Exploring Nearby Places

One of the first things I try to do when moving to a new place is familiarize myself with areas near me. I love to wander stores or look for little shops on the backroads. On Monday, Russ needed to take the car to work for a meeting so I put on my walking shoes, went to the ATM and got some yen and then walked out gate two (the nearest gate to where we live). I walked some of the main roads for a little while and then started walking on the Ginza shopping areas. I found most of the shops to be closed so I'm not sure if it was just a Monday thing or there are many unoccupied stores there. I found a few thrift type shops with miscellaneous dishes, toys and clothes. It reminded me of a place we called the Dragonfly when we lived in Iwakuni. There was also a dish store I enjoyed walking through. If I hadn't been on foot there were a few items I might have bought at these two stores. I wandered through all the stores of interest taking note of where some of the parking areas were in case I wanted to go back to some of the stores with the car. By the time I got back to the apartment, Russ had already come home for lunch and left the car for me.

Since I was still feeling adventurous I decided to hop in the car and head to the American Village to spend my afternoon. Big signs and a huge ferris wheel mark the entry to the village. It's like an outdoor shopping mall with numerous shops and department stores, restaurants and bars, a movie theater and a bowling alley. There are hair places, nail places, tattoo parlors, massage places and even a spa. Resort type hotels are nearby too. It is set at the edge of the ocean and there is a sea wall that borders the ocean-side of the complex as well as various canals that border several of the shopping areas. There are a few small beach areas with sand and shells but most of it has stone seating areas like steps that go down to the water which I found to be a great area for sitting and reading. I took my book with me and spent a few hours reading after I tired of walking through stores. Russ and I have walked the sea wall at night several times after eating at nearby restaurants and it seems to be a busy place no matter what time of day you are there. The Japanese families love it because it has an American feel to it and the Americans love it because it feels a little more like home.

On Tuesday I returned to the American Village with a Subway sandwich meal and sat and read and enjoyed the beautiful blue sky sunny day and then went again today to walk through the department store called Aeon that is near where I park. In all my exploring this week I've found several stores that I will probably return to many times. One was called Seria and was sort of like a dollar store with a variety of inexpensive items. I especially like the stationery and craft area here. I found a few alphabet stamp sets that I was very excited about because they were smaller sizes. They reminded me of my favorite stamp set that I purchased at a craft show in Colorado at a Japanese vendor. I've used that set quite a bit in my scrapbooks because it was a smaller size but these were even smaller. They mount on little plastic sticks and you can attach them together to keep the stamping more even. I bought enough packages of sticks to mount the entire set. They also had a nice selection of washi tape there (which I also use in my scrapbooks).

Another favorite store was Makemon (or I've heard it referred to as the monkey store).The logo of the store is a monkey that looks like Curious George. It's like a hardware type store with a little bit of everything in it. It also had a craft area with the same stamps there as well as a selection of washi tape. I have been looking for a store that sells an adhesive I use for scrapbooking called Kokuyo because I knew it was made by a Japanese company. Makeman is the place to find that and it is much cheaper than in the states. Since Archivers closed their stores I haven't been able to find it in the states.  It's one of the best adhesives I've found so I'm very excited that I will be able to get it here. I really loved the Aeon Department store that I explored today. It has two floors of various vendor stores and eating places as well as a grocery store and a play area for the kids. I was happy to see a craft store here that had yarn, fabric and sewing notions, basket weaving reeds and embroidery floss. I'm always drawn to the stationery areas in the department stores and I found a few scrapbooking items there as well as more washi tape and my kokuyo adhesive.

I walked through the grocery store to see if I could recognize some of the ingredients I use for my Japanese recipes I was taught in Iwakuni and was happy to find them easily in this store. I look forward to making many of the recipes I couldn't find the ingredients for in the states. It was a fun week of exploring stores. I love to browse and find unique items. I was taking note of items that will be included in future packages to my kids and grandkids. I think I've found a favorite reading/writing spot at the sea wall too and know that I will spend many hours there enjoying my sunny days rather than sitting in my dark TLF room. There is still more to explore. I will eventually go to all the bases and see what each one has available and branch out further from each gate in search of more fun stores and restaurants off the beaten paths. I'm not usually one to sit around bored when there is so much out there to explore.