched for a few minutes before moving on. I doubt I would have heard those cheers nor seen that game at all had I been driving a car.

Although, having a car would make it easier to get to different places and do some more exploring. Trains are fast and efficient here, but they are not cheap. Especially for somebody who isn't going to recieve a pay check for the next 30 days.