Local Flea Market

I'll take a hamburger, fries, and that shirt over there...

This last Saturday we finally had a chance to go out and cruise around. Matt had a car wash for track in the morning so we got a late start. By the time we stopped at the bazaar on base, picked him up, went to the PX, and had lunch (at the A&W on base) it was well after 3pm. We just headed out with vague ideas of heading to Naha.

About 15 minutes south of us, there is a HUGE A&W. One of the old fashion A&W's you rarely see in the states anymore- they have where you can park and order the food and they will bring it out on trays which hook to your open window (remember that?). Anyway, this A&W is huge with a large play area and tons of outside tables. As we drove by on Saturday we notices they were mobbed with people- on a closer look we realized they were having a flea market. We stopped nearby at an outdoor store, only to realize they were closed for remodeling. Since it was a short walk back to A&W I convinced the guys we needed to check it out (actually, I just headed over and they decided it was easier to follow me than to wait for me!). Notice the gentleman directing traffic? That's one thing we have noticed here- a lot of businesses/stores have someone to direct traffic in and out of their parking lots. When you are leaving, they will step into the road and stop traffic for you so you can pull out- A very nice feature!

It was interesting to see the local flea market items...and to realize the stuff was about the same as you would see in any American flea market. Lots of clothes, stuffed animals and toys. (in the picture you can see the two little girls playing in the tote- they were so cute! I took the shot on the sly- not even lifting up the camera) I was surprised that most of the prices were so cheap- I had heard the local FM stuff was expensive. David found a cool silver necklace for 100Yen (that made is day!), Matt bought a shirt and tie for 300 Yen (right now the exchange rate is about 100Y=$1.00) and we found a "baby" (stuffed animal) for Ty for only 10Y. We had trouble with the last one- David asked how much the moose was and we just couldn't understand her answer...then we weren't sure if she really meant it was only 10Y (.10 cents). She finally found a ten yen coin and held it up. After much laughter, she had her 10 Yen and we had a new baby for Ty.
A fun and unexpected stop.