2006 November 6 Monday.
Another warm day with daytime temperatures at about 10 to 12 degrees Celsius. My first gig of the day started at 13:00 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会。 Again today, various people talked about various things, including the following. One lady talked about a new vacuum cleaner that she had just purchased. She said that her previous vacuum cleaner had lasted about 10 years, but that it was getting more and more broken down, so she bought a new one. She even brought the very colorful user's manual with her so that everyone could see the details of her new home appliance. When she mentioned that she had paid almost 60,000 yen for the machine, my jaw hit the floor in surprise. That is almost $600 dollars in U.S. money! For a vacuum cleaner??? Let's see, what is a vacuum cleaner. It's a motor, an airtight can, a filter and a hose. I could make one myself. Even the very best wet/dry heavy duty shop vacuum cleaner, should never cost more than 20,000 yen. The one I have for my classroom is a very good wet/dry heavy duty shop vacuum cleaner made by TOSHIBA, and it cost me just under 10,000 yen. The user's manual that the lady showed all of us had a big color photo of her new vacuum cleaner on the front. It sort of looked like the robot R2D2 of the Star Wars movies. Do we always get what we pay for? You be the judge. Another lady, who has just recently joined this class, brought some edible souvenirs from her recent trip to Tokyo and Tokyo Disneyland. She explained how she and her family spent their 4 days in the big city. When I heard how much she had to pay for various things while there, I felt once again the attractiveness of living in Hokkaido. やっぱり北海道は１４７！ By the way, the photo on the left was taken yesterday, along the banks of the Chubetsu River. It was almost a full moon. Very beautiful. Much more beautiful that this photo can capture.
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