100 Yen shop
07 Apr 2005
Saturday, and time to go grocery shopping. We got a tip that there is a big supermarket with small(er) prices. We found the place, Hyper Center Osada and the place sells everything from groceries to TVs, bikes, lights, you name it. We walked around for two hours and left the place with a full shopping cart.
Hanging ceiling lights, in our case moving lights, is a piece of cake. There is a kind of outlet in the ceiling and the lights are fitted with a kind of plug. It is just a matter of plugging the light in, turn the plug and you’re done. No fumbling around with electrical wires and stuff. We haven’t seen a lot of atmosphere lighting, it looks like the Japanese are into “good light”, hence you see a lot of TL lighting here. Not that we have to worry about that, our apartment came with nice lighting.
We also discovered the “100 yen” shop. A paradise for people who love to buy, but do not want to spend a lot of money. Everything is for sale for 100 yen per piece. The girls in the shop keep yelling things. We don’t know what they say (obviously), but it sounds like the salesmen on the market, who lure you to their stall so you buy their goods, it is very funny to hear. Lenette had the time of her life, in not time here shopping basket was full with “you never know when it might come in handy stuff”. At the cashier the bill was 1240 yen, a weird amount for a 100 yen shop. It turns out that 5% sales tax is added and not all items are 100 yen a piece. Ach well, live and learn…. It will remain a shop where she will buy regularly.
Sunday we went for a walk. Not the weekly Sunday walk with Vic, Saskia and the dogs, but to Mt. Inasa. From there, about 400 meters above the city, you have a beautiful view over Nagasaki, the harbor, and the islands along the coast. Here you also find references to the Dutch who used to live and trade here. It turns out that Middelburg is sister city of Nagasaki, the things you learn about your own country, when you're in Japan. It looks like there is a lot to do on the mountain, but now it looks deserted and the signs are in Japanese. We will come back some other time, and then we’ll bring the Lonely Planet’
We chose a path through the woods, to go back to the city. On the way we see a sign that says that is it not allowed to hunt, or it says that you are not allowed to walk there, because people might be hunting. The exact wording we don’t remember, but eventhough the sign was in English, the message wasn’t clear. Later we saw a sign warning us that there are snakes around. We started wondering whether we should’ve stuck to the main road, but we kept going and made it back to the city alive and kicking.
Back in civilization, we went into a small restaurant for a late lunch. The waitress proudly told us that we were their first foreign customers. The menu was in Japanese, and this time no pictures, so we took a gamble and ordered something, which turned out to be very tasty. Up till now we were very lucky when it came to ordering unknown dishes.
Hanging ceiling lights, in our case moving lights, is a piece of cake. There is a kind of outlet in the ceiling and the lights are fitted with a kind of plug. It is just a matter of plugging the light in, turn the plug and you’re done. No fumbling around with electrical wires and stuff. We haven’t seen a lot of atmosphere lighting, it looks like the Japanese are into “good light”, hence you see a lot of TL lighting here. Not that we have to worry about that, our apartment came with nice lighting.
We also discovered the “100 yen” shop. A paradise for people who love to buy, but do not want to spend a lot of money. Everything is for sale for 100 yen per piece. The girls in the shop keep yelling things. We don’t know what they say (obviously), but it sounds like the salesmen on the market, who lure you to their stall so you buy their goods, it is very funny to hear. Lenette had the time of her life, in not time here shopping basket was full with “you never know when it might come in handy stuff”. At the cashier the bill was 1240 yen, a weird amount for a 100 yen shop. It turns out that 5% sales tax is added and not all items are 100 yen a piece. Ach well, live and learn…. It will remain a shop where she will buy regularly.
Sunday we went for a walk. Not the weekly Sunday walk with Vic, Saskia and the dogs, but to Mt. Inasa. From there, about 400 meters above the city, you have a beautiful view over Nagasaki, the harbor, and the islands along the coast. Here you also find references to the Dutch who used to live and trade here. It turns out that Middelburg is sister city of Nagasaki, the things you learn about your own country, when you're in Japan. It looks like there is a lot to do on the mountain, but now it looks deserted and the signs are in Japanese. We will come back some other time, and then we’ll bring the Lonely Planet’
We chose a path through the woods, to go back to the city. On the way we see a sign that says that is it not allowed to hunt, or it says that you are not allowed to walk there, because people might be hunting. The exact wording we don’t remember, but eventhough the sign was in English, the message wasn’t clear. Later we saw a sign warning us that there are snakes around. We started wondering whether we should’ve stuck to the main road, but we kept going and made it back to the city alive and kicking.
Back in civilization, we went into a small restaurant for a late lunch. The waitress proudly told us that we were their first foreign customers. The menu was in Japanese, and this time no pictures, so we took a gamble and ordered something, which turned out to be very tasty. Up till now we were very lucky when it came to ordering unknown dishes.