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

Shopping Injuries

You know you have a serious shopping habit when you wake up sore the next day! My shoulders, my neck, my arms, my back, my hands, they're all aching.

I went to my favourite antique flea market yesterday. I'm working on buying as much as I can with the possibility that we may be moving back to Australia next year. I have the flea market down to a fine art now. If I am lucky enough to have the same day off from work that the flea market falls (twice a month), I make sure to go. My husband drops me off at the train station on his way to work, so I get there nice and early before the crowds. I have my favourite sellers and now go around the market in accordance to who I like to buy what from. By nine-ish, I've usually done the market and head off for breakfast. There is a little cakeshop near-by that offers a choice of tea or coffee and a buffet of different bread, sandwiches, boiled eggs and cake for under $4. Just before 10, the first second-hand store opens and I visit a few of them until 10.30 when my favourite one opens. By 10.25, I'm lined up outside that store with a lot of mostly women, ready to fight the crowd, with my 100yen coin ready for the locker to put my morning purchases in. In the shop, I even have my pattern figured out. Children's kimonos first, then obi, followed by kimono, then haori and lastly the accessories. By the time I've then sorted through my purchases, an hour has flown by. I'm then out of there, go back through the market in the temple grounds to pick up heavy purchases I've left behind.

I struggle to the subway station with a large tote on one shoulder, a smaller on the other, a small bag with wheels being dragged with one hand and two large shopping bags in the other. I have to stop a number of times in the short distance because of the weight of it all.

Last month, I took the lift down to the subway station, knowing that I couldn't tackle the stairs. A sweet old woman in her 70s started a conversation and commented on all the bags I had. I agreed and told her how heavy they were. When the lift door opened she took the wheelie bag out of my hands and helped me with my parcels. I couldn't believe I had bought so much that I needed a little old lady to help me carry my shopping! Yesterday, of course she wasn't there and I really wished she had been.