As soon as you walk out of the elevator, the washing machines are right there. So, we began with the laundry machines. For some reason, the sales associate from today told us different information from the sales associate the other day regarding the washing machine we picked out. It isn't about fit, it's all about the hookup. So, we quickly went into a downward spiral of information gathering. Finally we were told that we could have someone come to our house to verify that the machine would be able to be properly hooked up. I don't know why this wasn't offered to begin with. It could have saved us a lot of time. We now have an appointment to have the person come to our house tomorrow (time unknown) to look at everything and tell us if the machine we want can be set up correctly.
We then headed over to refrigerators. We had already discussed how the measurements did not align with my desires in fridge size, so we were able to simply verify the dimensions of the smaller fridge and proceed with color and door (French vs single) selection. It is going to be a challenge having such a small fridge for a family of 3, but when a person moves to a new country, there are a lot of things to get used to. I'm working on the daily shopping and not buying too much at once. This will just really emphasize my limits because there isn't space to shove it into the back of the fridge!
My husband got the paperwork started for the washing machine and fridge and headed off to get the little tickets to purchase the rice cooker and stove. There are little tickets for each large item in the store that has a bar code on it. The sales clerk uses this to enter in your order and address information for delivery purposes. Then you take that order form to the cash register.
He returned with news that the stove we had picked out wasn't going to work. The left burner on the stove was the stronger burner, but that is the burner that is closest to the wall. So, if we want the right burner to be the stronger of the two, we had to pick a different stove. I sent him back with permission to pick what he thought was best, as I stayed at the table entertaining our son. When he returned he announced he had found the perfect one and it was hot pink. Luckily, I know my husband and his sense of humor, so I played along for a while and reported how overjoyed I was about getting a hot pink stove. It will look great with our yellow cabinets.
After providing the rice cooker and gray stove tickets to the sales associate, we waited. And we waited. And we waited. It took over an hour - close to 2 hours - to enter in our information, finalize delivery dates (yes, dates, multiple), and pay. I just wish that everything would work together! Instead we have each major purchase (furniture and appliances) being delivered on different days and nothing seems to be falling into place. Instead it is being forced to work via crazy schedules. It is times like these that I'm so grateful to have my husband. He has been handling all the research, negotiations, and heavy lifting with every single one of these transactions. He tries to take the hiccups in stride and I really appreciate how he is managing all of it.
Once we paid and left, we headed out to see some friends visiting from the US. We have been excited for weeks about seeing this couple and their sweet baby. My son would wake up in the morning and ask "What day is it? How many more days until we see our friends?" Frankly, I was just as excited, but I knew the answer and didn't need to ask. The train ride took an hour, but it passed by quickly since my son fell asleep on my lap for a bit. My son immediately perked up when I told him the next stop was ours. They met us at the station and were greeted with enthusiastic hugs. I tried to hide my tears. There something so comforting about seeing a familiar face when you haven't seen one in over a month.
We went to their parent's house for a lovely afternoon of talking, eating, and letting the kids play. I was so impressed that her niece had a friend over, yet they both welcomed my son and they all played together so nicely. Her family was so warm and welcoming, it felt like we had known them for years. They fed us wonderful food featuring vegetables and herbs from the garden. We ate renkon (lotus root) with Japanese mustard, garlic toast, and a couple kinds of pasta with amazing sauces. They also made us a couple eggplant dishes. My friend is an amazing cook and she obviously got the love of cooking from her mom. They worked together so nicely in the kitchen. It made me miss cooking with my stepmother.
After lunch and a delicious cake (also homemade), we headed out to see her dad's garden. He has a pretty large garden. It was filled with buckwheat, cabbages, peppers, shiso, eggplants, and more. The tomato plants were practically bare and the daikon (large radish) was freshly planted and ready for thinning. There were sunflowers around the borders and lettuce under nets. It was so beautiful to me. There were so many grasshoppers and other bugs around that the kids enjoyed looking at. It is what you get when you grow organically - life!
He encouraged me to take as much as I wanted and we worked together to fill my bag with peppers, eggplants, green beans, and even some lemongrass. I can't wait to cook it all! I (happily) gave away most of my harvest this year, as I couldn't can or freeze anything to enjoy later because I couldn't bring it with me to Japan. To receive such a gift is so very special.
Before we left, they gave us the things we had asked them to bring us from the US: the new Beekman Boys cookbook - which I intend to read cover to cover; a Costco case of Annie's mac and cheese; Glide floss; and a jar of CB's peanut butter - the best peanut butter I have ever tasted because it has 1 ingredient. When it was time to say goodbye, I was very sad. Hopefully we will be able to see them again before they leave. But we all know vacations are crazy and time is always so limited. Her dad told us he'd love to have us visit every month. We might just take him up on it. Guess I better work on improving my Japanese!
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