It’s apartment shopping day! It’s been a few weeks since we settled into our first apartment in Japan, and I am excited to fill in some of the gaps that have been felt while here. There are a few shopping spots in our town of Usa (宇佐市), though we decided to head out to the larger neighbouring city of Nakatsu (中津市), 30 minutes away for their more robust shopping options of big box furniture stores.
In Nakatsu, the first stop is Nitori, a Japanese version of IKEA, with a wide selection of furniture, beds, kitchen supplies, lamps, futons, and storage options. Here, we select a low table and two swivel chairs. However, they are out of stock, so we order for delivery and keep shopping.
Next is an electronics shop called Tecc Land (テックランド). Can anyone guess what we’re shopping for here? This store is a techie’s dream, with a dizzying array of electronics all housed under several bright, white lights. We don’t stay long; we make a quick TV selection and head out.
Finally, NAFCO, the Home Depot of Japan. We’ve only come for a tape measurer, but we take time exploring anyways. Jesse is pleased to have found this.
Our TV! I was keen on this one. I’ve read online that one can get a few free local channels when a TV is first set up, but we aren’t able to figure it out. No TV watching tonight. We’ll have to wait until we can get someone to do it for us.
*A few days later: it turns out that there was something called a B-S Card included with our TV, which needed to be installed in the back to receive the free channels. It was a bit silly how easy it was to set it up after spending a fair amount of time manually trying every setting and button I could find. I need to get my Japanese into shape!
We taught you well our little ? chan. After our first shopping foray Kaasan and I came back with a pot. For the first week in Japan we ate boiled vegetables. Yum!