Kyle's World

Costco grabbed my money yet again today, 40,000 Yen to be exact. But Costco today wasn't even my primary intention. I drove to Fukuoka thinking I could grab a ticket and watch the first day of the Kyushu sumo tournament. But that wasn't to be, apparently they had already sold out. No problem, I'm always happy to unload my money at Costco. Some observations from this time around: I never thought Costco in Fukuoka could ever get to the busy levels seen back home at the Costco in Richmond, but boy did today ever come close. I wheeled around in my buggy, but the back of the store was super-clogged so I soon parked my cart and did my shopping by hand. And I think the people were on edge today...I watched a scene unfold in which the was nearly fisticuffs. You gotta remember to have patience when you go to Costco anyway, but there was this polite-looking Iranian family walking in the aisle. They couldn't move either since there was someone in front of them, and so on. Anyway, this old ojisan type comes behind them, and starts yelling to get out of the way. I actually think he was xenophobic. Then in perfect Japanese (not to mention a loud, booming voice) this Iranian father started yelling back, and so on. A short blurb of their conversation translated in English: ojisan says "get out of my way" polite foreigner says ""what are you talking about? I can't mover either" then the wheels rapidly fall off. ojisan says "don't yell back at me, damn you" polite foreigner says "leave me alone" then further along it was more like "shut the hell up" and "stop speaking to me". It was interesting to see the Costco staff come over and try to diffuse the situation. He gets in the middle, he's apologizing, then later he's telling the stupid ojisan to shut up also. I love it. There's no other place with such customer service as Japan. And there's no other place that starts fisticuffs like Costco. I remember one time I got in a fight at the Costco in Richmond over a parking space, and this was of course at my mom's urging that I don't lose the space. Fun times...