Shopping Queen in Town

I was feeling excited first day in town. The Ginko trees along Chikushi Avenue were turning yellow. On my way to Hakata Station, I took many photos of the colorful autumn foliage. Toastmaster Yoshiko Mohri and I greeted each other at 11 o'clock at the information center of Hakata Station. Yoshiko looked happy with a bag of bread from the Trandor Bakery in the train station. She told me she loved the freshly baked bread from the oven. I suggested we could go on a picnic in the park in Tenjin.

We took a bus to downtown Tenji. When I saw a Crocs shop in Tenjin, I walked in and tried out a few new Crocs, but I couldn't find the right size for me. In the end, I bought two crocs shoe charms for my red crocs, one is a blue daisy, the other is a yellow ribbon. I didn’t think twice, because they were of my favorite Toastmasters colors. After the first purchase of the day, Yoshiko and I walked across the street to have the Monday brunch at Seattle's Best Coffee.

While we were chatting in English, a gentleman approached us and introduced himself to us. Mr. Sam Hooi told us that he was a Toastmaster in Hong Kong. He now lives in Fukuoka and he founded FILE (Fukuoka International Language Exchange) Club. There are 400 members now. Mr. Hooi majored in counseling at graduate school. He was enthusiastic about organizing conference and event and was interested in joining Fukuoka Toastmasters Club to create more opportunities to develop Toastmasters and FILE clubs.

After brunch, Yoshiko and I went shopping at Daimaru and Mizukoshi Department Stores. I had my second purchase of a Hello Kitty winter underwear in red, which I thought would be a perfect match with my woolen red dress I bought in Ulaanbartar. While we strolled around at Mizukoshi Department Store, Yoshiko was so eager to show me a fantastic lady’s room with a fountain inside, we checked every floor to look for the fantastic lady’s room, but failed to find it!

After Yoshiko went home to take care of Toastmasters business at 3:30PM, I continued the shopping journey by myself at the Tenjin Underground shopping matrix, shintencho, and Tenji Core till sunset. I was contented to see as much of the new winter fashion in the windows for six hours straight in Fukuoka! What a shopping queen I was indeed! The first day in town, I added another one kilogram to my luggage! Who said traveling light was the best policy in the first place?

I was exhausted when I returned to Khaosan Fukuoka. I had Yoshiko's bread from Trandor for dinner in bed and retired for the night. I was too tired to go out!