Out of everything, we had to do to get Branden ready for elementary school. I think the desk part was the hardest part for us. Should we get a western type desk, like Ikea? Or should we get a Japanese one? Here's the thing though and bare with me why, I type out my thoughts. For us, it doesn't necessarily have to be western or American at all. But it should be the best it can be. Like our home example, we prefered American kitchens so we got one (and that's only because I do bake a lot). American bedrooms, attic and rest of the house. And however to be fair, we prefer, Japanese toilets, so we got those. Why? Because Japanese toilets are in our opinion, better. They are practically robotic. Some move up and down. They have heated toilet seats. Shoot water if need be, in parts I won't mention, lol. So our toilets for example are nice and Japanese, they are warm and toast our buns in winter time, lol and we don't regret not having western toilets in the least, we prefer Japanese toilets all the way. Or take bathtubs. Again, we prefer Japanese style bathing. The tubs are deeper like hot tubs. The whole communal family bathing idea is one that we love, so it never was a question that we would not have a Japanese bath tub. I'm not so crazy about American bathtubs and showers, sorry, friends and family in America. Sorry, but they are too shallow/short, the water can't be rewarmed and they're just too small. : ( So, basically we choose stuff with whatever is the best for our family, regardless of origin, doesn't really matter at all to us. If that makes sense. So, now we go back to the desk. An Ikea western type styled desk? Or a Japanese one. We weighed heavy the pros and cons of each. The picture of the desk here is from the Ikea website. The thing is the Ikea desks were pretty bare minimum. Not much room for books. No extra shelving to be seen anywhere. This is the million dollar question, we asked ourselves a hundred times? Is this pictured desk, useful? Again to be fair, Ikea had other types of desks there, but they were all pretty bare minimum. And not so useful. After much thought, I was thinking no. I checked the US Ikea website and saw many of desks that looked just like the one pictured. No real extra storage space, or book shelf space or anything. Just a flat our table, type desk. I even checked the Ikea Japan site. Again same stuff. Just bare basic table type desks. A girlfriend of mine was heading, to Ikea in Funabashi a few weeks ago, I asked her to give a look see and if it looked good we'd drive there ourselves.. I asked her if she saw a desk with shelves and slots for books, etc, to let me know. She went there 2 weeks ago, and she said, no such luck. She actually emailed me a pic of the desk area and yup, she was right. Just bare minimum type table, type desks. No extra anything. Now we were starting to sway towards the Japanese desks. And we've been sorta swaying that way since the start of December actually. But we were still not sure at all, either. So we've just been weighing in on this for a few month's as well. Sigh. He he he. We wanted a desk that had plenty of space for books, plenty of space for doing his homework, shelving, nook and cranny, type spots to store his school stuff, we didn't care where it came from, as long as it would be a good and useful desk, that's all it basically boiled down to for us. So we just put off looking, until now. And the desks at Ikea were actually cheaper then the standard Japanese desks as well. So we woulda saved money, if we woulda got an Ikea one. But, I dunno, we somehow felt it was a better idea to get a Japanese one. Manufacturers in Japan, know how much homework an average Japanese child, gets and they make the extra shelving space for that. My mil even called us a month ago, asking what was taking us so long in finding one. Ha ha ha. : )
This morning, we knew we would wait no more! We went from the morning until the evening. We went to 6 different furniture shops in Narita. All the big name ones. We went to Nitori in this pic, twice. So many different colors of desks. But the thing I liked was the usefulness of the desks.
So many chairs to choose from, so many colors of desks to choose from. Geeze, it was a tough call!It was a desk overload. A desk extravaganza. How would we ever choose. Geeze. I brought a pic of B's bedroom set on my digi cam, so I could match the color the best I could.
We saw this one, have seen it on all the TV commercials, here in Japan and it really looks like a very useful desk! We went to Nitori twice today, we went there first and last, with 4 other shops in between. And with the desk in this pic, the 3 pieces can be arranged all these sorta different ways. We did not get this desk but.... I loved this desk, but the color was not right for B's room, unfortunately! Bummer! : ) But the price was so good. Around $400.00 US. The one we ultimately got was more, darn it! ha ha ha! : ( I really loved this desk though.
So much room for books. So much storage space, for homework, etc. Bummer they didn't have a color that we needed. Because this desk was cool!
This is the desk we ultimately got. This is the chair we ultimately got as well. After having B sit on about 20 chairs, ha ha ha. I actually wheeled this chair from 3 rows away myself to see it paired with the desk, lol. The color was a brighter blue on this chair. And it was more comfy. We also got the "world map" place mat type thing for his desk as well, after trying 3 other mats as well, phew. I tell ya, after looking at one desk that was too dark and one that was too light (colored) and then hundreds in between. This was the one, we opened up the camera, looked at the pic of the bedroom set and sure enough it's pretty much a dead match in color! And the different slots and sections for his books, was amazing. I asked myself and Noboru, is this a useful desk? We both said, yes! There's even a locked drawer for his private things. The second time we were in Nitori, we were in there for about an hour and a half. Going through every drawer, sliding each shelf divider, to see if they moved easily. We were there so long, it was insane! And we liked the book shelves that were on top of eachother. And the highest shelf can come off, If he wants just one row of shelving. But this, way, we have a lot of space for his books. It's a very useful desk. The lamp came with it, it's a whole set. But the chair was extra because we didn't want the cheaper chair that was gratis with the set. All of this, was a gift from grandma Mitsuko. Afterwards we all called her in the car on Noboru's cell and we thanked her for the desk. As, I said in an earlier post, in Japan, typically the grandparents buy the grandchild a study desk when they enter the first grade. It's sorta a tradition. It will be delivered in a few weeks from now. We are just happy, we finally found a desk that fit our needs best. Like I said with the backpack, it's whatever fits a particular family and child best. There is no right or wrong. So, we were just happy we found the right desk for our son. And that it matched Branden's existing bedroom set as well. Phew. We are getting really ready for Branden to start elementary school in April now. Not much left to do now, except order name tags and get the suit for the entrance day. We are right on track, it seems. : )
After all that desk stuff was finally knocked out of the way. We went and had dinner, because by now it was dinner time! Geeze, it was a whole day thing. I had the pasta. Oh man, it was so delicious!
Noboru had spaghetti and meat sauce. Branden had a pizza. And Noah had pizza and pasta. We all had unlimited drink bar.
We drove home, took showers and long hot baths. It was bitterly cold outside. We stayed home. In our jammies, popped a big bowl of popcorn and also had some icecream. We watched some DVD's we already had at home. I picked "Something About Mary", my god that is such a funny movie. And then it was Noboru's choice and we watched "V for Vendetta", with his A-#1 crush, Natalie Portman, lol. Stayed up much too late tonight. But it was a good day, we got a lot accomplished, shoot! Getting that desked knocked off the list, is a huge accomplisment in itself. Phew. Hope everyone is also having a wonderful weekend as well! : )
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