Driving and shopping

As you know from an earlier post, there is a car in the garage. (We had thought we would probably use it only on trips into the country or far away.) As you may or may not know, the Japanese drive on the opposite side of the road that we Americans drive on. And the whole car is backwards. However, I'm determined to master it. Since I get up alot earlier than your average citizen here, I decided to get out early and practice driving before there were many others out on the roads too. The first day, I just sat in the car in the garage. The 2nd day, I actually pulled to the end of the drive and backed back in. The next day I went to the end of our street. Finally My husband got up with me and I got out on an actual road. Hard to remember to keep to the left and pull way out to the middle when making a right turn. And some of the streets are exceptionally small. I almost always turned on the wipers every time I tried to put on my blinker to make a turn. And I'm still not sure which mirror to look out of to see what I want out that the back or to the sides. But with my hubby's help, I drove around in circles for about an hour and was feeling pretty good about it. This morning we decided to try to get to the school. I had to get out on some pretty big streets and bridges with lots of lane changes and other cars coming in from the sides. Luckily traffic was light due to the early hour and the holiday and I did pretty well. We found the school and it seems pretty easy to get to. I think with a little more practice I'll be able to do okay. I just wish I had some little old beat up car instead of a nice van. I'd be alot more comfortable. Oh well.
Also today, we took the train down to the big shopping area. Today is supposed to be one of the biggest shopping days of the year; equivalent to the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas back home. The amount of people out was incredible. I tried to get some photos, but its hard to see the hordes. Thre were lots of sales and many places had 'Happy Bags' for sale; A sealed bag with a price on it. I guess you don't know whats inside until you buy it and look inside. Although we did see some people sneaking a peek in some places and at others, people were blatantly opening them and looking inside. I bought one but haven't opened it yet. I'm saving that for something to do later. I'll let you know if it was anything good. (P.S. This is the small world clock on the Sogo building. On the hour it opens to reveal the puppets and plays the 'Its a small world' song. This only enhances our feelings that we must be living in Disney World-where everything is cute and nice and the prices are sky high!)