Sensory overload

So I just got back from shopping and holy $#&*...I feel like I need twelve hours in a silent, dimly-lit room smelling of lavender, to recover. The bat cave that passes for my apartment will have to suffice. I went to a couple of department stores in Machida, about halfway to Tokyo from here, and after two hours I was about to go schizo. Simply walking down the streets is an experience in itself; there are pedestrian walkways between the shops, and everywhere is neon lights and guys out front hawking the stuff in the store and crowded sidewalk displays and speakers blaring music or just some person speaking in Japanese, who knows what they’re saying!

Inside the department stores, you’ve got the same hordes of people and bright lights, but add to that the fact that it’s heated to about 100 degrees and there’s awful Christmas Muzak playing in the background. But despite the fact that there’s background music, they like to turn on EVERY SINGLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE in the store, so as you walk around toys squawk at you and televisions blare and radios shout and unidentifiable things blink and beep and ding. I also think they’ve invented extra-super-bright neon lights here so after a while of walking around you feel like you’ve been staring at the sun. And the salespeople talk exceptionally loud (I guess they have to in order to be heard over the din). So as you walk by them they shout at you “SUMIMASEN!!”, or something like that, that’s what it sounds like to me but since I only know ten words of Japanese, that really isn’t saying much. I’m sure they’re trying to be helpful or just doing what they’re told by their supervisors, but I just want them to stop yelling at me.

I’m sure as I walk around I must start to get a crazed look in my eye, something like a cross between a deer in headlights and an escapee from the loony bin. At any rate, I escaped unscathed --though if I close my eyes I still see blinking neon lights -- and even managed to buy a couple things. Nikki, 1, Japan, 0. It was a close contest, though. I admit it.