What a day! With tears in our eyes, we checked out of the Navy Lodge. Tears of joy, that is!! Room 1215 has been our home for the past 18 days. We were definitely ready for this goodbye! We drove out to our house in Ikego to prepare for the delivery of our express shipment and loaner furniture. The shipment was scheduled for delivery between 8-12. They were here at 7:59am! They had our 800lbs of stuff off the truck, in the house and partially unpacked by 8:24am. They had four men who worked swiftly and courteously. At 8:36 the cute doorbell chime sounded again and our loaner furniture was delivered. A couch, two chairs, table & four chairs, two bedside tables & a lamp are ours until the remaining HHG arrives in a few weeks.
By mid-morning we had everything unpacked and a list of stuff we needed. Dave suggested we road trip to Costco. Check it out and perhaps get a membership. With the help of Google Map we headed on our way.
This trip took us on a toll road. This was our first experience with Japanese tolls. The toll agent was incredibly friendly. He waved to us each time we approached and happily took our ticket & payment.
I must admit something else. I haven’t had a membership at a wholesale in years. There isn’t much point for just the two of us. Unless, you move to Japan and the only place to buy a BIG bag of Kale is Costco. Yes, we joined Costco for Kale. That is how important Kale is in my life. I just can’t make a smoothie without it.
We had to take a cart down the escalator to the entrance & get our membership before we could enter the store. Everyone greeted us in Japanese and after I said, “konnichiwa”, they quickly switched to English. (Obviously, my accent is noticeable.)
While signing up for a membership, I read the fine print that stated only cash, American Express or the Costco Card could be used for payment. Crap. We only had 10,000¥ or about $100 between us. And 43,500¥ would be needed for the membership. Grrrrr – we switched focus and decided this would need to be a recon mission.
We bopped around a bit and did find the desired HUGE bags of Kale. I was grabbing two when Dave reminded me we didn’t have our blender yet. Boo. No Kale for you!
Instead, we found fizzy water! In bulk! They call it “plain soda.” Google translate told me it was “carbonated water.” Jackpot!! We added a case to our cart. We also purchased eggs & bagels. Japanese eggs are not exciting until you see the yolk. I’ll post that picture soon.
On our way out, we smelled PIZZA! Of course we couldn’t pass up a pizza! It was delicious. Maybe because we haven’t had a pizza in a while or maybe it was just that good. Yummmmmm.
I must stress again how polite and orderly everything and everyone is in Japan. Here is a picture of the carts neatly arranged while customers were either in line or eating at the food court area. Keep in mind, everything in the carts has been purchased. No one would dare to take something that isn’t theirs. It’s all about the wa.
As we were leaving with our purchases, the receipt checker instructed us on how to properly carry the pizza on our cart. Hilarious. The Japanese make things better!
On a side note, driving is getting easier. I only hit the wipers twice today when intending to use the blinker. And I’m adjusting to the super narrow roads. Tomorrow will be my first real solo driving. Keep left!