I went to Kinokuniya today. I actually really wanted to see if they had
that Yoshikazu Takeuchi book "The Reason I Love Arashi" or whatever
it's called but I was too embarrassed to ask at the Japanese info
counter. I know. I'm lame. I'm going to try another day.
I
bought a really cute schedule book and "Growing Up Asian in Australia"
edited by Alice Pung. So, as I was leaving the store the middle-aged,
female security guard checked my bag. Which is fine. All I had was 2
uni textbooks. I had to take them out to show her a bit. I was with
Jaimie (laimiejai)
and I think she checked his bag too. As she was checking his bag I went
through the security things and I beeped. I didn't think anything of
it, I usually just go back in and tell the security person because I
had nothing to hide. Totally innocent.
And she says to me "Why do you think you beeped?" And I was like "I don't know." I forget if I had to go through again with my bag. Maybe. And I must have beeped again. So, she goes to me "Come back inside."
So, I did and she grabs my arm - and I can still kind of feel her hand
on my arm, it wasn't rough but I can feel it - and tells me "More inside". And then she's like "I'm going to have to take you to the room." All I could think was "If I go to the room this is going to take a while. And Oprah said not to go to the second location." I said to her, "Look, can you check my bag because I really didn't take anything."
And she pulls out her mobile phone to call some other person. And this
other person comes and he checks through my books and makes me walk out
with just the items I have just purchased and I beeped. So the guy gets
it that it's the books that haven't been demagnitised or whatever.
(Btw, I remember thinking to myself after the check out guy handed me
my books, "I don't think I saw him do the demagnitise thing.")
And then I got to leave.
As soon as we were out the door Jaimie goes "Dude, she was following us the whole time."
We had been in the store for about an hour. We went from the stationery
section to the Japanese/Chinese section to the language section on the
other side of the store. I remember seeing her in the Japanese magazine
section and thinking, "What is this middle-aged lady doing here?"
And I may have also bumped into her on my way to the Japanese section.
Maybe what made her suspicious was me opening my bag trying to find my
scrap of paper that had the name of the guy who wrote the book about
Arashi.
So, yeah. Apparently she was following us. Maybe I
just shouldn't have gone back into the store after it beeped. I should
have just walked. I don't know. But I didn't think anything of it. I'm
not doing anything wrong, I was just doing what I thought I should do.
And if you were a thief why would you let them look freely into your
bag?
I'm more embarrassed than anything. The other people in the
store must think I'm a shoplifter. I'm going to write a letter to
whoever I should be writing a letter to. I had a good time looking at
books for about an hour at Kinokuniya. I didn't realise I was being
followed. And she just zapped the fun out of it. I think she was new.
An experienced security guard wouldn't just take you straight to the
room.
This might be wussy but I don't feel comfortable going
back right now. I was going to go again tomorrow to buy this other
book. But I feel weird. Falsely accused. I know it's little but it
really made me feel bad. But I'm sure I'll get over that but I think I
won't be bringing a bag to Kinokuniya anymore. It's really made me
paranoid. And I don't want to see her again.
So, if you're
going to Kinokuniya, she's middle-aged, got an accent, curly brown
hair. The big tip off would be the security badge she wears under her
blazer.
Btw, I think they got a new security team. Because the
guy was walking around tell people that they're not allowed to have
drinks in there. Which is a rule but I've never seen it enforced
before. People had leave the store. Doesn't make the experience that
enjoyable.
So, yeah.
I just needed to get that off my chest. I want a drink. Preferably alcoholic but yeah ... I have none in my house.
Oh, if someone does see that Yoshikazu Takuechi book, tell me!
x-posted
ETA: Also, they're selling DVDs and CDs at Kinokuniya now? They weren't there yesterday ...
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