Dee is here visiting this week.  In case you didn’t know, she and Dan live on Sakhalin, a Russian island north of Japan.  Most Japanese actually think this island should belong to Japan.  Dan is in Houston this week and will be here on Friday.  Today for our adventure we went to Costco.  There is a new one in Kawasaki (it’s between Tokyo and Yokohama).   Everyone who has been there says it is great and and one even said it is easy to get to on the train then get a taxi to.  Well, I am not sure how she got there and what train station she got off at.  We ended up taking four different trains.  We got off at the station the Costco website said was the closest and we were on the off ramp of the expressway, the traffic was mostly huge trucks.  We waited awhile for a taxi.  The driver looked a little puzzled when I told him we wanted to go to Costco.  I showed him the computer print out and read the address in Japanese.  He took off with my door open.  In Japan, the drivers get really irritated if you touch the doors so I hadn’t closed it and he had forgotten.  I grabbed it and pulled it shut quickly.  We were on our way and I wasn’t confident that he knew where we were going.  In a few minutes we were there. 

It’s a great Costco!!  The best part though, was hearing my friend, Nori, call my name from across the store.  She was there with her friends and offered to take our stuff in her car and bring it to us tomorrow when she goes to the temple.  Then later she offered to give us a ride to Den-en-Chofu Station near her house.  This meant only taking two trains home and the transfer was just walking across the platform.  Yea!!!  We only had to carry the items that need to be refrigerated.   Tomorrow we are off in search of used kimonos and obis at a flea market!