It is the best time of the year.

The sun has calmed down. Show of power done.
The warm golden rays hugged by the mild breeze. 15-22 centigrade is just perfect. Aircon take a long rest.
The air has its fresh smell as if free from polution. Autumn flowers start to bloom. The leave will change its color anytime soon.

But. Two suitcases and two duffle bags are packed. Full with sembe, nori and anything has "Made in Japan" on its back.
Air ticket issued. Reservation made. Vacation approval received. Refrigerator emptied. Obachan nextdoor agreed to plant-sit my plants.
Heading to the origin. The half root land for my baby.
Ready to play rich. Servant to serve. Driver to drive. Grandparents to spoil the grandchildren. Stress to erase. Beloved friends to kiss and gossip all night long.
Full of memory place to visit. Countless food to taste. Three cities to concure.
For the next 16 days, forget the smell of garlic on my hand. The laundry. The hungry crying kids. The stress in due date race. The early morning wake up. The net and mailboxes.

Yes, heading for the even better time of the year.

Suzuran dental clinic.
Waiting for my turn.
Television showing a travel channel in the volume you can hardly hear.
The monsterly-high-pitch-drill sound from inside shout louder.
Line of magazines with crumpled pages haven’t changed for weeks.
I can memorized each page, I turn them many times.
The neatly lined up toys are now messed by my two little monsters.
Monsters feel at home already.
Two old men and a woman that perhaps share their saliva on the sucker pipe with me.
Sharing the throwing basin after gargle from the paper cup.
My paranoid side hope they don’t have HIV or flu and the alike.
Still waiting.
The cold sweat scared of dental treatment has long been gone.
Every single week from June I hang out in this room.
A regular customer.
18 visits and counting.
He said this one need root canal treatment. That one too.
And another one too.
That filling need to be replaced. And this too.
The crown to be changed.
Plaque to be cleaned.
Gum to be massaged.
The list continue, one after another.
Each week the cash register print 2560 yen in bold and loud sound.
Even more when I have to pose cheese for x-ray.
Don’t want to stop, trying hard to drain my purse.
That is 30% of the real amount.
The insurance company must hate me.
And he must so love me.
Appointment at 7:30.
Lucky if I can lay on one of his three dental chair at 8:00.
Hubby said I should go to another place.
He squeezes you. He is expensive. He is not on time.
But he give me no break to run away.
And his hand, doesn’t hurt me.
My teeth is not perfect.
But it is not that bad too.
But too bad, they just love him.
His gentle treatments.
His neat end result.
With the broken English, he keep on pushing the list.
So here I am, still waiting.

I am not that one so much into shopping coupon, actually. Just don’t have the time and if any small spare time, it just worth more than the money save from the coupon, the hunting time & management of it. I know  some friend who crazy about this. She will go around cycling around the neighborhood to utilize the coupon and get different product at the lowest price. Go to Supermarket A to get eggs as price there is 30yen cheaper than any other place. Sugar and rice is in Shop B. Fish in Shop C but only on Wednesday and Friday to get it cheap. The list continue, the coupon in action.

The secretary at the office crazy about coupon. She collect from newspaper, flyers, website, you name it. 20% discount for hair cut in Salon A. Buy one get one free for lunch at Restaurant B. Free soft drinks at Cafe C. 15% matinee show in Cinema D. She got coupon about everything. I just like to go to her place to ask what she has and luckily she is generous in giving and sharing the tip how to utilize it in optimum way.

I am OK with point system. Cause it doesn’t hassle you. Same with the mileage system in airlines membership. You buy the product, automatically receive the point. Lucky me so far I flew, stayed at Hotel for free. I lost count on how many membership card I have. I have this small name card holder that can hold 50 cards, it is full. Every shop now has this point system. Hotel, airlines, supermarket, salon, shop, restaurant, credit card, cafe, even dentist and children music school.

Saying the above about coupon, I have one exception. Carrefour. As it is just located in front of my office building, it is just so practical for me to get the weekly groceries there. Monday is quiet business day for Carrefour, so from years ago, they have this scheme that for every 6000 yen you spend, you will get shopping coupon of 500yen. You just got to show your receipt in Customer Service Counter and they give you the coupon. I always get my coupon every Monday until I learn that you can collect your receipt from which ever Monday and get the coupon. So I thought, I should collect many Monday receipt and once it is big, I can get the bigger coupon instead of 500 yen only. Not difficult thing to do, beside it is also the basic principal of saving we learn from childhood. Save penny by penny so one day it sum up in big amount that you can use for something bigger and better. So I collect my Monday receipt in a box. Until it piled up, I decided to get the coupon. Receipt sum up about 100,000 yen, I will get coupon with value of 8500 yen. Yeah! Not bad. I can get a week of grocery for free. Or new toys for the children. Or some books that I have in my wishlist. Or some rebate to buy my dreaming branded pouch (yes, here Carrefour has branded corner selling Prada and Omega and the gang, but that’s another story).
So with all the excitement I brought my receipts last Monday. Here is what the customer service lady said:

"Sorry Mam, but the Monday voucher program has been discontinued from last month"

I tried many "but" sentence but it just didn’t work.
So sometime, don’t save. Just spend.

Damn you, Carrefour!