私は高校の卒業と同時に車いすでの一人暮らしを始めました。
地元の京都を離れて、鹿児島で２年、アメリカで２年、東京で２年。
ジェフが東京に来て、２人暮らしを始めてもうすぐ２年です。
「大変じゃないの？凄いねー！」と言われることもありますが、
殆どのことは自分でできるので、私にとっては特別な事でも何でもないんです。
もちろん、私は家族の理解や周りの支えがあり、こうやって自立した生活ができるのであって
Moon Rider全員が簡単に一人暮らしができるという訳ではありません。
例えば、絶対必要な日々の食料品の買い物。
歩ける人なら両手にスーパーの袋をもって運べますが、Moon Riderは膝に乗せるか、車いすの後ろにかけるくらいしか方法がないです。
そこでスーパーのレジの方にお願いが・・・☆
レジを通す時に、良かれと思って勝手に品物をスーパー袋に入れるのは止めてください。
Moon Riderによっては袋を膝に乗せて持って帰る人もいます。
本人が膝に乗せ易いように食品の入れ方を工夫している人もいるので
まず「袋に入れましょうか？」と相手に聞いてください。
品数が極端に少ない時以外は一番大きい袋を”２枚”ください。
小～中袋だと車いすの後ろに掛けられない可能性があります。
既にバッグなど他の荷物も持っているはずなので（特に女性）、買い物袋はなるべく１つにまとめたいです。
なので大きい袋を希望します。
また重い野菜などが入った袋を車いす後ろに掛けると、袋１枚では帰る途中で破れる事があります。
特に私のように基本的に走っているMoon Riderは、袋が振り子のように揺れ、破れ易いですので２枚必要です。
会計後、買い物かごを袋詰めカウンターへ運んでもらえると嬉しいです。
会計のために財布やバッグを膝に持ってるので、もう一度買い物かごを受け取って運ぶのは大変です。
個人的には買い物の量が多いときは毎回お願いしたいです。
しかし、中には「全部自分でできるわ！」というMoon Riderもいると思うので
いつでもまず一声かけて相手の気持ちを確認するのがベストかと思います。
自由に動けるMoon Riderには以上のようなサポートがあれば、少しは快適に買い物ができると思います。
が！２人分の食料となるとこれはまた大変になってきます。
私も同棲生活を始めたころは週２～3回、会社帰りにスーパーまで走ってましたが、
量が多い＋時間がもったいないので、今はネットスーパーに頼っています。
お薦めはイトーヨーカドー。品数も多くて5,000円以上の注文だと送料無料です。
値段も広告価格（店舗）と一緒だし、曜日によって安売りセールもあります。
混んでいなければ朝注文してその日の夕方～夜でも配達してもらえるので非常に便利。
しかーし！先日注文した商品でちょっと残念なことが。
写真はHERSHEY’Sのチョコレートソース。
アイスにかけるために買ったのですが、めっちゃ小さい!!!
アメリカに売ってるサイズを想像していた（むしろそれしか見た事が無かった）ので
２人ともかなりショックを受けました・・・アメリカのはたぶん写真の３倍くらいのサイズ。
そして、一緒に注文したファミリーサイズのバニラアイスも想像よりかなり小さかった。
嗚呼、アメリカに帰りたい～～～～（涙）
まぁ、こんなこともありますが、、、
忙しいMoon Riderにとってネットスーパーは強い見方！になってくれるはずです♪
I had been living by myself ever since I graduated from high school.
I left my hometown, Kyoto, and went to college in Kagoshima, the south part of Japan, for 2 years.
After that, I went to university in USA for another 2 years.
As I completed my education journey, I moved back to Japan and started my career in Tokyo, one of the busiest city in the world.
I have been receiving a lot of comments like “it is really brave of you to live by yourself for these years” or “it’s must be very difficult for you to live by yourself!”
But I never really looked at myself in that ways. I just do what I can do like everyone else.
Of course, I have been supported and encouraged by my friends and family.
Their love and supports have kept me going forward to live an independent life.
I am definitely a very lucky person.
I believe not every moon rider, aka a wheelchair user, can live his/her life by himself/herself. After all, living alone is not easy at all.
For example, even grocery shopping can be a frustrating task.
A regular person will carry his grocery bags with his hands.
There are only 2 ways to carry grocery for moon riders (wheelchair users).
I either put the grocery bag on my lap for hang it on the back of my wheelchair.
There are few things I would like to tell all the cashiers at all supermarkets.
Thank you so much for helping me, but please ask me first before you put everything into the grocery bag.
In Japan, the supermarket cashiers usually don’t put the groceries into the bags after scanning the price tag for customers.
Instead, they put all the groceries into a shopping basket and put 2~3 plastic bags in the basket and ask you to do it yourself.
The lucky thing is that most of the supermarket cashiers in Japan will help handicapped customers or elders to put groceries in the bags.
That is very sweet and nice of them.
But they always assume that I can carry the bags with my hand.
The ways moon riders arrange groceries in bags are very different than the way of non-wheelchair users.
Moon riders want to make sure the grocery bag can sit on their laps stably so it won’t fall off on the half way home.
I sincerely appreciate Japanese supermarket cashiers for their kind helps.
It just would be even better if you can ask me how I would like to arrange my groceries before putting everything in the bag.
Or you can simply leave the work to me. 🙂
Please give me at least 2 largest size of plastic bags.
(OK, I know this might be a little too much to ask….. but this would definitely help all the supermarket managers to increase your supermarket brand image among all moon riders……at least in Japan!)
It would be very helpful if the cashiers can give moon riders at least 2 largest plastic bags at checking out when moon riders already carry some bags on their laps.
Especially for female moon riders, we usually carry our pretty lady bags when shopping around. In such case, we will hang the grocery bags on the back of our wheelchairs.
One plastic bag might not hold all the groceries since it is easy to break.
Two plastic bags will work just fine.
It would be fantastic if you can bring my groceries to the packing counter for me after checking out groceries.
In Japanese supermarket, customers will do the packing themselves at the “packing counter”after checking out the groceries.
However, at the moment when cashiers finished checking out and returning changes to moon riders, we usually have the wallet in our hands and bags on our laptops.
It would be difficult to bring all the groceries to the packing counter by ourselves.
It would just be so fantastic if you can kindly bring the basket to the packing counter for us.
Of course, it really depends on each moon rider’s situation when it comes to grocery shopping.
Some moon riders can do all above by themselves, some can not.
The fundamental principle of help is always the same, ask before you act.
If the supermarket cashiers can offer above kind support, it would greatly improve our shopping experience.
Groceries shopping can be even more difficult when I do the grocery shopping for 2 people.
It is going to be 2 years soon since Jeff moved to Japan to live with me.
I had tried to do grocery shopping for both of us twice to three times a week on the way home when I got off work.
But Jeff just eat so much (hahaha) that the grocery amount is growing way too many!
Also, as I got busier with my work I cannot do grocery shopping as often as before.
Therefore, I did most of the grocery shopping on the Internet nowadays.
One of the sites that I used the most is Itoyokado.
Itoyokado offers various groceries that covers my basic grocery needs and free shipping when the order is over 5,000 JPYs.
Itoyokado even offers the same special deal on the Internet as they offer at their supermarket! Same day delivery is possible if order is placed before noon.
However, it might be frustrating sometimes when shopping on the Internet.
I bought the HERSHEY’S chocolate syrup on the Internet.
We were gonna eat the ice cream we ordered on the same site with the syrup.
I didn’t realize that it is sooooooooo small!!!!
｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД`)ヽ(；Д； ) (Tears)
We had assumed that this is the American HERSHEY’S syrup when ordering it.
We were really shocked when it arrived at us……..
It is about 3 times smaller than its American brother……..
The ice cream is sadly surprisingly small as well….even it is family size in Japan. It is still so small……
We miss the USA so bad now!
Things like these happens on Internet shops, but Internet shops are still definitely great friends of moon riders’!