Just another hair pulling shopping experience....

Okay, so Sunday John and I were on a mission to complete our apartment and purchase some bar stools. We don't have a dining table, but we have this great huge counter top that can serve as a eating locale especially since we are hosting a little Thanksgiving gathering in two weeks. So...after a little local searching we decided that we must hit up IKEA in order to find some that weren't going to bankrupt us.

We were forewarned in advance how daunting a task that this might be since we have some friends here that purchased a lot of their furniture from IKEA. They spent 11 hours (one of which was after the store officially closed) with the very hospitable IKEA staff, dined at the restaurant and generally had one of the most frustrating experiences of their lives (note, this was not due to the staff by any means, just circumstances). But, let's just say that my friend vowed to never set foot in another IKEA for the duration of her lifespan and I wholeheartedly believe her.

But, we were desperate since we were running out of time we had to go this past weekend to make sure that there was plenty of delivery time, etc. So, John looks up all the information on how to get there. We have to take the train to a station that we'd never been to, nor will we probably ever go to again and then wait for the shuttle. Shuttle times were posted, but we didn't know how long the train would take to get there, so we were just really crossing our fingers that all would work out because the shuttle comes round only once every 40 minutes on the weekends.

We get there at 12:10 by our watches and think...this is awesome, the shuttle is supposed to get there at 12:20. Ten minutes after 12:20 we decide that we obviously missed the shuttle and it must have been early. So we try and decide what to do next since the next shuttle won't be arriving until 1:00. Like your typical impatient Americans we decide that it would be worth it to leave now and hop in a cab. We go to the taxi line, get in one and ask if he could please take us to IKEA. He had no idea whatsoever as to what we were talking about. John was trying to use the phrasebook and then look it up on this phone to show the address.....let's just say this was such a frustrating moment. Frustrating in the fact that we just listened to him really try to understand us, but there was no communication going on. It made me really frustrated that I didn't know more Japanese (hopefully we will correct that in the New Year).

So, after accepting cab defeat we go back to the line for the shuttle which has grown considerably. The shuttle arrives like 15 minutes later and we wait and watch people get on and on and then....after watching the woman behind us originally in line get on....it was declared that there was no more room on the bus. I could have cried. So after yet another 40 minute wait we finally got on the shuttle and 30 minutes later set foot in IKEA.

I can't tell you what this store was like.....it was a mob scene. It was literally like the mall the day after Christmas where you can hardly move for all the people. Not to mention, this store is like a big maze...once you get inside it's hard to get out again. Thankfully, since we already knew exactly what we needed, we went straight there and then tried to find our way to the check out...we stalked one of the workers that looked as if he knew English to understand the process for delivery and were on our merry way. All that and then we got to finish it off with the highlight of the trip...a hot dog. I've eaten more hot dogs here than I did the last four years in Dallas combined!

Needless to say, barring complete disaster I too have made the vow to never again set foot in IKEA.

Until next time...Jenn