Japan: Hiroshima 5 - Gyms, pet stores and electronics oh my!

Picture 1 - Lance on the popular weight loss machine. Call me crazy but don't think it'll work. It's like owning a mechanical bull in your living room.

Picture 2 - 65" Plasma TV

Gyms:
As part of Ford expatriate benefits, they will cover gym membership and annual cost in Hiroshima. That's nice you think, til you see the cost of joining...then you realize it is really $%&* nice! The gym we are joining is super sweet. But it's not worth what they are charging. To get memebership started, we will need to pay $5,000 for both of us. That's not a typo. There is a $2,000 deposit, a $1,500 annual cost, plus $5.25 everytime you use it and $46 for guests. If I were Japanese, I'd rather sit at home and get fat.

Pet stores:
Lance took me to an incredible pet store here! They sell everything like piranhas, and beetles the size of North America. Ok, that's exaggerating. They're Texas sized. There was a $2,000 fish, Harry Potter's owl, and Ross' monkey from Friends.

Electronic stores:
The one we have visited most is DEO DEO. It is 6 floors filled w/electronic goodies. Everything comes in fun colors. You can buy a pink or yellow fridge, neon vaccum cleaner and irons come in every color of the rainbow. The digital cameras and cell phones are amazing. My cell phone has GPS and a 3 megapixel camera. (In our Mazda, the GPS screen can also tune into TV and we can change TV channels in the car) Although the electronics in the store were cool, we soon realized all menus and interfaces are in Japanese. And we had to buy the least complicated models = the least cool.