A trip to Costco...

Who knew that going to Costco could be such an event???? Well, here in Tokyo - it ranks right up there with getting a package from home! Pattie told me on Wednesday that she wanted to go on Thursday, so I cancelled my Japanese class (again!) and got my thermal "keep stuff cool bag" and we were off! Not sure if I mentioned this or n, but Pattie is now a licensed driver in Japan! She has a car and can now officially drive on the "wrong" side of the road - and she does a pretty good job of it, too! My job is to sit in the passenger seat and make sure she doesn't hit anything on that side! Only a few times have I had to say... "pole!" or "pedestrian!" or my personal favorite - "cab!"

We arrived around 10:30 shortly before the hordes of others... It's just so much fun to go up and down each aisle and see what new little treasures await us - we both nearly fell out yesterday when we saw a box of cornbread mix! It wasn't Jiffy brand, but it certainly was good with dinner last night! There was also that also jar of caramel popcorn! There are several American brands here - the meat products are mostly USDA as well which is nice - they also carry American sizes for clothes which is helpful for the oompa lumpa that I am... I found Sydney some of the CUTEST little dresses yesterday and also found a 3 piece PJ and robe set for her - too cute! She will love getting that for Christmas...

The highlight of the day had to be searching for the turkeys - they are the Honeysuckle brand and include the pop-up timer - but they are labeled in kilograms... so imagine if you will... I call Chris while holding said turkey and ask him to google the kilogram to pounds converter - I keep pulling out frozen turkeys and he keeps telling me the exact weight - then we have to debate about what size we need... I got about a 20 pounder for Christmas and then couldn't decide what I needed for this weekend for our Thanksgiving part two with the Lashers... We finally decided on a size and again, I am in the freezer digging through the turkeys with my purple cellphone in hand... must have been quite a sight. I finally found one that worked and loaded it up - all in all, it was around $70 in turkeys - actually not too bad.

After we totaled up our purchases, we treat ourselves to the large hotdog and soda meal... only about $2.50 and we were off... it is just such a fun day. Pattie and I spent the ride home discussing our awesome purchases and how we got so much for the amount we paid... we have truly become more numb to the prices - we are thinking we did good - yet, our total together was around $900... but our freezers are stocked, my wine fridge is full, and I have caramel popcorn and corn bread and turkeys - makes it all worth it somehow...