Log 003 - September 3, 2026

The truth of a daily blog is that we'll be capturing actual daily life here. Most of it is not exciting, but if you want an accounting of how it's going and what it cost, then that's what we're here for! I'll throw in tips, information and whatnot as it becomes apparent what can be useful to the normal traveler or new expat here as well (like dining at Sushiro yesterday).

Today we definitely had one of those "not interesting" days. We finished moving out of the house with one more load of furniture before late morning and some cleaning. Afterwards, it was running back into Kyoto to locate a small list of items we really needed to make things more comfortable here. Quick draft of that list looks like this:

• Pet tower so cat can see out a window here
• Cat food and treats (essential!)
• Towels - larger and smaller than what was here
• Seat cushion for long working days
• Black out curtains for sleeping past 5AM
• Hiking boots for taking trails out in the rain

After some quick google research it appeared the pet store shortly before Kyoto Gojo mall and then the mall itself would make for the easiest way to purchase the entire list, so off we were. The pet shop was one of the first stand-alone stores we've been in (many are located inside bigger centers here). They had a small selection of furniture, a large selection of food and (unfortunately, in my opinion) actual cats, dogs, birds and fish for sale. Shelters and collations are making headway here, but pet shops are not really regulated yet. I'm hopeful this is something coming down the pike soon, but at least this shop was clean and everyone appeared healthy (I try to avoid looking). You basically cannot buy pet supplies without seeing live animals for sale as well.

The cat tower selection was lacking, but we settled on a tall plastic-type that would hopefully get the job done, be easy to move around and was the display model assembled and on sale.

Cat Tower (plastic type) - Y4,895 ($31.84)

Food (about 45-day supply), treats (about 15 days) and tower Y11,200 ($72.87)

Afterwards, it was a short next door drive to the mall where the first order of business was lunch. We've been here several times at this point and are starting to become familiar with the offerings without scrambling on google, maps or wandering aimlessly. Saizeriya is great for a fast cheap lunch for 2, so it was an easy decision today, however I forgot to get pictures! Their menu can be found here. Y2,200 ($14.31)

Spent a few minutes logging into my favorite rhythm game "Ongeki" (Y300, $1.95)- something I plan to write more about at a later date- and browsing UFO catcher crane games. Not a huge fan of this particular Capcom store as the machines seem a a higher difficulty than others, but we happen to find a few new very cute figures and couldn't resist. On second thought, we should have logged our woes a bit, but instead we dropped Y700 ($4.55) on Fern and then quickly wasted Y2,000 ($13.01) on trying to get Freiren out to no avail (we think she's weighted differently and got stuck several times). I'll scope out used stores over the next month to see if we can just purchase instead. I had to give up on a Taiga figure last week for the same reason and she's now on the watch list as well.

Fern only cost us 700 yen!

After pacing the mall for a bit, we located the home goods section of the Aeon Style on the ground floor. These Aeon centers are really huge with grocery, prepared food and now we found this one that had style (clothing, etc) and home goods. They had the cushions, towels and even curtains right there! Y14,150 ($92.10) - I'll try to post the receipt of the breakdown when I find it, but generally the black-out curtain were Y5,000, the posture cushions Y4,000 with the towels, curtain rod and a few misc. items filling up the rest.

I didn't have time to locate boots. I suspect we'll go to a sports/outdoor store tomorrow for them instead.

It started raining heavily at this point so we picked the kiddo up from school in the car and headed home. A quick run out to the grocery store was successful with meat, sauce and basics for dinner along with a few snacks for the night. Y4,720 ($30.75)

Total for the day: Y35,270 ($229.43)

• Prepared food: Y2,200 ($14.31)
• Grocery: Y4,720 ($30.75)
• Wants: Y3,000 ($19.51)
• Needs: Y25,350 ($164.97)