I was going to be cheap today and skip e-mailing but it is an addiction so here I sit with once again when I should be at the park socializing with my fellow co-workers. Anyway, I will attempt to fill you in on our second day in Hakone...
As my luck goes, the next day was a BEAUTIFUL day. The sky was clear and the sun was shining but instead of taking a second stab at seeing Mt. Fuji, Michael and I decided to shop for gifts until it was time to catch our train back to Shinjuku. One store we went into had many wooden boxes and wooden carvings with all kinds of designs on them. The boxes were neat because they were the kind that you could not open unlesss you knew the secret "code" to get in. You have to slide different parts of the box different directions to get to the secret compartment. Some boxes only required 4 "slides" to get it open, others required 8 or 12 "slides" or maneuvers. The place was not memorable because of the wooden boxes, though.. It was memorable because of the little old Japanese man that owned the shop. His shop was kind of off the beaten path so I don't think he got visitors very often. Anyway, he had about 8 hairs on his head (4 on each side) and 5 teeth in his mouth and he shuffled about the store in his slippers. He noticed our interest in the wooden boxes and quickly came over to give a demonstration. He said something to me and I said my standard, "Nihongo ga wakarimasen." (means I don't understand Japanese). I might as well have been talking to a Jehovah's Witness because he just kept on yapping in Japanese. Then he grabbed a wooden box and began his chant as he twirled the box about in his little wrinkly brown hands... "ICHI, NI, SAN, SHI!" And the box opened. He closed it again, then..."ICHI, NI, SAN, SHI!" Again, he unlocked the box with four fast finger maneuvers...."ICHI, NI, SAN, SHI!!!" Then he picked up a different box..."ICHI,NI,SAN,SHI,GO,ROKU, NANA, HACHI. The man was on a roll! He's outta control! "ICHIN,NI,SAN,SHI,GO, ROKU, NANA, HACHI! We couldn't stop him! I don't know how the madness ended but a new kind of madness was just around the corner...
Michael picked out a few different boxes, then he found a wooden geshi doll for his sister in a display cabinet next to the register and some other wooden toy that he found at the front of the store. I am giving you these "location" details for a reason. None of the gifts had prices on them. The price was written on a piece of paper that was taped on the shelf over each area. So now this little old man has to add up his customer's purchase...( 3 small wooden boxes, 4 big wooden boxes, a doll and one wooden toy). And so it began...shuffle,shuffle,shuffle over to the small wooden box counter, check the price, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back to the register. Oh, big boxes have a different price... shuffle, shuffle, shuffle over to the big wooden box counter, get the price, shuffle shuffle, shuffle back. Oh, the doll...shuffle, shuffle, shuffle over to the cabinet, check price...shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back. Then he pulls out an ABACUS to add it all up! Oh, Michael also wants the wooden toy at the front...shuffle, shuffle, shuffle to the front of the store... check the price, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back. OH! Now he has forgotten the price of the 3 small wooden boxes...Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back to the small wooden box counter and shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back to the register and slide a few things around on the abacus...what was the price on the 4 big wooden boxes? Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back to the big wooden boxes, shuffle back to the register. Start over on the abacus. Oh, how much is the wooden doll?... Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, to the cabinet, check price, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle back to the register... I won't kill you anymore with this story, just know that this man LITERALLY shuffled back and forth between the toy counter, the big wooden box counter, the small wooden box counter, and the display cabinet and the register FIVE TIMES! And the only reason that number isn't MORE than FIVE is because I had to put a stop to the insanity. I finally whipped out a pen and added it all up on paper and showed it to him. Since he did not speak any English, we went back and forth talking in our own language trying to tell each other the total but as it turned out, we were saying the same thing (although he was giving us a 10 yen price break...that's like 10 cents). But the whole experience was one of those things that was so comical, you just had to love the man. So Michael took a picture of me and Mr. Shuffles afterward. This one is going in the photo album.
Once again, I have rambled on for too long about one dumb thing so I cannot finish my Hakone Day 2 story, but that just means I have material for next time! Write soon. Love me
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