Black hole towns take your money

There is a stop not too far from the main hub train station by me. You can only take a local train to this little stop. But becareful loyal readers, this stop is a black hole for your pocket book. Why is that you ask? Because. Beacuse of two stores known as BookOff an Amica.

Book Off is a used CD/DVD/book/video game store. With 250 and 500 yen sections of CDs, you can't hold out for long. I managed to survive this time around. My purchase was a hard-to-find CD for a friend, and a video called (translated): "Love Those Animals vol 3: Cute Cats! Full of very cute cats!" This 25 minute video is just videos of different breeds of cats and kittens being cute (for the most part). A bargain at 250 yen (about $2). Ed did not make it out alive however.

Amica, the name is a double-edge sword. The name invokes feelings of excitement and poverty simultaneously. Amica is a large foreign food and bulk restaurant food grocery store. Sadly, I fell to its wrath. I am now the proud owner of a giant bag of dehydrated mushrooms, amongst various other morsels.

At Amica, a girl was skating around the store. As we were leaving, she comes up to me and says cheerfully, "Hello!"
"... hello. How are you?"
"I'm fine thank you, and you?" (the stereotypical Japanese response)
"I'm good! Thank you!"
She held back a big grin and gave herself a "I-did-it!" fist pump. I think she was really pleased to communicate, that I understood and responded, and she understood as well. It was really great.
Walking out of the parking lot she yells, "SEE YOU!" I say, "Bye-bye! See you! Nice to meet you!" which causes her to erupt in a spastic case of jumping-jacks. Everyone was in smiles.