Can you drink explosives?
This is a post I wrote a week ago but never got a chance to put it online.
Beth, Teri-Lynn, and I took the school van out to the Costco this afternoon.
You want to talk about a surreal experience. This was a thousand times stranger than watching Justin get married.
Going from the small streets of Momochi through the tollroads on the expressway to the other side of town, getting lost and stumbling into a shopping center that looked more at home in Northridge than Fukuoka was a little much for the senses. All the signs were in Romanji but the slogans made absolutely no sense at all (like most things written in Romanji around here). The parking lot was huge and I bet you could have found anything you'd ever need within the two city blocks that comprised the center. After stopping for the cup of coffee that is still keeping me awake right now we entered the store and I was instantly transported back to any Costco in America. The place was laid out in the same exact fashion complete with photo processing, bakery, pharmacy, and snack bar hosting the usual gourmet pizza, hot dogs, and chicken bake. I don't know what a chicken bake is, but somehow it got through customs.
I grabbed an oversized cart and started wheeling my way through Kirkland, throwing 5kg jars of peanut butter and 18 packs of deodorant next to cases of beer and those wonderful cookies. I felt excessive once again, I felt American.
The strange part about the place was that it was empty. There weren't more than 40 people in the entire warehouse and it seemed they were the same type of people that frequent the store back home. The same people that I loathed and avoided in America were here shopping with their nasty children and obese spouses only now they were all Japanese. It was such a strange sight. All the experiences I had up to this point did not prepare me for the shock of a Japanese Costco. When I return to the states some of you may say, "wow, I see how you've changed, that teaching experience really showed you something about the world." But no, it was just Costco in the middle of Fukuoka that spooked me and sent me reeling.
Now I just have to get this coffee to release my head. Maybe I'll take a fist full of peanut butter and 24 cans of tuna fish to bed with me.
Beth, Teri-Lynn, and I took the school van out to the Costco this afternoon.
You want to talk about a surreal experience. This was a thousand times stranger than watching Justin get married.
Going from the small streets of Momochi through the tollroads on the expressway to the other side of town, getting lost and stumbling into a shopping center that looked more at home in Northridge than Fukuoka was a little much for the senses. All the signs were in Romanji but the slogans made absolutely no sense at all (like most things written in Romanji around here). The parking lot was huge and I bet you could have found anything you'd ever need within the two city blocks that comprised the center. After stopping for the cup of coffee that is still keeping me awake right now we entered the store and I was instantly transported back to any Costco in America. The place was laid out in the same exact fashion complete with photo processing, bakery, pharmacy, and snack bar hosting the usual gourmet pizza, hot dogs, and chicken bake. I don't know what a chicken bake is, but somehow it got through customs.
I grabbed an oversized cart and started wheeling my way through Kirkland, throwing 5kg jars of peanut butter and 18 packs of deodorant next to cases of beer and those wonderful cookies. I felt excessive once again, I felt American.
The strange part about the place was that it was empty. There weren't more than 40 people in the entire warehouse and it seemed they were the same type of people that frequent the store back home. The same people that I loathed and avoided in America were here shopping with their nasty children and obese spouses only now they were all Japanese. It was such a strange sight. All the experiences I had up to this point did not prepare me for the shock of a Japanese Costco. When I return to the states some of you may say, "wow, I see how you've changed, that teaching experience really showed you something about the world." But no, it was just Costco in the middle of Fukuoka that spooked me and sent me reeling.
Now I just have to get this coffee to release my head. Maybe I'll take a fist full of peanut butter and 24 cans of tuna fish to bed with me.
Devin thought this was worth your time
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