3 posts tagged “shopping”

The tiny leather cover that came with my Tungsten E2 PDA finally snapped off entirely today. That was actually the funniest (and saddest) story of its lifetime: I asked my speaking teacher after class, 「このようなものを買いたいんですが。。。」 ("I'd like to buy something like this...") while pointing at the barely dangling leather cover. Curious about what it was, she tried to pick it up, snapping it completely off. I cracked up, and so did she, but she was also apologizing profusely.

Umm... [insert punchline]

Anyway, I'd like to buy this Palm cover, but as I'm finding, nobody around here has ever even heard of that little company called "Palm." In fact, when I went hunting downtown for a new cover, I tried three electronics stores before I found one with any PDAs for sale at all. The Palm site for Japan is basically just an e-mail link for tech support. The US Palm site doesn't deliver to Japan. I'm going to head downtown following another lead I just got, but then I'm going to continue the hunt online.

A few days ago I sat on my glasses. With the frames I have been purchasing for several years now, this was not a problem. That frame bends in order to accommodate these accidents. For the new frame that I got on my last pair of lenses, this is not the case. The right arm nearly came off, and I could tell the screw was damaged. Luckily, I brought three pairs of glasses with me on this trip (do it!), so I put on lucky pair number two.

Thankfully, the dorm is across the road from an AEON, a mega-shop with groceries, a toy store, restaurants, clothing stores, a food court, and various other shops, all under one roof. (To those I left behind: think of our mall, only not as winding, and with shops pouring into the hallway instead of sitting behind small entryways.) One of the stores is an eyeglass shoppe, so I took my pair there.

As I walked in, people started yelling いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase - welcome!) at me, and of course no one knew English. I nodded and grunted and pointed at my glasses until they noticed what was wrong themselves. They sat me down at a table and I didn't see anyone for 15 minutes, when the guy came back to say that something was 「悪い」 (warui - bad) and that it would take longer. About 10 minutes later they brought back the glasses, presumably told me that there was no charge, then replied that there was no charge when I asked how much it was.

Then, of course, every person in the store yelled greetings at me as I walked out, as they do in this crazy part of the world. I swear one day I'll get used to it.

I almost forgot about this, but there was so much more to my cell phone adventure yesterday. You see, before the other new JTW students and I could buy cell phones, we needed bank accounts. But before we could comfortably get to a bank to open accounts, we needed bicycles. But before I could get a bicycle, I needed money.

So I borrowed ￥１０，０００ (~$84 USD) from a buddy. That was the kind-of boring part.

We each get assigned a Japanese tutor, a student of Kyudai (abbreviation of Kyushu Daigaku, i.e. Kyushu University). Two days ago we grabbed two of them and got bikes at a store in BoxTown, a shopping center near campus. We all bought very cheap variations on the same cheap model, and though I paid about $15 USD less than for the trash bike I got at Walmart in the US last year, these bikes are actually put together well and don't feel as breakable. Additionally, store staff inflated the tires and checked that they were in working condition before we paid. Unfortunately, they're street bikes, and can't switch gears.

We also bought bike locks to use in addition to the locks that came standard. Every bike here seems to come with a cheap lock on the back wheel that you can easily slide shut. But I guess these locks are so prevalent that they've become easy to pick. Judging by the simplicity of the keys, I'm not very surprised. Several bikes have been stolen from JTW students this year, though some were returned by the police because they were registered.

Anyway, wielding our bikes and extra locks, we went to Fukuoka Bank, the largest bank with convenient access in the area. We arrived around 9:30 AM, maybe. It wasn't very crowded and we were rushed to a small table in the back corner to fill out applications. For the nth time this week we were asked to write our names in the English alphabet as well as the Katakana alphabet (a Japanese alphabet), write our room phone numbers, and write our mailing addresses.

The last are most annoying, being in Kanji (Chinese characters). I've had Japanese people offer several times to write my address for me, after they watch how long it's taking me to copy the characters down.

All of us had our applications returned with a fresh copy to start over on at least once. For some people it was because we didn't write our English names in block letters, and I didn't write my name exactly as it was on my alien registration card. They also used a signature box that was smaller than postage stamp size because it was mainly to accommodate はんこ (personal stamp). Fitting a cursive signature in that box was fun.

Basically, they were very fussy people, but eventually gave us accounts despite themselves. ATM cards are in the mail, but if you use your bank book at an ATM, then it fills it out for you, which I think is awesome enough not to use the card.

Oh, and minimum balance is ￥１００ (< $1 USD).

That's my story. As see---learned my lesson and so did she. Now it's over, and I'm glad. 'Cause I'm a fool for all I said! She freakin' hates meh!! TRUST! She freakin' hates meh!! La la la la! I tried too hard and she tore my feelings like I had none---and ripped them away! La la la la la la la la la la! TRUST! La la la la la la la la la la la! TRUST! La la la la la la la la la la! TRUST! La la la la la la la la la la! She freakin' HATES MEH!!