The quest for a ski jacket

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Sunday 13 Jan. 08

Our mission today was to go to Oshman’s to get some ski pants and jacket for Donna. We got up and headed down to the Narrita train station to get into the city. The sun was shining, a little, today so Donna deicide to go out in a light top. We had barely taken two steps out of the hotel when the cold wind blew right through that and I suggested that we go back to the room to get an extra jumper. “No, I’ll be right” she said and we were off for the day.
About 40 minutes into our train trip I realised that I had forgotten to bring the printout of the shop that we were going to, and all that I could remember was the city that it was in. so we kept going. We arrived in Shibuya and started looking around, but with out the address of the shop we were flying blind. We walked around for ages but to no avail, we asked for directions to a “sports shop” and found some, but none that had any ski equipment. By now we had been walking around for a few hours. Until we stubbled across and old man in an information counter that spoke English, and he told us that there were no ski shops in Shibuya, and that we should try Shinjuku where there are some, or Ogawamachi where there are lots.
We go back on the train to Shinjuku and within 5 minute of stepping of the train had found 2 shops, both of which had a good selection. Unfortunately with Donna being huge by Japanese standards it was hard finding anything that fit. We would find a jacket, but then no pants that matched and vice versa. IT was now 4:00pm and we were cold and tired but still eager to complete our mission. So we went off to find the subway to get to Ogawamachi.
Well we look everywhere and even the lady at the train station pointed using the wrong direction, and just when it looked like it was all too hard, we found a KFC so we went in and had some chicken and chips while we collected our thoughts. After the feast we walked out the door and right away stumbled across the subway entrance. By this time we had gotten quite good at trying to decipher the Japanese rail system and quickly found the correct train.
We arrived in Ogawamachi and got back up to the street level, but couldn’t see any shops so I asked a man and he pointed in one direction so that’s were we went. You can’t imagine how many ski shops this town has, it was amazing. We would walk out of one and there would be another and another, there was almost too much choice. We eventually found a nice jacket in one shop, and some of “last seasons” pants in another. Its all about the fashion here, and your average Japanese youth wouldn’t be caught dead on the slopes in last years gear so that means bargains for us.
With our mission complete and Donna frozen through to the bone, we started the long trek back to the hotel and after a 12 hour day of shopping we finally got home.

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