Shopping Part II

By now, you'll have noticed that our early efforts at souvenir shopping were quite frustrating. The places we returned to lacked anything new and unique that grabbed our attention. We've come to the conclusion that Japanese department stores are actually just cleverly designed traps intended to confuse and exhaust tourists until they buy things out of sheer exhaustion. Trust us, we adventured through 5 in one city and couldn't find anything actually worth it. It was only because we are experienced adventurers that we got out unscathed.

So, while we had picked up a thing or two here and there, we hadn't really found anything of the calibre we'd brought back on our previous trips to Japan. Nothing as stunning as a Foo Dog statue or replica musket. We have particular weaknesses for drinking vessels and had yet to find anything really indulgence worthy there. The day we were going to possibly go in search of Imari pottery we stopped because of the long travel times involved. I was also looking for some outfits for Locutus to wear to our Samurai Night Fever costume party, and had yet to find any used Kimono stores where something might be worthy. Even in the 1000 yen shop in Miyajima (it's like a $10 store where everything is about $10) the only children's jin bei (asian style pyjamas) they had were quite ugly and they were completely out of the men's selection (Lance likes wearing these in the summer because they are so nice and light and comfortable).

In one of our earlier searches, we'd seen that there was the Harbour Bay Shopping Centre right next to the sumo stadium. So we thought we'd go check it out. It didn't seem particularly large, but it was close to sumo, and the map showed a small green space where we thought we might let Locutus run around for a while and have some fun. So we went, and kind of hit the jackpot.

It's a shopping centre and ferry terminal. Cruise ships dock behind us.

Doesn't look like much, does it? But inside, in addition to a giant aquarium in the centre, they had an entire shop for Imari style pottery. While none of that struck our fancy, they also had a selection of pieces that were by a local artist. It. Is. Gorgeous. We don't have any pictures, but his pieces were in earthy brown tones or blues. The earthy pieces depict forest scenes with little shrines. They are intricate and gorgeous. The blue tone pieces feature Japanese troll-type creatures. The tea mug I bought has his front on one side and his back on the other. Anyone who has an appreciation for DnD-type mythology would love these! So we . . . decided to invest.

Before we bought though, we had to discuss our purchases. So we went to the Japanese Duty Free store in the next building over (we were basically at the cruise ship port). I'd read briefly about it and it sounded like a standard duty free store featuring perfumes, makeup, etc. I didn't think we'd actually find anything. Except in the clothing section, they had some yukata (like a casual kimono made of cotton) and some children's ensembles. We picked up 2 in different sizes and neutral styles so they can be passed down to other kids in the future too (because I consider Foo Dogs and Dragons to be completely gender neutral).

We also picked up a few sumo souvenirs of course. The couple of times that the sumo association had a table set up they had some very good deals and we were happy to support them a bit too. Sadly, they sold out of the handkerchief I liked early so I didn't get any additional colour variations. But that's ok, because handkerchiefs is one thing I did stock up on in Kyoto early on.

Things we almost bought, but didn't . . .
- Japanese patterns - we actually found a fabric shop and they had a pattern section with a few promising pieces. But since the instructions would all be in Japanese, and my Japanese isn't that strong, I decided against it.

- a sweater dress - in the basement of the building next to Hakata station, they had a store that was selling a bunch of really cute sweater dresses. But, in the end, I can get something similar back home fairly easy, so I'm glad we didn't pick one up.

- anything Hello Kitty or Pokemon. Don't tell my nieces and nephews, but we did look for learning chopsticks in those themes. Aside from entire bento sets or cutlery sets, they didn't have anything appropriate though, so we didn't get anything. Also, they sold out of the really cute Hello Kitty Sumo figure by the time we thought to buy one. Clearly we weren't meant to support those particular Japanese icons.

- furniture - Yes, we saw some really cool pieces. However, aside from the obvious issue of getting them back to Canada, there is also the issue of where to put them in our house. (Editorial note, this is only an issue for Jenn. Lance takes an entirely different approach to home furnishing and this did not present an issue for him at all.)

- wood carvings - there were several that were gorgeous, but again, luggage restrictions really limited us.

- booze - well, there's still a chance we'll pick something up at the airport duty free store. This is the first time we've gone to Japan and not visited a sake brewery. We thought we might visit the Asahi brewery, but the info brochure they had at the tourist centre didn't actually tell us where it was or how to get there. In a choice between randomly wandering Fukuoka in search of a beer brewery and watching sumo while drinking beer (Lance at least), we chose sumo.

- a suitcase - this is the first time we've actually managed to fit everything we're bringing back into the same bags we came with. This was partly made possible by the fact that we packed a backpack in one of our suitcases for the trip over here. The other contributing factor is the dwindling diaper supply. On the way here we had a supply that lasted about 10 days. On the way back, we only need to bring a couple of days worth. (Editorial note: if I had to do it again, I'd bring fewer diapers to start, but more diaper wipes)