Shopping

Do you go crazy over Japanese stuff?  I know I do!

Only recently did I find out that there were actually Japanese dollar stores here in Melbourne.  I have been longing to go to a DAISO store ever since I went to one in the Philippines a few years ago, but I didn't know that they had recently opened branches here in Melbourne.  The stores are quite far from where we are, but my daughter and I decided (actually it was more me), that nothing was going to stop us from going.

And so we did.  Twice during the recent two-week school holidays.  To a small store in the city and to another one which was much farther away.  We happily bought a few things.  Some useful, some just because they were adorable.  We agreed that we just had to buy something.  We couldn't have just gone home with nothing.

Small fruit boxes.  My daughter likes bringing cut up fruits to school.

Thread cutter, some ribbons and laces

Kitchen stuff - pie and pizza cutter, lemon squeezer, cake server, cake decorating tool and scraper.

Egg moulds and sushi maker

A compass and a nail clipper

Origami paper

Powdered lemon tea and green tea

There are a few more items not in these photos, like flour crackers which we already ate, a couple of small toolboxes and a ribbon hair tie. That's about it, I think.

Ok, let me just tell you about the powdered green tea.  There was a whole aisle dedicated to food alone and my daughter saw this thing.  I'm a daily green tea drinker so without hesitation, I took two packs.  That night,  I tried it.  You know what it was like?  So sickeningly sweet!!!  I took a peek into the ingredients just today.  The label says, SUGAR (85%), POWDERED GREEN TEA (5%), SUGAR (10%), VITAMIN C.  I don't know why they had to separate the two sugars  and didn't just say 95% sugar straight away.  The lemon tea was practically the same, listing saccharides (which is essentially sugar too) as 96% and the rest of the ingredients making up the 4%.  So, the lesson learned?  Not all Japanese stuff is good after all.

But yes...most still are.

Anyway, speaking of purchases, my husband bought a treadmill yesterday.  I don't really want to say this was an impulse buy, although it does appear that way. We did agree that we, as a family, (sort of) needed it.  I hopped on the treadmill this morning just to try (I was wearing slippers).  After just half a kilometer of running/brisk walking, I already felt light-headed and nauseous!  That's how unfit I am nowadays.  Hopefully, we will all get into shape soon.

Have a good week!