A Nice Expensive Day

The other day I went on a trip with my friend. Initially, I wanted to go out by myself but the place was a few towns over and I didn’t like the thought of carrying all my luggage through the city. I called up my friend and asked him, “Hey, do you want to go on a trip with me? I’ll pay for the train tickets and you don’t need to pay me back for gas. Can you just hold my bags for me while I shop?” Surprisingly, he agreed.

I took this day to treat myself and to distract me from everything that's been going through my head recently. I woke up early to shower and get ready. With a bow clipped on to my hair and a nice floral sundress, I sprayed on a bit of perfume and was ready to hit the road. The weather has been nice lately. Some highs and lows, but mainly sunny with not a cloud in sight. I picked up my friend from his apartment and made way to the train station. Surprisingly, on the train, I bumped into my ex’s friends (what a small world). I wonder if they recognized me. I certainly look way different than in high school but still. The ride took maybe an hour and my friend spent that whole time talking about his recent vacation to Disneyland. I enjoy listening to him talk. Even if I don’t have a lot to say back, I like hearing that he’s been happy.

After we got off the train, we were both in awe of the big city. I grew up in a big city but halfway through 8th grade, my family moved to a small countryside town. My parents’ reasoning was that the houses there were bigger and cheaper in the countryside. My friend, on the other hand, grew up in that small town all his life (I think). The city we were at had tall skyscrapers and congested roads. Looking up at the buildings actually made me a bit dizzy and nauseous. Anyways, we made our way to the bus stop and got there at the perfect time. Getting on the bus was a bit crowded, and the bus door almost closed between us and made us separate. Unlike me who would’ve just stayed quiet and accept the consequences, my friends had the actual balls to ask the driver to open the door again. The rest of the bus ride went smoothly and we were finally at our destination.

The plaza was huge. It was a mix of Little Tokyo and K-Town from Los Angeles, so basically an area that’d be great for k-pop and anime lovers. The space was decorated very beautifully with multiple cherry blossom trees and had a Japanese tea garden nearby. My eyes were on all the shopping centers. There were so many Hello Kitty/Sanrio stores where I bought maybe a total of 4 gigantic stuffed animals. We also checked out some stationary stores for quality pens and origami paper. My friend wanted to go inside an anime bookstore/DVD store and bought a Studio Ghibli movie, while I just looked inside at their coloring books. After going in about 8 stores, my friend wanted a (much deserved) break. To thank him for his hard work, I bought us ice cream crepes to eat as we took a breather. We were eating and watching outside with the nice tree shade to block the sun shining on us. As we ate quietly to catch our breaths, there were little children giggling with their parents that could be heard in the background. There were some teenage skateboarders, couples going on dates, and just some group of friends on an outing together. It was nice.

We looked through a few more stores where I picked up some skincare products. By then, my friend had maybe 9 bags he was holding (a mix of mine and his stuff) and seemed to be getting very tired. I kept asking him if he was okay but he just kept reassuring me even though it was very obviously a lie. Multiple times throughout the day I saw him readjusting the handles on the bags on each arm. It was actually getting pretty late so we decided to go out for a late lunch. Side-by-side, we walked together and headed out the area to sushi. It was fun. Afterwards, we determined to wrap things up and started our journey home. Oh, and in the end I spent like $600.

TLDR: I went to a neighboring city’s version of Little Tokyo/Japantown and had a shopping spree with my friend.