Heaven

Today I found heaven.

I wrote this on Facebook, and had many generous replies. Most people probably thought I had found the man of my dreams, or had been given a large sum of money.

But nope - I don't really need those things. Today I found heaven the isles of Ikea.

It took a few minutes to get used to the fact that, because of Japanese vowels, Ikea is pronounced very differently here (much to my dismay when trying to ask how to get there). Where we would say eye-key-uh the Japanese pronunciation is ick-ee-uh. I found this to be only mildly annoying.

I decided as well that Ikea (no matter how you pronounce it) is the best place in the world to take color accent photos. And, I realized that even in Japan, stuff can be normal and cute. Ikea (no matter how you pronounce it) is Ikea no matter where you are.

Oh! And Aunt Barb! They have dollar hot dogs here too! Only they're not $1, they're ¥100 (which with the current exchange rate means they're on sale! What a bargain!). Definitely the most delicious thing I ate all day (week?). And to make it more culturally done, I had to buy my hot dog in a vending machine. No joke.

Ikea - I love you (and your hot dogs...).