Dazaifu, Day 16 - Shopping!

It's Sunday, my rest day - a chance to sleep in, watch TV, sleep in, do laundry, sleep in, explore the area, sleep in.....you get the idea.

Yes, I was tired, and yes, I did sleep in. And once I got up, I puttered around and watched TV, sorted through clothes and accumulated stuff, and generally was lazy. Sometimes you just have to do that, to get yourself back to feeling 100% human again.

Once I got moving, though, I actually managed to get quite a bit accomplished today. I headed for the JR station first, to buy my tickets for the long weekend trip in July. I thought I had put the paper with my proposed itinerary in my pouch, but managed to get there without it; however, the same clerk that helped me look up train times was there again today, and he remembered me (white-haired American - I'm hard to forget....), so we got the tickets bought without difficulty. The only real question was whether there was space in the reserved seat cars (that weekend is a holiday weekend in general - like trying to travel on Thansgiving weekend in the U.S.). I knew that I could probably get non-reserved space (and it would be cheaper, too), but that might result in standing up for 3 hours, something I was not looking forward to.

Fortunately, single seats were still available for reservation, so I paid my money and got my tickets. (In case you're wondering, a one-way ticket from Fukuoka to Tokyo, with a two-day layover in Nagoya, costs about $240; if I had bought a 7-day JR Rail Pass before I left the U.S., I would have paid about the same amount by the time you added the reserved seat charge. JR Rail Passes are great if you intend to do a large amount of train travel over a specified period of time, such as several cities in a week, but you don't gain anything if all you intend to do is make one or two trips. I considered the pass this time, but decided not to get one since I figured that I would not make enough train trips to warrant the up-front cost - and I was correct.)

Then, I'm off to explore and shop. First stop is just down the street from my apartment - there is a kimono shop that seems to have a lot of traditional accessories, so I decide to check on their supply of getas (the shoes usually worn with a kimono). Yes, they have the wooden ones, yes, they carry men's sizes (although even those sizes are small compared to U.S.), and yes, they have a pair that (I think) will fit my son, who has requested such. First gift, bought.

I have decided to be adventurous and ride the local train to the station closest to the large temple. It turns out to be an easy trip, and I begin to explore the shops in the bazaar on the street leading to the shrine. Oh, my......

A couple of hours and a lot of shopping later, I have gifts for most of my family, and have had a chance to eat one of my favorite treats - soft ice cream in a waffle cone, green tea flavor. (It's actually quite good - vanilla with very slightly bitter overtones, offset by the sweetness of the ice cream itself.) It's just hot enough to make this a great mid-afternoon snack.

It's time to go back to the apartment - my hands are full of shopping bags. I head back and drop things off, looking over my list of 'who wants what' and then deciding to head back out, this time down the main street to a book/cd/dvd store and then the electronics store.

I get fairly lucky this trip, finding not only an anime video that my son wants, but another DVD that is music videos by a group I like (Queen), including footage from their tour in Japan. So I now have videos, but need something to play them (Japan has a different region setting than the U.S.) - my computer is set to play Japanese DVDs but if we want to see these on a bigger screen, we need a regular DVD player. So it's off to Yamada.

I had recalled seeing some ads on TV that indicated there was a sale this weekend; there is, and the car traffic getting into the place is rather stiff, which makes me glad that I am walking. I head for the back of the store - I looked at prices and models last week, so i have a pretty good idea of what to expect. A pleasant surprise awaits - the better DVD player is on sale, at a price very close to the cheaper one, so I go ahead and get that one.

(It worked just fine - I checked it out on the TV back at the apartment, and the videos looked great.)

I also take a look at cameras - I am still thinking about getting another still shot one, one of the ultra-compacts, for when I take students on BUGS counting trips - but their sale prices are not as good as the prices at the big shops in Tokyo, so I will wait to buy that.

It never hurts to check, though - I've had very good luck finding bargains, but that's because I shop here just as I do back home - compare stores and several models and find the one that seems to be the best value. Just because there is a Yen sign instead of a Dollar sign on the price tag is no reason not to be smart in your buying. I am also much more fond of buying in smaller shops, especially for things that I wish to give as gifts; I can later look at something and tell the recipient that I found it in a shop close to my house, or near an especially good sightseeing place, or something similar, which helps me to remember my trip a little better.

Then it's home again, this time to fix some dinner. I've got pasta and some sort of cream sauce (it turns out to have clams in it - not a problem, I like clams), so I cook that and also heat water for some tea. I turn on the TV just in time to see the opening credits for "Star Wars, Episode IV" - yes, it's the original Stars Wars, digitally remastered, and dubbed in Japanese.

They did a great job on the voices - Darth Vader is just as dark and sinister sounding as James Earl Jones was in the original, C3PO is just as fussy, R2D2 and Chewbacca don't need dubbing at all, and the bar scene comes across the same, as does the street scene with Luke and Obi-Wan, "These aren't the droids you're looking for..."

That was fun - and I still cheer when the Death Star blows up, just like in the theatre the first time. I love it when I can see a good movie, regardless of what language the dialogue is in.

Bed time - school again tomorrow.