Monday again, and social studies on the agenda. We have switched things up a bit, and added math to Mondays and Wednesdays, and English to Tuesdays and Thursdays, to bulk up our school work while still in Osaka. Four and a half weeks to go, and then we’re off to Bangkok for 5 days. I have a feeling we won’t be doing much schooling in Bangkok, and our 4 weeks on the beach in Hua Hin will include Christmas. We’d better get some of this material underways!
After some extra spicy noodles for Joe and I, and some miso soup macaroni for the girls, we set off towards the city centre. Joe had found a destination he wanted to explore, and on our way there, we found a house with some particular pillars out front. I couldn’t capture them all, I think 4 or 5 in total, due to not wanting to disturb the large gathering of businessmen huddling outside. But I did capture this guy:
This area is called American Village, and if you squint really hard, you may spot a lady you have seen before at the top of the one building. The shops are filled with Americana, brands and symbols of North American culture. Shop after shop selling shirts with city and university and sports team names, with bright mascots and signs bringing in customers. There are lots of locals looking for their next cool purchase, as well as tourists looking for a taste of western food or drink.
We finally make our way to Big Step, a mall that takes the concept of negative space to a whole new level. Again, in Japan, most real estate is used in the most efficient way possible, and here they’ve decided on open space for a visual impact over efficiency.
By now it was snack time, and we settled in the coffee and sandwich shop in the basement for a quick break. Maylin and I loved the brownie bottomed cheesecake, which meant Téa got to enjoy the chocolate tart all by herself. Joe picked at them both, as he is always the one who “doesn’t need anything” and ends up stealing everyone else’s food…
Joe and the girls found it hilarious to show me the below vending machine, which I obligingly took a picture of for my blog, but it kind of pains me to have such a disgusting image on my phone. Might delete later.
We explored the “cute stuff” store which was not a “dollarstore” but more like a ¥390 store, everything was approximately $3.50CA. Joe finally got his own coin purse! You really need these in Japan, especially if you like gachapon or claw machines or (as we are about to discover) pinball machines.
On a higher floor, we found not just vintage clothes and second hand stores, but a vintage pinball machine arcade! Some games were ¥10 ($0.10CA) per play, others were ¥100 ($1CA). The girls did a couple of practice runs on the cheaper machines, I royally beat Joe at the Avatar pinball machine, and we all had a great time! (Right, Joe?) There were tourists and locals alike here, and pinball machines from every genre possible. Check out my reel on Instagram or Facebook for all the photos I took!
Another fun and quirky thing about this mall was that each floor had a different psychedelic theme. The below picture was the hallway that made me fear I was going to crash into a mirror wall at any moment, and another one was bright shock pink with oversized white “dripping” paint from the ceiling. One also had a different loud wallpaper on the outside of each stall. Trippy!
Because Téa and I had pasta on Saturday, Joe and Maylin had felt left out, and now wanted the same. We went to an Italian-Japanese chain we’ve seen out and about before, but not yet tried. The girls shared a cheese pizza and some hash browns, I had a meat sauce spaghetti, and Joe tried a fried shrimp tomato sauce baked rice dish. Because the meal itself was very affordable, and the portions not very big, we all had desserts as well. The girls milk ice cream, and Joe and I shared a chocolate ice cream truffle.
It was dark by the time we emerged from Big Step, and the mall looked even more magical all lit up! We also found their pretend gacha machine at the front, but Téa was sad to inform us the dial doesn’t actually move.
Instead of a walk and a subway followed by another subway and another longer walk, we opted for a 20 minute wait and a fairly direct but long bus ride home. While we waited, we found a pet store, where Téa tried to talk to her favourite puppy. For some reason, every pet store we’ve come across has this exact breed, this exact size/age, in this exact colour. It was a hopping busy place for a Monday evening!
I took this picture to show you the lit trees, and we were imagining what it will look like as soon as we get past Halloween and the Christmas lights come out. When I uploaded it to write about it, however, I discovered I have also captured Santa and his reindeer, way up high! Who should I report this to? Should I send it to someone to investigate? What are they doing out so early? Do the Japanese know something we don’t?
The bus ride home was long, crowded and warm. We got home about 7pm, which gave us enough time to play a bit of Switch before bed.
Så mye morro og interessant alle dager! Flotte bilder! Tror dere må ha mere energi enn mange andre….
Takk Mette! Det er takket være all isen vi spiser! Har fått kommentar i privaten om at vi er den mest is-spisende familien de noensinne har hørt om…