Shopping

Yesterday was a holiday in Japan again. I think it was "Coming of Age Day" and Leiya was really supposed to celebrate with her friends, get dressed up in a kimono and be able to go out DRINKING. 20 is the legal age for becoming an adult and Leiya turned 20 last July. 20 is also the age of being able to vote, smoke, and drink etc. and so most of these "adults" take that to mean that they can get falling down, crawling into the house, drunk on this day. I don't think too much of "Coming of Age Day" though it would have been nice for Leiya to get dressed up in kimono. No matter. She's not in Japan and I suppose someday when she is back she can do that.

With a day off, Tetsu and I decided to start off early in the morning and have breakfast out and then go to an outdoor shopping mall and look around for a present for Leiya. Well... The Watanabes had their usual run around-have no idea where they are going, tour. Sometimes I wonder why we even bother to go out... we've never gone anywhere directly.

"Let's go out to breakfast first." says Tetsu as we leave the house.

"Better take you coat. It's cold today."

"Oh Tanya. You forget that I grew up in Northern Japan. This isn't even chilly. Don't worry about me! Now, let's see. There should be a restaurant open along Route 4... Let's head that way."

Two hours later he was still assuring me that a restaurant that served something besides curry or noodles was just a bit further.

"Never fear Tanya, we are almost near the outlet mall. Maybe something is open there." (It was 9:45 by then.)

"Good Glory!" says Tetsu as he steps out of the car, "It's freezing out here! What a difference in temperature!"

Give a guess at how much will-power it took for me not to say "I told you so."

The stores didn't open for another 15 minutes but poor Tetsu couldn't even walk around the open air mall that long. We headed back to the car and hit the streets again in hopes of finding someplace open for breakfast. I was ready to eat curry rice at this point.

After another 20 minutes of driving up and down Route 4 and other routes that looked promising we stumbled upon a DENNY'S. Are they even serving breakfast at this time of day?

We had a WARM breakfast and lots of HOT coffee in Denny's and I was content to read my Kindle the whole time while Tetsu browsed the newspaper and read me articles he thought was interesting. We didn't want to leave the place! Shall we just forget the mall?

But by 12:00 the day had warmed up a bit and we wandered through the shops coming to the conclusion that the mall was a "younger generation" mall and there was nothing that held fascination for us. We discovered Cold Stone Ice Cream and ate that for lunch (we might as well be cold inside and out!) and came home after only buying pickles and eggs.

I'll have to go shopping for Leiya by myself this week.