Fabric Shopping...

I finally found my fabric store! Okay, well, a fabric store. I'm far from owning it, though they did look like I might be buying it when I bought 14 yards of Mosquito netting today.

Just about everything it seemed was against me getting to the fabric store today... To start, when I tried to google the directions, I could get a basic map, but for some reason just couldn't seem to zoom in to get any idea what to look for in the way of landmarks, so I stared at and tried to memorize the Kanji of the intersection where I would need to turn (yeah, I probably could have printed it out). We were almost ready to go and it was snack time, then after much mess and mother evading by my daughter, we were almost ready again, only now it was lunch time. More mess, more evasion. Finally standing at the door putting shoes on and 'ewww, what's that smell?' Diaper change, more evasion, 'oh, I should pack a snack for this afternoon', and 2 hours after the first attempt to leave we were finally on our way... Out the door. Then there came the attempts to run off down the street (I should have realized this was just the beginning of things to come) and the sub-sequent screaming and fighting against being put into the car seat.

Finally we were on the road and headed down Rt 27 toward Rt 16. Within moments, DD was sound asleep. Probably due to the fact that she'd been up since 0530 when we got up to take dad to work so we could have the car for this particular adventure. Relieved, I relaxed and enjoyed the drive North out of this city and into Yokohama.

As I took in the new views and marveled at the surprising amount of English to be found on signs in a country where 90% don't speak English, I suddenly discovered that the lane I'd chosen was turning left and I was being forced off my intended route. Unwilling to risk life and limb in a desperate attempt to get over a lane, I accepted my fate and optimistically hoped that up ahead this road would cross one of the other roads I had intended to meet up with later. After about 10 - 15 minutes of driving, I found myself crossing under the tollway and knew that I would not indeed be finding my route, so began to search for a place to turn around.

Back on my route again, I began to scan the signs for my memorized Kanji. This can be a tough endeavour, as the signs may be on either the left side of the road or the right, and I missed my sign by being distracted by a huge blue sign, on my side of the road, about something else. Almost instantly, I had the feeling that I had missed my turn, but certain that I had not yet seen my sign, continued on ahead. After another 10 or so minutes, and my Rt veering off to the side in a way I didn't see in my google map, I became certain that I had missed my turn. At the next light I took a left (I really should know better by now). After which I was forced to take another left and head up a steep hill into a pretty neighborhood, where I took another left and finally found a place to turn around.

I headed down the hill and got back onto the street I'd left and went back the way I came, DD was now awake and starting to whine. I looked everywhere I could imagine this time and finally found my sign. Wheew! 'Don't worry baby girl, we'll be there soon'. The light turned green and I followed the car ahead of me into the intersection where we waited for an opening to turn across traffic and onto the road we wanted. The car ahead took the turn. I waited for the next opportunity. I heard a siren. I turned my head this way and that, and suddenly saw the Police Moped on the side of me. The Police man said something loudly over his headset megaphone and scowled at me, while he zipped past and made the turn. I followed him around the corner (Hey, there was an opening) and watched as he pulled over the car that had been ahead of me. I am pretty sure we made an illegal turn, as there was no turn lane and it was a very busy road. I learned my lesson today about following others... I'm guessing that the police man let me go because he realized that I was just being a dumb follower, and I'm guessing that the person he did pull over probably got their ticket along with a scolding for leading me astray.

After a few more turns (with turn lanes this time) and about an hour and a half from my departure, I found myself at the point that my map had indicated I would find Yuzawaya (the craft/fabric store). I began to look for any signs that said Yuzawaya, and saw nothing, but figured I should find a place to park and go from there. After another 10 minutes of circling around one way streets and what may have been a bike path (not really, but I almost had to fold in my mirrors to get through), I found a parking lot with open spots for 100 yen per 25 minutes. Not what I had hoped for, but by now, DD and I were just ready to get out of the car and get to the store.

Out of the car we hopped and began the 6 block walk to where we hoped to find our store. As we approached the front of the 4 story building, I tried to read the signs, while trying to keep DD from throwing herself out of my arms and onto the pavement (she really wanted to walk, but wouldn't hold my hand, so she was being carried). I saw nothing still that said Yuzawaya and headed toward the next building. Again, I knew I had passed where I was supposed to go and turned around to take a closer look at the signs. Lo and behold, there on one of the signs was a drawing of a ram with a ball of yarn, knitting. Oh, thank God! I hurried to the building and looked at the elevator map and discerned that I should go to either floor 3 or 4. We stepped onto the elevator and headed up. When it stopped, we stepped out into a wonderful crofter's dream. 2 full floors of paper, fabric, beads, a tailor (for men's suits and curtains), sewing machines and the list goes on...

I had much trouble keeping DD near at hand and trying to juggle bolts of fabric at the same time. There were no shopping carts, just hand baskets for your cut fabric or small items. At one point I almost left there empty handed because DD was trying my patience so badly and kept throwing herself on the floor (something I have still never seen a Japanese child do, they all seem so very well behaved, I think I need to ask for some parenting tips).

When I finally had all my goodies collected together and took them to the cutting table, I realized that I didn't really know how I was going to tell the lady how much I wanted of each fabric, so the charades and my limited knowledge of numbers ensued and all in all we worked it out and I headed to the cash register, where I was convinced to purchase a membership card for 500 yen in order to get 10% off all my purchases until I don't know when. It seems that almost every business has a membership card. I guess when there a millions of people and millions of stores, you need to be able to do something to try to ensure that people will keep coming to your store...

Anyway, much poorer and totally frazzled we headed back to the car, paid our 400 yen for parking and got stuck in traffic heading home, so what should have taken 53 minutes (google says), took us almost 2 hours. Next time, oh yes, there will be a next time, I am taking the train!!