Costco Adventures

I mentioned last week that i discovered a Costco and Ikea not far from here, so yesterday i took the 20 minute train ride out to explore.

Although we had had a few days of cloudy, cool weather this weekend, yesterday it was back to being hot and ridiculously humid.  Just the 5 minute walk from the guesthouse to the station left me completely drenched in sweat! 

Anyway, i got off at the station and decided to head to Costco first, since i was starting to feel hungry and had intended to eat late lunch there, since they serve the same pizza at the Costco here as they do in the US.  Was more excited about that than i should've been, haha.  I do enjoy some of the strange pizza they have here (Tuna, corn, and mayo anyone? Though i usually end up getting margherita pizza), sometimes i just crave a nice New York style-sized slice of plain cheese pizza!

Getting inside wasn't as easy as i had anticipated though.  Back home i'd never had issues just walking in with a crowd despite not having a membership card.  I guess it was always just assumed i was with one of the families going in or something.  But here i definitely stick out, lol.  The lady at the entrance directed me to the exit, under the assumption that i was going to buy a membership card or something.  When i walked in through the exit i was accosted by another worker, but he spoke English to me.  Asked if i had a membership card, i told him i have a US Costco membership (lies!!), but that i just wanted to buy some food from the food court.  He decided that was okay and let me in.  xD  So i got to enjoy my pizza and a pineapple smoothie (I was sad they didn't have the mixed berry one that i'm used to, but the pineapple one was just as delicious).

After that, i slipped in to the main part of the store going the opposite way through the registers, so i was finally able to get in and look around!

It was fun, and nice to see that they carry most of what i'm used to!  Cheese, tortillas, cereal, Quaker oatmeal, seedless grapes, etc..  No whole wheat bread though.  I don't think i've seen whole wheat bread sold anywhere here!

Looks exactly the same!

They do sell some things specific to Japan, like octopus and fish eggs

After that adventure i walked through LaLaport (just a big shopping mall) and checked out some of the stores before heading over to Ikea to have a look around. 

Same as every Ikea i've been to.  :)  

Hard to believe i've already been here for about 2 1/2 months!  I think back to the first week here and it feels like a lifetime ago, but at the same time it feels like these nearly 3 months have just flown by!  I've adjusted pretty well, i feel.. i don't feel homesick or anything, but it is nice to know that there are some familiar comforts (pizza!) close by. :)

S came down from Ibaraki last weekend for a night out- it was the first we'd seen each other since she left Osaka over a month ago.  We had quite the adventure in Shibuya, but i'll post about that next time as there is quite a lot to tell!