Service (SaaBeeSue)

Today Takeshi and I went on a date to Yokohama. We had a great time and came back to our station around 4pm. We stopped in at the toy shop on the way home to see if they had any tea dogs (ochaken). That started a chain of "service" events. In Japan, regular customers are rewarded by "service" which usually refers to extra merchandise. The toy store did not have any tea dogs, but asked if Kie liked them. We said that she did but we were looking for a friend of hers in the States. Well do you think she might like a little stuffed tea dog? You may have it for her. So they gave it to us. From there we went to the vegetable shop, I was given some candied apple slices and Takeshi was given two packs of Kimchee. From there we went to the meat shop and met someone we knew who gave us a calendar. I asked Takeshi if there were any other places to go before returning home since we seemed to be on a roll today....

Did I mention that we stayed in the toy shop for over an hour just talking to the owners and a customer we knew? We didn't even buy anything....