Our boring addiction: the local home center
A few months ago, a Shimachu home center opened up quite close to us. Chie didn’t notice it, but I did, and I told her about it and she said, “Let’s pay it a visit!”
And then we spent ¥20,000 on cool stuff there.
We’ve been resisting the temptation, but we keep going back there. Getting home with our new stuff always makes the place feel like Christmas, as we take all of the things we bought out of the bags and try them out.
Today we went there and I got a tatami mat for sitting the computer chair in front of my computer on (Chie doesn’t want to damage the tatami flooring unduly, but when she saw the tatami mat that perfectly matched the tatami flooring, she said “We have to get that!”), a flowery mat for the kitchen (Chie’s argument was that most of the furnishings in the apartment look like the only resident of the place is a guy-she wanted something feminine), a paper towel holder that holds onto the side of the fridge by way of magnets, a bunch of suction-cup hooks to hang spatulas and the like from, and a miscellany of chemical goodnesses.
When Chie put the mat out in the kitchen, she said, “Finally! This place has turned into a home.” As far as I was concerned, it’s been a home for months, but I guess she just wanted something a bit flowery. Maybe she’s been a bit bothered by the plain single-color curtains on all the windows, or the plain single-colour carpet in the living room (although she did choose that herself) or, well, the plain, single-color, generally Swedish everything in the apartment.
Now she has some flowers, and that makes her feel happier.
So anyway, next week I’m going to be visiting her family to ask her father to give me his blessing to marry her. That should take care of my stress quotient for the next few months.