Shopping

This morning I decided to go shopping in a small town which is in the opposite direction from where I usually shop. Even though it's hot, being in the car with the air conditioner blasting made for a nice ride.

Where I usually shop is toward the city and the built-up area; this was toward the countryside. Hannah was with us, so I asked her to take some video.

Part of the drive is through a small town, where some of the buildings come right up to the road; there's no pavement, and some places don't have any front garden or space between the building and the road. I always feel that it's a bit scary to step out of a building right onto the road. 

I want to get a video of the view. This is the road that runs off from the road we are on. I never think that our elevation is so high until I see the view. When we drive up here, it doesn't feel as if the road is going uphill; maybe if I walked it, I would feel it more!

I went for basic groceries; we are always running short on something! David shops on his way home, but I prefer to buy fresh vegetables myself. Recently, there hasn't been a lot of lettuce in the shops; I wonder why?

On the way home, we stopped at a recyle shop. Most recyle shops in Japan are like chain stores; every city has the same ones. I like to find smaller, unique ones, which is what we found today. I'm looking for a kitchen cabinet. I've seen some lovely ones, but they are very expensive. I'm hoping to eventually be able to completely remodel the kitchen, so I only need something for the next year or so; therefore, I don't want to spend a fortune on a new cabinet. 

The place we stopped at didn't have what I wanted but did have a lot of lovely stuff, a real mix of things! Old rotary phones, different Japanese dolls, even a Japanese sword, but I think it was a replica. I picked up some lovely towels, 2 big bath towels and a set of dish clothes for 300 yen, about £1. They are all good quality too. In Japan, towel sets are given as gifts; they are expensive and very good quality. I think that people get a lot of these gifts and never use them. I remember when my kids were little, they all got sick at the same time. I was telling one of my students that I was running out of towels. I kept washing them, but because of the weather, they didn't dry quickly! The next week she came with a load of really nice gift towels; she said that she had so many that she would never get round to using them all! They were such good quality that we used them constantly for about 20 years before they got holes in them!

The towels I bought.

While I was out, Christopher made lunch.

Cold soba.

He made cold soba with an unusual dipping soup, a duck-flavoured soup. The soup had a lovely smoky taste. I really enjoyed this lunch! Christopher had eaten this soba with his friends once and found the noodles and soup at Costco, so he bought them! I think in the winter this would be nice as hot soba!