Day 7, March 20 (Wed)

Today was like... Christmas.

(Kind of.)

First, it’s SPRING! That’s a happy thing.

I spent the morning with some of my family (on Skype), then since it was freezing, I took a walk to warm up, and successfully navigated to the post office (though it’s closed since today is a holiday). 

I ate a delicious lunch of an oven-roasted open-face sandwich — I must stop to explain. Here, the bread is sweet. I don’t know why. But it’s sweet. The mayonnaise is definitely sweet. And — the water is sweet. Do they put sugar in everything? I don’t know. (The water is kinda milky white sometimes.)
And for anything that takes less-than-5 minutes to make, the tastiness is multiplied by at least 2.

During lunch I finished a book called Everwinter, which I enjoyed. I keep my Kindle at the table and read during every meal.

Then... it was time to go out. On my own. In the car.

This is my car.

See the car.

It’s not that impressive, but it works, and I know how to signal and do the wipers and even open the trunk! I’m not sure about the back seat though.

Anyway, so I set off south on Route 8 (hachi-ban-sen), the main road around here (besides the expressway, which costs to use). I passed the ‘Recycle Shop’ (2nd-hand store) on my right, which meant there was no way to get in, oh well. I drove for a few minutes looking for landmarks and places of interest. There is a strange large turtle-like building, I wonder what it is. Eventually I turned back and stopped at the 2nd-hand store. It’s not very big, but they had some furniture. I purchased a small TV table for 700¥, and a little floor-chair for 700¥. The store person carried it to my car for me! Very nice of him. I felt bad tho because it took me a few tries to get the trunk open (but now I know how). 

— Remember, roughly 100¥ to $1. — (Right now it’s about 94¥ actually, but that’s harder to calculate.)

Heading north now, I was going to drive to no particular location, but then I saw the big blue sign for Book-Off... and decided to investigate. I’d been inside one Book-Off back then in Osaka, and it only had books ‘cause it was tiny, but this one had used DVDs and... CDs. I’m sure I was like a kid in a candy store on the inside, but I maintained my composure as I scanned the labels for romaji or familiar kanji. First I browsed anime CDs, and picked up a Yoko Kanno CD for 500¥ (used $20 on Amazon). I also grabbed a YuYu Hakusho soundtrack CD, but decided to come back for it later since I found....

the 250¥ section.

I went through 1 case (of like 10) and picked out 6 CDs of artists I recognize (Orange Range, Every Little Thing, Aikawa Nanase, Utada Hikaru; and Kat-tun is a band that someone in Japan recommended last time I was here.) 

It was so much fun!! Esp. since ¥250 is less than shipping alone.

But... I restrained myself, since I’m running low on cash. Once I have money again... I’ll try resisting going back :p For a little while.

After this, I drove back a different route (and made it), and set up my goodies.

When I come home I’m going to need a separate suitcase for souvenirs and CDs :)