Unfortunately spent most of this day on a desperate quest for diapers.
At home, Susana wears cloth. But, when we travel, she wears disposables. I’ve purchased several different brands of Korean diapers before with no problem. But, for some reason, the day before we left, I completely lost my mind and decided to go with a package of a different, much cheaper brand.
When we left Seoul, her diaper bag was still packed with diapers from our last trip. We didn’t try to use the new diapers until we needed to do a change in our hotel room—about 4:30 Wednesday morning.
That’s when I discovered that some brands of diapers are tabless! They have no sticky tapes with which to fasten the diaper on the child. I have no idea who uses these disposables, and if they’ve just trained their kid to balance a certain way to avoid leaks, but this was not going to work for us. We put Suse in the tapeless diaper inserted into one of her ‘less used’ (I know, gross!) diapers that still had sticky tapes on the sides until dawn when I discovered one remaining unused ‘good’ diaper in her diaper bag. Then, after David left for work, I began my Tokyo adventure on a quest for nappies.
Given that I had a healthy almost 10-month-old in her last disposable at 8 a.m. the clock was ticking. I followed the directions from the concierge desk and—with Susi strapped to my chest in her pack carrier and her backpack diaper bag on my back—I climbed aboard the hotel shuttle back to Shinjuku Station.
The area around the train station is full of all kinds of shops and restaurants and the concierge had pointed me toward a “big drugstore” across from the main post office about a block from where the shuttle lets off. I think I found that drugstore (not being able to read Japanese, and not being given any kind of store name, I can’t be sure). But they said they had no diapers.
The pharmacy clerk did point me toward another drugstore that she thought would have them another couple blocks away. I never did find that store. I did find a few other Westerners who said they were familiar with the area and pointed me toward yet another “big drugstore” they were sure had “lots” of baby items. But that place also—if the drugstore I found is the correct one—also had no baby items.
By this time, I was feeling desperate. Susana was asleep in her carrier. It was after 11 a.m. and I was several blocks away from the hotel, with still no idea where to get diapers. I decided to shuttle back to the Hilton and get some tape in the gift shop and just make do. Lo and behold, the Hilton has a pharmacy. With diapers. They are only the Pampers pullup kind, but they work.
Crisis averted. (Narrowly by the looks of the situation when I finally change her.
I am bummed that I spent almost an hour wandering around some amazing shops (a giant electronics store that takes up almost half a block) and have nothing to show for it. If the weather holds, maybe we’ll come back later this week.
After deciding to decompress in the hotel room for a bit (and put Susana in her stroller) we recovered our game plan and headed out to Shinjuku Chuo (Central) Park, about a block away from the hotel. The park is very large and shady, with lots of winding paths and beautiful old-growth trees. It’s home to the Kumano Jinja Shinto shrine (the link is to someone who’s taken much better photos of it) as well as a fair number of homeless people who live in tents covered with bright blue waterproof tarps. When I first saw the clusters of blue hills, I thought that park officials were working on part of the landscape. I soon realized that, no, people are living here. One man was even doing his laundry and hanging it up to dry on the chains lining the paths.
In the few days we’ve been here we have seen more homeless people in Tokyo than I have seen in Seoul. Maybe we just haven’t been to the right places in Seoul. I have seen a few men sleeping in subway stations or underpasses during the winter. walking to dinner last night we saw several men preparing cardboard-box beds in building doorways. Maybe the homeless population is just more visible here.
Coming in tomorrow’s post: Taking our daughter to an izikaya by mistake, convenience store maki, and more. …Tags: Japan, Shinjuku, Tokyo
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Kent 05.29.08 at 3:27 pm
It should be tough your diaper adventure, but sorry it was very funny story to me. Haha.
Anyway, your photos for Shrine are much better than the photos you linked.
Cat 05.29.08 at 4:19 pm
Thank you, Kent! I am taking photos with our ‘cheap’ one-shot camera while out with the baby.
I love the pictures you put up of the Woljang temple on your Naver site. I need to find a way to comment there.
annamatic 05.29.08 at 6:12 pm
Ooh, I want to visit tokyo again! The “taking our daughter to an izakaya by mistake” post sounds like it will be fun…
two things i recommend in tokyo…
yoyogi park - there were a lot of indie bands lined up on the walkway next to it, you can take a stroll and listen to some pretty good sets along the way, all for free. also check out the cosplay action :-) and there’s a meiji shrine next to it.
tokyu hands - i think they sell everything here. maybe even diapers!
Jodi 05.29.08 at 8:36 pm
I love Tokyo (and Japan in general)!
I am not sure what the comparisons are in terms of the homeless in Japan vs. Korea. I know that in Busan, many of the homeless I recognized were elderly people/pensioners but they did not look like your stereotypical homeless person…they dressed as neatly as they could manage and were somewhat well groomed, many of the men wore old-fashioned hats. The only give-away was the bag of belongings they carried with them and their loitering in public places. Sometimes fights would break out among them as well or they would harass passer-bys. They hung out at the train station a lot, in the parks and the in subway and stood in line for free meals that were distributed in the parks…it did take me a while to recognize they were homeless, though.
As for the situation in Japan, I do know that many middle-aged salary men lost their jobs after the economic bubble burst and also as a result of that, the price of living in Tokyo increased as well. I had been told that many left their wives and families out of shame and accepted a life living in the streets. I also believe some of Japan’s minorities (Burakumin) have faced discrimination in mainstream society which has forced them into dire situations as well, sometimes meaning homelessness.
On a brighter note, if you have a chance, go to Harajuku… there is a FANTASTIC ramen shop there…I suggest getting Tonkotsu ramen/pork stock ramen. To this day, I still fantasize about that stuff! There are also lots of crepe stands as well, although you may have already found some in Tokyo…they are everywhere!
I kind of miss Asia once in a while. It’ll be great to go back next month as I have to escort a film crew to China for work - just before the Olympics, too!
Asianmommy 05.31.08 at 5:32 am
Wow–I know how you feel. We always had to pack a bunch of diapers and wipes whenever we travelled. One time, I ran out of wipes, and had to pay $3 for a travel pack of 15 wipes at the airport. Can you believe it? Desperate times call for desperate measures!
granbee 05.31.08 at 7:35 am
Do I have vague recollections of using actual diaper pins on disposables when traveling with David and his big sister a zillion years ago? (Some brands of disposables in those days had very “weak” tapes, you know?) Maybe minor leaks seemed less catastrophic that some of the alternatives? Anyway, this post brought a few chuckles to me, as well as Kent. Like Kent, I am enjoying your photos of the shrine.
Auntie Pasto 06.01.08 at 2:26 pm
Two words. Duct tape - now in many attractive colors.
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