The Promised Land

I found it.
Yesterday.
In a place I had been to many times before.
Within walking distance.

A Takashimaya outlet store.

Brilliant.

For those not familiar, Takashimaya is a Japanese department store similar to Neiman Marcus. They have a great shoe department and visiting the store in Shinjuko is always fun. It does require a subway ride though. This one, "an outlet" - words that cause a girl from New York to get a really big smile on her face, is within walking distance and as it is conveniently located in the same building that the children's store I frequent and recently figured out how to pronounce after being here six months.

I will be making many trips.

Not like your average outlet store though, this one takes up an entire floor of a big building, has one side just for woman and another side for men, children, housewares and more stuff for women. In the middle, by the elevator, are booths with food - produce, gift sets, all the things you might see in the basement of the regular store.

Baba-san, baby and I went yesterday and while baba-san went to look at shoes, I headed over the baby area to see about a winter coat, as for the entire winter, baby-san has lived in a few short jackets she has. The coat was not found, but several pairs of pj's and a little dress were.

By then my phone had wrung several times as baba-san was having trouble finding his petite brunette wifey-san in the sea of petite brunette "other-people's wifey-sans". We paid, proud to have spent so little on so much, vowing to return for a more relaxed shop on a weekday.

Like tomorrow.