Not so fast!

I slept in my sleeping bag last night, on a thin blue sleeping mat. My first thought after I woke up was: let's buy another sleeping mat. I've been meaning to keep this trip a budget trip, and I've tried my best to not but anything crazy in my preparations: no new lenses, no super-lightweight mini-tents, no carbon-fiber tripods etc. But I have to make an exception for the sleeping mat; it's really not something I can afford to save money on, or else I won't get any sleep at night. I bought a 'self-inflatable' mat today for 12.000 yen. I don't know if it's any good, but it can't possibly be worse than what I had before. Since I was at the camping store anyway I also picked up some cheap sunglasses.

Self-inflatable rabbit
New sunglasses

That's about the only thing that went according to plan though. I sold the remainder of my books today. The value of a second-hand book per kilogram is perhaps less than that of blank paper. 6 artbooks that cost perhaps 8000-10000 yen are now worth 830 yen. Well, at least I'm rid of them now.

Today the weather was great. I started cycling today at around 13:30 and felt great only wearing a T-shirt. At 16:00 I was freezing my ass off on the way home. The wind is still very cold, and especially at night it's not summer yet. I brought my tent today, thinking I could set it up at the riverside on the way home to see if it still works, but I felt so cold that I just cycled on home.

But the biggest thing that failed today was selling my stuff. I still have several huge items (fridge, microwave, wooden closet, etc.) that I haven't sold yet. My first trip today was to the second-hand store nearby. The old guy looked at me, let me finish speaking, after which I showed him some photos of my furniture, one by one. By the time we arrived at the third or fourth picture he had enough fun, and finally told me that he was going to close down his shop soon and wouldn't be buying anything. Just great. I went to another store further away, and they told me they were not interested cause I need to deliver my stuff to their front door by myself. My drivers license is not valid in Japan though.. Finally I called the recycle center, which is supposed to pick up anything after you make a reservation by phone, but they were closed today. Zannen.

Looks like I'll be in Atsugi for a while longer. That might not be a bad thing. At least the weather can get a little bit warmer.

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