Shopping Trip～

I can't believe how much money we've spent and have yet to spend.. @.@

So today, I bought myself a bike.
It cost 9,800 Yen which would be the equivalent of $98. I don't use the exchange rate when I'm comparing prices because when I live here, I won't be paying with American money. I will be earning a Japanese salary which in most cases takes into account the different cost of living. So instead I take off the last two zeros and that's my equivalent. I hope that makes sense. It does to me. Anyway, the picture is the one on the left. It is green and silver and its name shall be Voldy. Yay for being a Harry Potter nerd!

What I also bought today was the stand for our TV. In the picture on the right, we bought B・1 but in the darker wood color you see at the bottom. It cost 13,900 yen, or about $140. I think its a steal, beautiful, and the perfect fit. I don't know what day exactly it will arrive since I wasn't willing to pay $10 to choose, but it says within 3-5 days.. But that could also be referring only to the smaller items like clothes or a toilet brush, rather than a giant piece of furniture. I also could have paid a small sum to have someone set it up for me. I said NO! Because I need something to do until I find a job...






J has been at work everyday from 9 in the morning to 10pm~12pm at night for three days and again today and tomorrow. I have been browsing the web and looking through catalogs, trying to decide what we absolutely need to buy right now and what can wait until I'm also bringing in money. He thinks that I can live out of my suitcase but I need a dresser dang nab it! He seems to think that I'll get a job within the next week, and while I'm hoping that will very much be the case, I'm also being realistic and planning for the worst. So I've also been cleaning up my resume, and am currently waiting to hear back from my mum on what she thinks I should change or keep. And then it will be off to apply to every advertisement that doesn't say "no tourist visas" or "experience and work visa required." But I might send my resume into them too. I shall look down every path until I find something!

J had the day off yesterday and we were supposed to go shopping for little items like spoons and bowls and pots and such. I didn't really want to buy those things quite yet, but I used it as an excuse to get him to take me to the store so I could actually touch, feel and compare the big items I wanted to buy. Magazines are nice and all, but its easier to tell if a counter top actually reaches my waist or not, and if that mattress is really as soft as it looks, when in person. I guess I could say I lucked out, much to J's misfortune.. He has kidney stones, and we had to leave after having only looked around for about 30 minutes. The pain lasted for about 2 hours after we had returned home, and he tried very hard not to show how much it hurt. I helped him out though by giving him a massage~ It made me happy that I could make him feel better.

After all that, when I was back on my computer, we realized that there was a Nitori (the store we are buying most of our items from) literally a 10 minute walk away from where we are going to live. So we are going to wait until the 16th, the day we move in, to do our shopping. The 16th is also the day that our electronics arrive! And I have the list of everything we bought that day in hand as well~

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(enter Koma, the super spoiled 16 year old cat that J loves to death, but smells and is very VERY spoiled. Yes, I had to mention it twice because its very very true. I love Koma too but.. he is a walking corpse =.=)

I probably won't take pictures until everything we've bought arrives. But I will tell you the color scheme is dark brown and black, silver, red and purple~ The bathrooms are lavender and silver, the living room is brown and silver with red and purple accents, the kitchen I haven't completely decided but it will be black and either purple, red or both. The bedroom will probably be the same~ Still haven't decided what to put in the other room..

Ahh, but my list!! Remember the money exchange that I told you about~

•  Toaster; 4,980
• Gas Stove; 19,800
• Rice Cooker; 13,800
• Iron; 4,980
• Refrigerator; 103,150
• Washing Machine; 118,000
• yea, crazy, I know. J's mom sort of agrees, but supposedly it saves a lot on your water bill, and has this cool heat thing. Maybe its a dryer and washer in 1? Otherwise its one of those washers that gets out the wrinkles.. I'll try and decipher the manual when I get it. We can still return it if it comes to that.
• Color TV; 39,800, but I guess they took off 21,000 for some special, and it comes out to be 18,800. Which is a crazy crazy deal for this, not giant but, big TV. The stand we bought for it costs more, you'll note. It's about 30 x 20 in. I think thats a 35in. TV? :D
• and finally 3 ceiling lamps; 14,940
• Japan has these giant round glowing disks that they use for lighting, with long tubes running around inside them. We got the cheapest three we could find an they have a little string you can pull to change the strength of the light!~

So all of this, along with the discount on the TV, totaled exactly 300,000 yen. Aka $3000.
I sort of had sticker shock at first but J told me it was a wedding gift from his father and grandmother. I still kind of wish we had gotten a different washing machine but.. We'll see how well it works first.


Or if I can even understand the buttons on the front..


I'm very excited about moving into our new apartment. It doesn't see all that real, but I bet it will on the 16th. J is very happy because its a 10 minute drive away from his work; he no longer needs to wake up at 7 in the morning to eat breakfast and get to work on time with a 1 hour drive. This also means he doesn't have a 1 hour drive home and so wont get home at midnight. At the latest it would be around 11. At least I would still be semi-conscious at that point..

Kinako is no longer in heat! Another thing to be very happy about~
But I'm bored out of my mind because J's house is in the middle of the inaka or country side and the closest point of amusement is a supermarket located at about a 15 minute walk away. The nearest train station is at least a 30 min. walk. Oh well.. One more day left! and then I will be only a 10 minute bike ride away to anywhere I could possibly want to go~ Hopefully to a job~

I'm off to browse through my cookbooks. J's dad and mum are helping us move on the 16th, so I'm thinking I might cook them dinner on our first night in our new apartment~

But first, a poll.
I can't decided on what kind of curtains to get. They can either be dark brown, black, red, purple or silver, or some such combination, but I want them to let light in and keep heat out during the summer, and keep heat trapped inside during the winter. What style and colors do you think we should do? Let me know~

<3