Friday, I met my friend Kathy in Umeda. Her contract to teach is up so she will be returning to Hawaii. I got to Umeda a little early and browsed Kinokuniya, a large bookstore. I was lucky to stumble upon their English book sale. Almost all their english written books were 50% off or more! The thing about buying books written in English in Japan is that they are expensive, sometimes double the price that you see on Amazon in the US, probably because of the shipping and importing fees. So, I am always happy to see when a sale is actually a sale. (Most times at department stores they advertise "sales" or "bargains", but most times the prices are still very expensive.)
Kinokuniya had thrown the books in separate areas without really organizing them, so you really had to look at each title. For example, a gardening book would be right next to a cookbook.
After perusing every area, I bought four books, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, which my Aunty recommended highly. "Love in the time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. An English-French dictionary, I've wanted to buy one for some time now but wasn't about to pay an arm and a leg for one. This is easy to use and hopefully I'll make good use of it. And lastly, "American Food Writing" by Molly O'Neill, which has many anthologies about America, its foods from the many cultures and also many recipes. I can't wait to get into all of these books.
So after Satoshi came home, I had him play, "guess how much this was". His first guess was 8000 yen (about US$80)...nope...then he mumbled to himself, "nah, you wouldn't spend that much money at once on books anyway"...finally after two other wrong guesses I told him...3500 yen (about US$35). He was pleasantly surprised.
I think I got a really nice deal on my purchases.
I'm sad to see Kathy move back (we've had many good conversations over lunch and shopping adventures). (Take care Kathy!)
