Lost In, Not On the Subway

Things are progressing.  Very slowly in some instances.  Since my last post a couple pieces of our rental furniture arrived.  We now have a sofa and recliner, which makes for much more comfortable seating. 

Our air shipment also arrived this week.  When Japanese movers bring in your boxes, they cover the floors with either pads or paper.  They remove their shoes AS they carry things in!  Think about that for a minute.  It's no big deal for them, but seems incredibly time consuming and annoying, in my mind.  They just use slip on shoes, in and out, in and out.  Customer service in Japan is unparalleled.  

                                    

Now we have all of our clothes and our IRONING BOARD!  Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy.  This week, it was finally receiving the ironing board.  I thought that our bedding and towels were included in the air shipment.  But, alas, I evidently did not watch the packers closely enough.  We have purchased two towels each and two wash cloths.  Their towels are very thin and small.  American's are use to oversize everything, I believe.  The little ones do the job.  In fact, I'm wondering if our towels will ever dry out here, at least during this time of year.  

We were told our sea shipment was underway on this ship.  Then low and behold, were notified that the American customs took off our little crate to inspect.  Or to be exact, never let it on.  We are thinking they should be worried about our dishes, lamps, kitchen supplies and of course, my craft supplies!!

 We have been exploring the downtown area of Nagoya.  There is a lot to take in.  We live only a few blocks away and it is an easy walking distance.  My Fitbit miles are increasing, that's for sure.

 This is the sunset view from our apartment balcony.  We have had mostly rainy days here, so this was a welcome sight.  Sunset in the city.

Yesterday, we walked all over kingdom come trying to find this little barber shop. Around and around and around. We knew it was in the subway. There are hundreds of stores in the subway. We knew the area it was in.  Nothing in sight.  When I finally used charades to ask a maintenance man, he pointed down stairs. So, it was two floors down into the subway next to the tracks!  Crazy. You take a ticket and sit in a row until it's your turn.  Then it costs 10 Yen and it takes 10 minutes. We will see if my husband will be brave and try it next weekend.  From what I understand a normal men's haircut includes cleaning your ears, cutting your hair and a massage.  I don't think they do that in this barber shop.  Me, I'm heading to a salon. Which will probably be another huge learning experience.  Then  we had to exit the subway and for some reason, my card wouldn't work.  I was permanently stuck in the subway system!  Thank goodness for men behind windows at each subway entrance.  I still have no idea what happened.  

As we were wandering around the subway I happened upon this art store.  It is tiny.  Sorry for the not so well set up photo.  It is crammed with all the art supply essentials a girl would need.  I'm very excited.  I basically took this picture so I could find it again.

This is a cantaloupe.  This is a very expensive cantaloupe. Basically this translates to $58/cantaloupe.  There evidently is a You Tube video on the 10 most expensive fruit in the world.  A "perfect" cantaloupe is included.  I can never, ever tell when a cantaloupe is ripe.  I wonder who eats the "day old" ones?  Maybe they're priced like ours in the U.S.  Crazy, isn't it?

 My husband loves the little trucks.  I think we need these in Southern California where parking is tight and there are too many cars.  Don't you think?

We have found a great Mexican restaurant called Desperados.  In fact, many found it before us.  The great thing is, it is two blocks from our apartment.  It's a tiny bar.  Basically every restaurant here seems to be a tiny bar.  You walk up some stairs like you're going to someone's apartment.  This has stools along the bar and four tables.  Four square tables with four chairs each.  Sixteen seats in all.  That is fairly typical of most restaurants here.  The food, even though the quantities are smaller and prices are higher, is very good.

Some other time we will talk about the French pastry shops.