Yesterday I ventured out into Sasebo City in search of a recycle shop (thrift store) that my husband discovered the day before. Seeking out various stores of this kind has been a recent family activity for us. After listening to his directions three times and equipping myself with the Maps app on my iPhone (which couldn't be programmed with my destination), I jumped in our MPV that is almost too big for these Japanese roads and headed toward my destination.
In about five minutes after leaving the security of my gated military housing I was headed down the wrong road. The roads here are color coded and I took the wrong color on the Nishi-Kyushu Expressway. What would have been a 20 minute ride turned out to be an hour and a half! Being the Type A person that I am, I usually follow directions very well. When the surroundings don't agree with the instructions in my head, then we have a problem. After a very scenic detour and 400 yen that I didn't need to spend in tolls, I turned off the expressway and turned on the GPS app. It told me how to get back to a road I was familiar with and after two or three phone calls with my husband (the first of which being the venting of my frustrations), I ended up making a huge circle and decided to give it one more try. The second attempt put me on the correct colored road and I found the shop with little difficulty. I figured for all the trouble I spent getting there I should be able to find a rare treasure in that store for a DOLLAR!! That didn't happen. After combing through the store for a little over an hour (because believe me, I was going to make this trip worth my while) I only walked away with a pack of DVD-R's that I got for 315 yen.
I arrived home with a hard lesson learned about how to navigate the expressway and gave thanks for the GPS that put me back on the right track. If it weren't for that and my husband coaching me back to familiar territory, I would still be roaming around the rice fields of Arita buying porcelain pottery from some locals.
