Today's dumbass hooeyscope....

[gurdymonkey]

From our friends at Y! Astrology:

1. Sagittarius (11/22-12/21)

   Your attitude will be mismatched with your company today -- the people around you will be on a completely different wavelength than you are. Luckily, that won't bother you one tiny bit! Your tolerance for diversity is very high right now, and you can effortlessly get along with anyone. To you, their oddball behavior is interesting to the point of almost being charming. This is a good time for you to learn how other people see the world, and find out if you could see it that way, too.

Interesting that I found this AFTER getting home from a reconnaissance run to San Francisco. Yeah, I know, I was supposed to be sewing, but the weather was too nice to be stuck inside!

I figured I'd hit Daiso in Daly City early and see if I could pick up a couple more teacups, so I went there first. They were out of the style I liked, but I found a few useful kitchen tools, and a couple of pretty, inexpensive paper fans as tokens for the two ladies whose husbands said, "Yeah! I wanna camp with Makiwara!" But how do I break the news to bovil and kproche the news that they had 10" high tanuki figures for only $10? Sorry, guys, they DIDN'T have them when I went there in the fall, or I'd've given you the head's up. (No, I didn't buy one. I'm going to have enough crap loading down 'Tite Blanche for the war.)

From there I went into Japantown in San Francisco. Restocked my supply of Moss Garden incense and bought a couple Shoyeido sampler packs at Asakichi's "Incense Closet" on the bridge between Kintetsu Mall and the Kinokuniya building. So of course I HAD to go to their downstairs shop and browse - and found a couple more things for my gift stash. Managed not to buy anything at Kinokuniya, but I was pleased to see that they moved the manga out of the main store and put it by itself in a new store downstairs. It just makes much more sense logistically, and now the main store has more room for books with words in them.

Found Nijiya Market and it's NOT the one I usually buy lunch at. (That's Sakai, further up the hill on the other side of Post Street). Crowded as all hell at lunchtime on a Saturday, their selection was very impressive. I got myself some seaweed salad and tuna sashimi to eat in the Peace Plaza and picked up a few non-perishables. I'll make a final grocery run for the Rising Sun party the Saturday before war. Things like mochi do better fresh.

Last stop, Soko Hardware. Not open on Sundays, it's worth a visit. In addition to the sorts of things you'd expect to find in a hardware store, they have a great selection of Japanese kitchenware, plus other Japanese gifts and clothing. I picked up a sando-gasa (hat) for Sakurai, who's flying in all the way from Nova Scotia to attend Estrella. I also found some inexpensive teacups. See, I discovered at GWW that having more teacups would've been a very good thing for the House of Cheerful Monkeys. So now I have three different sets of three teacups (four is an unlucky number in Japan), which ought to be plenty. Soko also turned out to have the plastic sake cups I like, so now I don't have to mail order 'em from House Of Rice.

And now I shall repair downstairs, find a movie to watch and work on banners for Rising Sun.

Comments

[bedouinchick.livejournal.com]

Hey! Sounds like you're having way too much fun shopping in cool places. I'd like to go with you sometime and see some of your favorite goods 'n' grub spots in the City and the surrounds. I'll just add it to the list of things you and I talked about doing together -- festivals, garden strolling, et al -- and mebbe if we both grow more sand in our respective hourglasses, we can play together more often.

I love Things Japanese (although I wouldn't go with a Japanese persona) and I live in a desert wasteland of minimal cultural interests. What's yer dance card look like after Estrella? BTW, I'm very sad and a bit jealous that I can't go again this year. Have fun and stay warm.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Well, there IS the Cherry Blossom Festival in April, but it tends to be a mob scene and I honestly prefer things a bit more relaxed.
http://nccbf.org/home/
Oh, doh. It's up against Prova Dura too.

We should definitely try to do something though. I think my plate is pretty clear between Estrella and March Crown....