Inside of beaches or jungles, this weekend's mission was to conquer the local shopping scene and find some home furnishings (specifically, curtains for our bedroom, a table for the kitchen, and, if not too budget-busting, a couch).
Friday night, we hit up San-A (サンエー). We were actually looking for another store called Make Man (マイクマン). Supposedly Make Man is at the intersection of 224 and 85. Ha ha island noobs! Highway 224 is a loop and crosses 85 in two different spots (as we eventually figured out). Since we weren't finding Make Man we decided to give San- A a try. I was hoping San-A would be like a Target, but instead we got a mini-mall filled with clothing stores, an arcade, a bookstore, a grocery section and restaurants. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything we needed and with the boys getting cranky, we left San-A empty handed.
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| Isaac in the San-A "baby car" (ベービカー) |
They had a limited selection of what we needed for the house (kitchen table and curtains), but we were able to score on other items, like pots for indoor plants.
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| Owen investigating at Make Man |
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| A persimmon tree |
After Make Man, we headed to to Nitori (ニトリ). Again, so disappointed that we didn't find this place before the PX! Nitori is very similar to Ikea (the second floor is dedicated to beds, couches, tables, ect and has showrooms set up exactly like Ikea does). They had an amazing selection of curtains and bedding. Plus lots of little gadgets for the kitchen and bathroom. We scored items that are specifically for Japanese homes (like divided trash bin for sorting our garbage and the nets for catching food in the kitchen sink drain). I have a feeling I'll be visiting Nitori frequently in the future!
That night we went out to eat at a little place called Dragon near Camp Courtney. Chris has been on me to try more of the local restaurants (he's worried that the staff at Chili's on the Air Force base is going to start knowing us by name lol)
Sunday we continued the search for a kitchen table at Yellow Box. Yellow Box carries Ashley Furniture and the furniture stores on base directed us here for a bigger selection. A huge hassle was their parking lot. Maybe 15 cars fit into the tiny lot. There were already 3 cars waiting for spots when we arrived, so we took a chance and parked about a block up the street. The furniture at Yellow Box was a lot more Americanized than Nitori's. Big couches, sectionals, beds, and shelves. Most of the couches were too expensive and too big for our house, but they had a couple good tables we're considering.
We decided to make one last stop before calling it a day. We headed over to the Aeon near the American Village. (After we were already driving towards Kadena, we found out that there was an Aeon right next to Nitori - oops)
First stop - Starbucks!
Not sure if Sbux has them in America, but the Apple Crumb latte was delish! We fought off the urge to destroy the Mister Donuts (mmmmmm - donuts!) and continued on to the serious business of shopping.
Aeon was very similar to San-A. We didn't find furniture but there was lots of other shopping. I bought a new pair of shoes (my feet grew about a half size from being pregnant - so much fun having absolutely none of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit! ug!!) Plus a little treat of some cute slippers:
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| Hello Kitty dressing up as Sesame Street characters and Elmo dressing up as Hello Kitty |
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| Japanese Elmo also comes in a rainbow of colors |
We ended the night with some bento from Hotto Motto. My katsu don was amazing! (Fried pork cutlet with fried egg over steamed rice with a sweet sauce and onions)
Glad we were able to do a different type of exploring this weekend!
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