Car Rides to CostCo

That ought to be a country album title...

Shinryu Achievement: CostCo!  Car Ride!

   We took Shinryu on his first car ride (yes we used a back-facing, front-seat, infant car seat).  Chris was generous enough to drive all the way into town from his place in Senri to pick us up. Then we wound our way slowly (avoiding the toll roads and thus rendering our Navi-system extremely vague) toward Amagasaki.  It was a Wednesday morning and the place was still packed.  There was a time, not that long ago in fact, that i was at CostCo with Ulala and we watched as families struggled by with their infants and children and we said to each other, "We won't do that.  Bring our kids to CostCo? crazy!"  And yet there we stood, somewhere between the six-packs of two litre pasta sauce bottles and the four litre bottles of Heinz white vinegar, contemplating whether it would be worth it to buy a jar of olives that is actually larger and heavier than the 9 week old baby i carried in one arm.  Woah.  

   But it was a fun adventure, and a successful one.  We walked away with a plentiful supply of diapers and beer.  You know - the essentials.  And Shinryu was well behaved almost the entire time, until he got hungry anyway.  The one disappointing thing was that they were sold out of Speed Stick deodorant, which had initially been our main purpose in going.  

   That is one small thing that drives me crazy about Japan: the lack of decent, affordable deodorant.  There is expensive liquid roll-on kind that lasts about as long as it takes to put on.  And there is the spray-powder kind that is environmentally destructive and lasts even less time. But the stick kind?  The kind that is ubiquitous in Western countries (at least North America)?  The kind that is affordable and makes the most sense and lasts the longest?  Nope. That needs to be imported at a premium - and is therefore one of the reasons why the crowded morning train ride to work is an olfactory assault that would make some people long to vacation in the mustard gas trenches of WWI.  Ugh.

Symian is: stinkin' up the joint and wondering who needs that much vinegar.

Currently Reading: A selection of Bach.

Currently Listening:  Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel GIlbert (audiobook)

Kanji of the Day: 臭い／におい／smell