Earlier today, Pete and I went to Don Quijote, or 'Donki' which is an absolutely ridiculous store! It's like someone took a Walmart and put it through a blender at high speed, mixed it around, and then took all the products out and sprinkled them completely randomly through the store. Its noisy, crowded, and full of stuff, everywhere! Everything from the traffic cones and poles necessary to officially stop traffic in Tokyo, to real coach bags and just about everything in between. They also have different music playing in each section, which means that the store is a complete audio mess, as well as anouncements, etc. Plus, given the size to crap ratio, its like walking through a garage sale or flea market or something. For anyone in Toronto who has been there, it is a bit like Downsview Market, with the same sort have 'this could have fallen off the truck' feeling, except nothing has, it's just the way its laid out that gives it a chaotic vibe. I really really really pity the people who have to work there! 45 minutes left us ready for some peace, I can't even imagine eight hours of it!

We were there on a mission for Halloween costumes, Pete, whose costume is a surprise, was looking for several items and found about half of them, which will be more fully discussed after glitterball, just in case anyone comes across this blog who shouldn't know before then...

I, as I've mentioned, am going as a flapper, so I needed several things, one of which was a feather boa. This should have been very easy to get in this kind of place, and indeed, they were part of all sorts of displays (like to market other products), but we couldn't actually figure out where they might be selling them. So Pete flags down a sales girl and has this conversation, in fairly passable Japanese -

"Excuse me, but do you know where these (gesturing at one hanging from a sign on the ceiling) are for sale?"

"Um they are in the Christmas display that isn't up yet"

"Oh, well we need them for a Halloween costume, so it will be a little late for that"

"Ah yes, I see, well they will be in the Christmas section, sorry about that"

So she walks off, and Pete turns around, translates, and then claims it was a made up answer given to placate us. I believed her, kind of, until we turned around and looked up (literally taking about four steps), and there they were - logically displayed in the car section! Seemingly, the 'cool' guys who park their cars on the side of the street, displaying their black light, stereos, etc. use them to decorate the dashboard of their cars - these feather boas light up! (Incidentally, we saw and watched a bunch of these guys with their cars at Odaiba yesterday, but I didn't notice any illuminated feather boas!)



Anyway, I now have a spiffy black feather boa with some red lights incorporated into it, which should make for a good addition to the costume...

Anyway, I need to go now to get ready to go see Jordan's band play (if they let my underage self through the door - it really sucks not being legal anymore!!!), but I wanted to blog about our shopping expedition to fulfill the reader requests of a more detailed account of some events.. Comment and let me know if this is the kind of thing you are after...