phew, today was hectic. i finally decided the best way to get my stuff home was to just buy a third bag and then pay the fee ($200) to take it home on the plane. It's expensive but as previously stated, postal service is expensive too and takes 20 days. With that decided, the question was how to get it all to the airport (in Oosaka, an hour or so away). There's a service called Takkyuubin which delivers your luggage to the airport and only costs abt $20 per bag. However, they take 3-4 days to get it there, so I had to ship it off by today at the latest. So I figured I'd put all my purchases etc in the two suitcases I came with, using just as much clothes as necessary to pad them, and send those ahead via Takkyuubin. Then I could buy a duffel bag to put all the clothes in, and just take that with me when I go to the airport by bus or train. So this morning I packed the two suitcases I came here with, favoring heavy magazines, books, and other purchases over clothes. I was actually pretty impressed with how much I was able to get into them. Once they were done and carried downstairs, I headed off to pick up my hanko (pics in photo gallery). Takkyuubin was supposed to come at 6 to pick up the luggage, but I got a call at this point from my host mom saying they were already there. It's a good thing I left everything packed and ready to go. After that, I made my way down teramachi and picked up the Initial D game that came out today, then went to some department stores to look for a duffel bag for the rest of my stuff. However, luggage here is apparently RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE (more so than normal japanese goods). Like the duffel bags around the size I needed were between $200-300. Ack. I tried more "youth" oriented places but not much difference. I could just put it in a box, except that this is the bag I have to take with me on the bus or multiple trains, and I would really like something that either has wheels or at least a shoulder strap. I guess I can keep looking this weekend.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Blimey!