Little Treasures Everywhere

  No luck so far on the futon front!  There are several retailers online who have them, so if I have to resort to one of them I will, but for now I'm mainly trying to stick to craigslist, ebay, and local sales as much as possible, with emphasis on local.  Why? Well, like most I'm on a limited income.  I can get pretty much everything I'm looking for directly from Japanese retailers and use a buying service in order to get it internationally shipped, but it just costs SOOO much.  Plus what's the fun of not having to work for what you want?  If I can find a bargain and it makes the shipping and item price come close to what the item actually retails for in Japan, I'll consider using a buying service, but for now I'll do my best without them.

  I almost had a kotatsu!  A kotatsu (こたつ）is a table with a heater underneath.  It looks like this:

I know it just looks like a floating tray on a blanket, but I swear there's a heater and the legs under there:

 Basically the tabletop isn't attached to the table so you can put the big blanket (called a futon, yes like the bed ^_^) over the whole thing and still have access to the table top.  You turn the heater on, sit on a pillow (another futon, this one's called a zabuton 座ぶとん) and sit with your legs in the toasty warmth while you eat or relax.  I found an ad for a used one at the Japanese gift shop in my neighborhood, but the gentleman that had posted the ad said someone was coming to look at it already.  I held out hope that they would pass, but sadly they took it!  So close!  I did ask him to keep me in mind if he knew someone else that would have one and want to sell it, and he acted like he'd hang on to my phone number just in case.

  On an unrelated note, my kitty Agnes died today.  She was a sweet little himalayan and I will really miss her.