Rain and Rip-offs

So as many of you will know and/or remember not so fondly, Japan has a rainy season. And I'm right in the middle of it. It has been rain straight across my igoogle weather board. I thought we finally got a break today, so I wondered out without an umbrella blissfully ignorant of my imminent downpour downfall. (haha. see what I did there? Let's play a game called find the alliteration and polyptoton! yay word play!)

So Sam and I just moved into our apartment in Nakano yesterday. We have a ton of crap. Way more than our friend Jonathan from the Koenji guesthouse said he had for the last 4 months. We're only here for half that. But, the guy we're renting the apartment from made the whole thing so easy! He drove up in a tiny blue van, helped us load everything in it, navigated the tiny streets of Japan like a pro, gave me a ride there, helped me unload, brought us a futon (we already had 1), curtains, toiletries, and a blanket, and will deliver a small TV and couch tomorrow. All for free. And he offered, we didn't ask, just kind of nodded our heads in dumbfounded agreement. Keep in mind we had just been swindled out of $1048 by the last landlord and here is this guy bending over backwards trying to give us free stuff. He's amazing. If anyone ever wants an apartment in Tokyo, contact me and I'll put you in touch with him.

So since we are getting settled in Nakano, today we decided to do a little exploring.　Nakano is really a great area. There is a ton of shopping streets and cool places, but only in certain central areas. The rest is all residential so it’s very quiet here. No bad karaoke or head pounding base beat at night like in the Koenji guesthouse. We’re only about a 10-15 min walk to the station only about a 5 min walk to all the brouhaha.

So, we’re walking around, painting a mental map of the place and wandering in and out of stores when suddenly, crack! Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! That’s my onomatopoeia for sudden rainfall. Luckily we were in the Japanese version of Walmart called “Life” when it started. But as we were walking out the door, dududududu singing a little happy son, we almost walked out in it before we realized it was raining. The only umbrellas in the whole store were about $10!! All the convenience stores sell their most expensive ones for half that! Therefore I’m convinced that the owner of “Life” also owns “Rain” and decided to turn Nakano into Waterworld and hick up the price of umbrellas. Apparently the owner of life and rain is a capitalist.

But I wasn’t about to be one of the little people that big businesses take advantage of. No! I was going to stand up to the powers that be and the Man in one fell swoop by running out into the rain, which upon inspection at closer proximity was actually a little more of a solid sheet of water than it had appeared, and booked it to the nearest convenience store in all my full-length dress and flip-flop glory. The staff at the store where I bought my $5 umbrella were quite amused. Especially after I dramatically ran in, soaking wet, and then proceeded to peruse the aisles with sqeaky plastic flip-flop steps in search of the umbrellas sold right at the door.

So now I have learned a valuable lesson about living in Japan in late May and early June. I no longer question why every store I’ve been in, from shoes to electronics, sells umbrellas.