Our First Day in Japan

Jame and I went to bed pretty quick after we arrived in our new place and we woke up at 6:30am the next day. Our bags weren’t going to be delivered to our place until later that evening and because of the new security restrictions we didn’t have any shampoo, toothpaste etc. in our carry-on. The first thing on the agenda was to get something to eat and hit the 100 yen store to get some things to clean up (I heard that these stores are amazing compared to our dollar stores back home). We went to Seattle’s Best Coffee for some eats and drinks, and then went into the station where the night before we swore that we saw a 100 yen store. The only thing was we had to buy a ticket to get to the other levels of the station. So we went outside and walked around our surrounding area looking for another one. At this time it was about 7:30am and the temperature was already in the high twenties!! The great thing about Japan is that there are vending machines everywhere!! You can buy beer, juice, coffee, pop etc. from these things. We found a refreshing drink called Pocari Sweat --interesting name I know. It has saved us from dying of heat exhaustion a few times!

One hour later we couldn’t find anything. I asked one man in Japanese, but his answer was long and of course in Japanese. I had no idea what he was saying, so after I politely thanked him and left we decided to go to KFC because the night before we ate there and the cashier spoke amazing English. Oddly enough she was working again and she gave us directions to the closest 100 yen store. Finally we found it and everyone was right. These stores are awesome! Anything for 100 yen!

We stocked up on some towels, soap, storage things, slippers etc. We actually had to go to the Kintetsu department store for some bath towels because the ones at the store weren’t big enough for us! It was quite amusing actually!

After that we dropped our stuff off at home and went exploring. It is crazy how many times we almost got hit by people riding their bikes. The sidewalks are so crowded and the cyclists just ride on through as if no one else is on the sidewalk. Bikes line the roads and walkways where-ever you are. Like cars get towed and ticketed back in Canada, well the same goes for bikes in Japan!!



Bikes go for about 14000 yen here, which is about $140. We would eventually like to invest in a couple of bikes once we figure out the roads and which side we should walk/ride on!

Eventually we came across this large and crazy store called Donki where we bought some food, drinks, a blow dryer, table etc. We brought that stuff home and decided to have a small nap. Four hours later we woke up to the sound of our doorbell. It was our bags. We decided to leave our bags and go for something to eat. We went to this neat little place called Freshness Burger. All I have to say is Thank God for pictures because we don’t understand what is on the menu and the workers don’t understand us. The food there was really tasty -- it reminded us a little bit of Red Robin J At about 9pm we came back home and instantly crashed for the night.

That stench I spoke of in a previous entry – ya it was still there. It seemed to be coming from the drain by the washing machine. Every now and then we’d get a whiff of like sewage I guess. Sometimes it is there and sometimes it isn’t. We weren’t sure what to do, so I decided to ask my Japanese friends the next day. In the meantime I ended up pouring the Japanese equivalent of Febreeze down the drain. A temporary fix, but not a cure! The Monica Gellar in me really misses those good ol’ cleaning products that I am used too!