Today…today…what did I do today?...
I know what I didn’t do. I didn’t run.
I also didn’t eat lunch.
Instead of running, Takae and I braved the great outdoors and searched for running shoes. I was on the hunt for my favorite brand, Brooks, and miraculously found a shop that carried them. There are exactly three stores in this entire region of Japan that carry them and they happen to be reasonably close to where I’m staying. After our scrumptious family breakfast at 11, we hung out and finally left around 1pm…or maybe 2. After deboarding the train at the proper station we proceeded in the direction of the store, only to realize we’d left the directions at home, and the store website graphics were not supported on Takae’s iphone. We called Yuko at home and asked her to look it up for us. While we waited, we found the nearest Starbucks and treated ourselves to soy lattes and a chocolate scone. I especially love it when they heat it up.
After recovering the store’s address we proceeded to follow Google maps and become very confused. We not only called the store, but asked two other people for directions before finally settling on our own common sense. And by that I mean Takae’s common sense, not mine.
We found it.
It was a quaint little store with a very nice salesman. I beelined to the Brooks in the back, but was sorry to find they didn’t carry the “support” line I was used to wearing. He tried to sell me the other line they carried.
He tied my shoes too tightly.
I could only jog 10 steps in the store before turning around to test them out.
Although the shoes were comfortable, I knew that after running several miles in them the inner structure wouldn’t be enough for me. He ended up calling a sister store in Ginza which carried more variations, and in my size. He printed out a very good map of directions for us and sent us to the nearby subway station.
Pause.
Before I left the house, Okaasan gave me a “You’re growing up” lecture and said that now that my Japanese is improving and I’ve been here a few times (and I passed the “running around town by myself” test), it was time for me to learn to do things on my own. I had to buy my own train tickets now. This didn’t come as a shock or anything, since I’ve been buying my tickets ever since I got here to get to Koriyama and even on the shinkansen down to Tokyo. I did, however, pay more attention to the train lines and figured out a few more details of schedules and significance of colors. I can pretty much get from Shinjuku to Tsurukawa station by myself now…the trick is getting to Shinjuku from Tokyo station but I think I could figure it out if I had enough time to just stand there and stare at it for awhile.
Okay, back to the story.
We ran to the subway and leapt onto the train just before the doors slid closed. On to Ginza! You probably know that Ginza is one of the most famous and expensive shopping districts in Tokyo.
Gulp.
I know what I didn’t do. I didn’t run.
I also didn’t eat lunch.
Instead of running, Takae and I braved the great outdoors and searched for running shoes. I was on the hunt for my favorite brand, Brooks, and miraculously found a shop that carried them. There are exactly three stores in this entire region of Japan that carry them and they happen to be reasonably close to where I’m staying. After our scrumptious family breakfast at 11, we hung out and finally left around 1pm…or maybe 2. After deboarding the train at the proper station we proceeded in the direction of the store, only to realize we’d left the directions at home, and the store website graphics were not supported on Takae’s iphone. We called Yuko at home and asked her to look it up for us. While we waited, we found the nearest Starbucks and treated ourselves to soy lattes and a chocolate scone. I especially love it when they heat it up.
After recovering the store’s address we proceeded to follow Google maps and become very confused. We not only called the store, but asked two other people for directions before finally settling on our own common sense. And by that I mean Takae’s common sense, not mine.
We found it.
It was a quaint little store with a very nice salesman. I beelined to the Brooks in the back, but was sorry to find they didn’t carry the “support” line I was used to wearing. He tried to sell me the other line they carried.
He tied my shoes too tightly.
I could only jog 10 steps in the store before turning around to test them out.
Although the shoes were comfortable, I knew that after running several miles in them the inner structure wouldn’t be enough for me. He ended up calling a sister store in Ginza which carried more variations, and in my size. He printed out a very good map of directions for us and sent us to the nearby subway station.
Pause.
Before I left the house, Okaasan gave me a “You’re growing up” lecture and said that now that my Japanese is improving and I’ve been here a few times (and I passed the “running around town by myself” test), it was time for me to learn to do things on my own. I had to buy my own train tickets now. This didn’t come as a shock or anything, since I’ve been buying my tickets ever since I got here to get to Koriyama and even on the shinkansen down to Tokyo. I did, however, pay more attention to the train lines and figured out a few more details of schedules and significance of colors. I can pretty much get from Shinjuku to Tsurukawa station by myself now…the trick is getting to Shinjuku from Tokyo station but I think I could figure it out if I had enough time to just stand there and stare at it for awhile.
Okay, back to the story.
We ran to the subway and leapt onto the train just before the doors slid closed. On to Ginza! You probably know that Ginza is one of the most famous and expensive shopping districts in Tokyo.
Gulp.
Coming into Ginza district
It's Gojilla! It's Gojilla!
We found the new shoe store with ease.
As soon as this guy touched my feet I liked him.
If you’ve ever bought running shoes from a REAL running store, from a person who REALLY knows what they’re doing, you’ll understand. I’ve been fortunate enough to have that experience in Oregon thanks to Five Star Sports in Corvallis and Portland Running Company in Beaverton. The people there are awesome. He was speaking in Japanese, but by the way he used gestures and inspected the parts of my feet it was obvious he worked there for good reasons. After seeing my Superfeet insoles and left heel lift he even had me stand up and checked my hip alignment. He checked the tread on my old shoes and made a few minor support adjustments to the new ones. I got to run as much as I wanted up and down the mall corridors! As I passed the eager salespeople lining the side of the walkway shouts of “konnichiwa!” and “irashaimase!” cheered me on….though they didn’t care about my running…they just wanted me to buy stuff from them.
Anyways, this sales guy gave Takae the 411 about foot alignment, balance, and full body mechanics of running as I came in and out of the store for a new adjustment. She’d relay the information to me and I’d agree; we’d look at the shoes and grunt approval.
I bought the shoes. Being imported, foreign brand and rare, and being in the Ginza district, of course I paid an arm and a leg.
But I have new shoes…and I’m officially out of excuses for not running.
Oh, I got the Trance 10 if anyone cares.
We stood on a crowded train all the way home and walked in around 7:30, tummies growling.
Of course there was delicious food to eat and lively conversation. Ojiichan said I was just like another one of his granddaughters.
Awww…..shucks…..
Otoosan showed us the 300 New Years cards he’d designed himself and I discovered that I was on it! He’d written a few sentences about each family member’s year-end highlights, and I had my own space!
Tomorrow is food-shopping day. It’s hilarious that this event has it’s own day in the family calendar…but you don’t know Otoosan. He LOVES to go to the grocery store.
This is Otoosan's hand-made New Year's card. Each section marked with a colon is a different member of the family, starting with Grandpa and ending with me, "Suujii," the only name written without kanji (if you can tell).
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