Tuesday August 29, 1989
Posted in diary on 08/29/2009 04:26 pm by M Sinclair StevensAccounts
| ¥1400 | black garbage pail |
| ¥200 | postage: 2 letters |
| ¥540 | train Kamegawa-Beppu-Kamegawa |
| ¥100 | red inkpad (for inkan) |
| ¥100 | glue |
| ¥100 | 4 red hooks w/suction cups |
| ¥798 | towel rack w/suction cups |
| ¥100 | red plastic mixing bowl |
| ¥298 | strainer |
| ¥168 | luffa |
| ¥750 | Japanese poem flash cards |
| ¥200 | machine drinks |
| ¥800 | deli sushi for two |
| ¥118 | consumption tax |
| ¥5872 | Total: 5872 |
Postmark: Beppu August 29, 1989
I got paid last week and I’m starting to collect those little extras that mark this as my home. For instance, I bought two sleek black plastic garbage pails with lids. (I’m allowed to take out the garbage only on Wednesdays and Saturdays and in this heat and humidity the smell indoors becomes overpowering.) As the label on the garbage pail said, “Functional and Beautiful dust box. We made just to make your life tremendously fun and sophisticated.” Hey! The first one was such a marked improvement on my life that I rushed out and bought another one today. On sale! for only ¥1400 (about $10). In fact, there were dollar days going on (actually ¥100 days, which is about 70 cents). So for ¥100 each I bought hair ribbons, one plastic mixing bowl (where are you going to get a nice mixing bowl in the states for 70 cents?), a 3-pack of glue and an ink pad.
Prices are not horrible here–it’s just that they are not comparable. Some things are ridiculously expensive; others ridiculously cheap. Forget anything imported–coffee, ketchup, Kellogs cereal. But I can get a sushi dinner to go for ¥400 (about $3.00). If you watch the sales, the deals are great.
Beppu doesn’t have any great places to shop. It’s got one big department store, Tokiwa, in a mall called the Cosmopia. It’s sort of like Nieman-Marcus. Very clean, (You should see the bathrooms!), very Western (Ralph Lauren, Bennetons, etc.), and very expensive. But it’s a refreshing contrast to Kamegawa (the suburb where we live), its small, winding streets and its tiny crowded shops.
After a month I’m just beginning to find my way around as a shopper. Only last weekend I discovered the big department stores in Oita City. Bookstores with English-language books and art books. Stores like The Cadeau [in Austin] filled with hi-tech or European-style gifts. It’s quite a bit harder to find Japanese things that aren’t simply kitsch–tourist souvenirs…I saw four lacquerware items that I wanted but at the time seemed expensive. I haven’t found anything comparable so I’ll go back [to Hita] and get them.
Notes from 2009
Changing Perspectives
This letter was written to the girlfriend I shopped with which is why I go into such detail about shopping, as if I were taking her along with me and sharing with her what I thought would most interest her. As I say, I’m just starting to learn my way around. Over two years, I find many small specialty shops and even a few second hand places. I fall in love with the twisted winding streets and the tiny cramped stores. I buy lots of bamboo crafts and lacquerware, Japanese material, paper, and lots of dishes. When I arrived in Japan, all my possessions fit in two large suitcases. When I returned to America, I shipped over twenty boxes of things home.
Buy Only What You Can Carry
I remember the difficulty I had trying to carry all these purchases home. The black garbage pail seemed huge. It took up lots of space on the train and it was awkward lugging it on the 20 minute walk home.
I brought both of those black garbage pails home. I used them as packing containers when I shipped my household goods back from Japan. I still use them 20 years later in the garden to collect rain water or hold gravel mulch. In Texas, they are tiny.