Thursday, February 28, 2008

Shopping as an Endurance Sport

So, I'm just going to come straight out and say it... I am the Queen of Shopping. Seriously, I do not know anyone that shops as well and as hard as I do. My cousin does pretty well, she came for a visit the Christmas before last and we fit 24 hours of mad shopping in, in the 48 hour period she stayed with me. My shopping trips are not for the faint-hearted.

Today was flea market day. I love flea market day. It's only on twice a month and if I can go or not depends on the day of the week it falls, and my schedule at school. It works out that I can only go every few months. Today, was one of those lucky days.

By eight o'clock this morning (the time that on a usual day I'm just leaving the aparment to go to school), I had already bought 18 kimonos. By lunchtime, when I was finished, I had bought 40 kimono, 10 obi, 2 full bolts of kimono fabric, 3 partial bolts of fabric and the sweetest coin purse you'd ever seen.

What I am not the queen of, is carrying stuff home. I go to the market via public transport - a train and subway. That also means returning home with all my purchases the same way. Today, I had two small wheelie overnight bags, a super-sized and another large-sized tote bag. In all (I weighed it when I got home), 32kgs of fabric sweetness! Now, one problem with Japan that should be mentioned here, is that at many train stations, mine included, there are no elevators, no escalators, only stairs. I carried my 32kgs of shopping down two flights of stairs and then up another two.
I now ache all over, am exhausted, am windburnt and have broken four nails. But boy it was fun!

Some of the girl's kimonos I bought today




Some of the boy's kimonos



The two new bolts of fabric

9 comments:

Joanne said...

So many kimono! where on earth do you keep them all? ;)
Sounds like an awesome flea market.

Unknown said...

Oh, my! You sure do work hard don't you! What great fun. I would so love to join you on your flea market searches! If you would ever like to swap: Japanese vs. Norwegian please let me know!

Rachael Hutchings said...

I am SO jealous! What fun!

Jenny said...

What a novel way to keep fit and tone muscles!!!You certainly are the quenn of shopping without a doubt!!Your goodies are just lovely

Clothcat said...

Wow those are so pretty! I wish we had flea markets like yours round here! To add insult to injury I actually I actually have a brother that live in Tokyo, but no amount of heavy hinting (or for that matter direct asking) seems to get him to pick up stuff like this for me - just falls on deaf ears.

Anonymous said...

Oh I am drooling, all that beautiful fabric! You and I are so alike! I went to Japan in 2005, and shopped a LOT, but didn't know where to find all the secondhand kimono and so on. I know if I went back, all I would do is SHOP! And I wouldn't bother bringing a boyfriend this time who doesn't enjoy shopping...

teresa fsw said...

Wow! You sure work hard on your shopping trips! I love shopping too! Those kiminos are beautiful! ^_^

Jacinta said...

Sounds exhausting, but definitely worth the effort. I used to do the same with car boot sales in the UK. So much old stuff and so so cheap. And, like you all on public transport. We sued to get some pretty odd looks!

SewDelish said...

Those fabrics and kimonos are gorgeous! So much fun waiting to be had!

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