My First Adventure

The JET programme seems to be obsessed with orientations. I have now had 3, well 2 and a half. The second one for the Oita JET’s was held on Monday and Tuesday in Oita and so in honour of my newfound vechicler freedom I decided to head down on the Sunday and explore Oita City. As much as I love Kunisaki it is nice to get into the real world. And it was great.

It was the first time since arriving in Japan that I felt as though I was in the country I had imagined from TV and movies. Small towns are always different and Oita City had the hustle and movement of a big city full of shoppers. This was not something that I felt in Tokyo where we had spent most of the time in the hotel – only venturing out in groups of newbies to a small area of Shinjuku.

After I had booked into my box at the hotel I headed out to the shopping district of Oita, with its 3 main department stores – Parko, Fores and Tokiwa. Having spent the last few weeks shopping at ¥100 stores I could have closed my eyes and sniffed my way to Louis Vuitton.

Tokiwa department store was pretty amazing, and I shudder to imagine what such stores are like in Tokyo and Osaka. There was at least 8 stories of stuff to buy – including all the brand names like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry. And the best bit was finding out I could buy a Gucci handbag without forfeiting food and rent for 3 months. The only problem was that I was now in real world prices instead of the warm fuzzy feeling of things only costing R10. But this didn’t stop me from spending a whack at Clinique (I feel that this was a just investment as many face products here contain bleach).

I tried the whole “waterfall” effect and headed to the top and just sauntered down from floor to floor. Department stores are truly wonderful things and much better than malls. Well, SA malls anyway. Also I could walk into Gucci and get greeted by enthusiastic employees rather than with the usual “do you really think you can affording anything here” look sported by minimum wage earning teenagers.

One of fun parts was the parking at Parko. I ended up there accidently and I ended up driving my car onto a Ferris wheel contraption. My car was then whisked away into the gloom above. When I collected it they rotated the parking bays until my car appeared again. Not something I would try in South Africa.

I at one point came across a pet store. And now I understand why there aren’t that many pets around – they are ridiculously expensive. The only animal in the store under ¥100 000 was a cat for ¥85 000 (R8500). The puppies – which were adorable – were anything from ¥120 000 – 150 000 (for the most gorgeous miniature yorkies). That’s half a month’s salary. Even with all my cats hyperchondriatic hospital visits she has not come near that. The store also sold the most amazing paraphernalia – including dog nappies to keep your pooch hygienic when wearing its designer outfits.

And then there was some work stuff.