My new favourite shop
This week has been pretty different to my first few weeks in Tokyo. I started work on Monday and we’ve moved into our new place. I feel like I’m seeing a whole new city! It’s been great meeting new people and getting advice on different things to do. I know where to go buy myself a bike now and I should be able to get a mobile this weekend too. With a bike I’ll be able to see even more of Tokyo, which I’m really looking forward to.
Yesterday I had my first ¥100 Shop experience. I picked a pretty good one to go to for my first time too! One of the girls from work took me there yesterday afternoon so I even had a tour guide – and help reading Japanese :) We went to the store in Funabashi which has SIX floors. Yip, six. ¥100 stores are kind of like $2 Shops at home. Except the things you can buy are 100 times cooler. It’s not just plastic fantastic and cheap rubbish from China in these stores (Although there’s plenty of it if you’re interested). There’s gardening tools, Hello Kitty, crockery, cutlery, Tupperware (OK, maybe not the real thing but a huge variety), clothing, bags, games, toys, electronics …. We were there for two hours yesterday and there are still things I want to go back and buy.
I’m sure not all the ¥100 stores are as great as the one I went to yesterday. I know they’re not all 6 floors high either. But it was great fun and a good way to fuel that shopping addiction without breaking the bank! It was getting dark when we left and I didn’t get home till nearly 7pm!
Actually, that was partly because I had to take 3 trains to get home from Funabashi and had a 15 minute (underground) walk between Kokkai-gijidomae and Tameike-sanno stations to change trains! Our new place is great for getting to work and going out eating and drinking, but the Namboku Line is really inconvenient as far as Tokyo subway lines go – you have to change trains to go anywhere exciting! I do feel like I am getting used to the trains here though.
And although they don’t have the super-convenient Octopus card here, the system does seem very fair: on Tuesday afternoon I used my new Passnet card (stored value, but you don’t get a discount and it can only be used on Metro trains) to go to Oshiage. But when I got to Nagatacho, where I was sposed to change trains, I realised I had forgotten my instructions on how to get to the school! Not only that, I didn’t even have a phone number to call them and ask for directions once I got there :( No, I haven’t gotten any less absent-minded since I moved to Asia.
So back on the train I hopped, all the way (4 minutes) back to Roppongi-itchome. As you can imagine, I was in a HUGE rush and really worried about being late for this job. My stress levels jumped even higher when the little gates closed on me when I tried to exit the station and the screen told me to “See Station Staff for Assistance.” Argh! What next?! Why do things never work when you’re in a rush?!?! So I went over to the window and gave the guy my Passnet card. He swiped it and handed it back – along with ¥160!!! Turns out since I had entered and tried to leave the same station in such a short amount of time they just wanted to refund my minimum fare.
And I DID manage to make it to my job on time too.
Yesterday I had my first ¥100 Shop experience. I picked a pretty good one to go to for my first time too! One of the girls from work took me there yesterday afternoon so I even had a tour guide – and help reading Japanese :) We went to the store in Funabashi which has SIX floors. Yip, six. ¥100 stores are kind of like $2 Shops at home. Except the things you can buy are 100 times cooler. It’s not just plastic fantastic and cheap rubbish from China in these stores (Although there’s plenty of it if you’re interested). There’s gardening tools, Hello Kitty, crockery, cutlery, Tupperware (OK, maybe not the real thing but a huge variety), clothing, bags, games, toys, electronics …. We were there for two hours yesterday and there are still things I want to go back and buy.
I’m sure not all the ¥100 stores are as great as the one I went to yesterday. I know they’re not all 6 floors high either. But it was great fun and a good way to fuel that shopping addiction without breaking the bank! It was getting dark when we left and I didn’t get home till nearly 7pm!
Actually, that was partly because I had to take 3 trains to get home from Funabashi and had a 15 minute (underground) walk between Kokkai-gijidomae and Tameike-sanno stations to change trains! Our new place is great for getting to work and going out eating and drinking, but the Namboku Line is really inconvenient as far as Tokyo subway lines go – you have to change trains to go anywhere exciting! I do feel like I am getting used to the trains here though.
And although they don’t have the super-convenient Octopus card here, the system does seem very fair: on Tuesday afternoon I used my new Passnet card (stored value, but you don’t get a discount and it can only be used on Metro trains) to go to Oshiage. But when I got to Nagatacho, where I was sposed to change trains, I realised I had forgotten my instructions on how to get to the school! Not only that, I didn’t even have a phone number to call them and ask for directions once I got there :( No, I haven’t gotten any less absent-minded since I moved to Asia.
So back on the train I hopped, all the way (4 minutes) back to Roppongi-itchome. As you can imagine, I was in a HUGE rush and really worried about being late for this job. My stress levels jumped even higher when the little gates closed on me when I tried to exit the station and the screen told me to “See Station Staff for Assistance.” Argh! What next?! Why do things never work when you’re in a rush?!?! So I went over to the window and gave the guy my Passnet card. He swiped it and handed it back – along with ¥160!!! Turns out since I had entered and tried to leave the same station in such a short amount of time they just wanted to refund my minimum fare.
And I DID manage to make it to my job on time too.
posted by Sarah and Mike at 2:56 pm
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