I picked up our car today. A Nissan Cube. Seriously. It’s kind of cute in a cube sort of way. Not top-down-convertible-Saab cute. However, it is new-driver-in-Japan-only-need-for-three-years cute. Check it out.
Once I had our Cube, I made a list of errands to do and cruised. I wanted to go to the Home store and the Japanese grocery store. The home store is like combination of a Home Depot, Walmart and PetSmart. There is one part of the store I LOVE. The store has PUPPIES! They are adorable. I decided to make a beeline to the puppies and then do my shopping. Here are today’s cuties.
Check out this little miniature pincher and his price. ¥158,000 is about $1,580.00. Serious sticker shock!
The cute lab puppy pictured above had a price tag of ¥98,000 or $980.00. Unfortunately, no puppy will be purchased while we live here.
After getting my puppy fix, I shopped for a few this or that for the house. On my list was to investigate paint options. I had an idea of painting an accent wall in our family room. Here is what I discovered. Paint is different here. The paint is sold already tinted and expensive.
The color is painted on large paint chips set above the cans and the cans have the designated color on the label. There are no portable paint chips to bring home and think about. And you definitely don’t want to buy the wrong color because the price doesn’t accommodate mistakes.
Upon closer inspection. It is important to note Japan uses the metric system. Paint is not sold by the gallon. Pictured here are 1.6L cans for ¥2,980. Google conversions helped me understand this amount. 1.6L is equal to approximately.422 gallon. In summary, less than a half gallon of paint cost $30. What! That’s ridiculous. Check this picture out-
This can is less than a liter and ¥2,550. A gallon is approximately 3.7L. This color blue was one of my favorites. I would need to purchase 4 of these baby paint cans to make a gallon. That’s ¥10,000 or about $100! That’s craziness. I don’t see myself painting any more than I see us buying a $1,500 puppy!
Shifting gears to what isn’t expensive. Sushi. My reward for cruising in da cube & not buying a puppy was picking up sushi at the grocery store for dinner. All this sushi was less than ¥1,000 or $10.00. Pretty good deal. Plus, I picked up some bubbly sake. This one may be a little too sweet. However, it pairs nicely with the salty soy sauce!
One final picture of our kitchen table arrangement. I’ve been working hard to make this house feel and look like home.
