Tuesdays are for math, and a dash of English for good measure. Our plan today was to have lunch out, but schoolwork took a while, so we stopped at the takoyaki stand by the train station on our way to our destination. Today, we decided to step inside and have a seat while enjoying the steaming hot takoyakis. I don’t know why we haven’t even considered this before! Tiny little place, very simple plastic crates for seats, with workers visiting for a cheap, fast, hot and delicious lunch. We went for 12 takoyakis today, so we could do some simple division for Téa and some “fair share” examples for Maylin… Everything is a learning opportunity!
We were heading for the Tenjinbashisuji covered market street, as Joe had seen a couple of places there he’d like to eat at, it was just never the right occasion. We hopped on the subway and headed north. When we got off the subway, at a stop we don’t frequent, we discovered a chocolate vending machine! Perfect, ideal, where can I get my own one, and will they refill it if it’s in my home?
It was 1:25pm by the time we got to the okonomiyaki restaurant that Joe was aiming for, and since they close at 2pm, we hurried in and ordered two different things: okonomiyaki with pork, and a yamaimoyaki with pork and seafood. Yamaimoyaki is the same as okonomiyaki, but whereas okonomiyaki is based on cabbage, the yamaimoyaki is based on Japanese yam.
A little old lady (by the way – I am in total awe of the older generation in Japan, no wonder they live so long!) came over with two little measuring cups with our batter, topped with the raw meat and a raw egg. After fishing the meat out to place it on the hot plate first, she then violently (!) mixed the batter and shaped our yakis right in front of us. This is how I remember it from my mom and I visited 18 years ago, and I was so disappointed not to get the full show for our first okonomiyaki experience here back in September!
There’s a lot of waiting when you order an okonomiyaki, ten minutes on the first side, ten minutes on the second side… And I guess it’s not that long when you consider most restaurants don’t serve your food right away, it’s just that the food is RIGHT THERE and you can SMELL IT COOKING! It’s all part of the experience, and makes it so much more delicious when you finally get to dig in.
When the waitress comes back to the table and deems the yakis done, she flips them one last time and sets out with paint brushes from little jars on the side of the table. First she paints each yaki in mayonnaise, then in BBQ sauce. Lastly she asks if we want powdered seaweed and bonito flakes and YES we do!
At this stage, we are finally allowed to touch our okonomiyaki and yamaimoyaki, and we dig right in! The big “hacker” is used to divvy them up, then smaller tools to place the slices onto our smaller plates. This is SO TASTY!
I remember arriving in Whistler in 2008, only a year after my first Japanese holiday, and befriending the staff at the sushi restaurant inside the hotel where I worked. I begged them to make me an okonomiyaki, and as luck would have it, one of the staff was from Osaka, and they put something together, off menu, just for me. Ahhhh the memories…
After lunch, we browsed the rest of the market, and found a familiar face:
When we were done with the market, we headed back over towards Kids Plaza and the playground that was crazy busy on Sports Day earlier this month! The girls had a blast being able to slide down the big yellow monster in the middle, and then running right back up and doing it again. All other kids were done sliding by the time they were back at the top, so this was the perfect amount of kids for maximum number of times down the slide! Also – all other families there today were speaking languages other than Japanese!
After the girls spent almost all their energy at the playground, we were going down towards Namba. We had to buy boxes to ship some stuff back to Canada before we leave Japan, and we’re toying with the thought of buying another suitcase…
By the time we got to Namba Walk, the amazing underground shopping network by Namba station, we were ready for a sit down type snack. We could of course get anything at a convenience store and stand still to eat it (remember, there’s no eating while walking in Japan), but in the midst of a 10,000-15,000 step day, it’s nice to sit for a little bit as well. Restaurants here are not places to dwell, you order, eat and leave, don’t take up valuable seats that could have paying diners in them! So every once in a while we need to take a break and have a snack.
Joe and I love the matcha themed cafés, but the girls don’t love the menu. The one we found today, however, Téa was quick to point out that they had milk ice cream, so they could have that while we indulged in matcha treats! DEAL! Joe has been wanting to try the matcha tiramisu since forever, and it’s never quite worked out (like last time in Kyoto), but today was finally the day! He ordered a matcha tiramisu and a roasted hot green tea to drink, and I ordered the roasted green tea tiramisu and a cold “black” matcha to drink. Téa got her milk ice cream, and Maylin was feeling adventurous so she had the matcha milk swirled ice cream.
Where a classic Italian tiramisu would have layers of cheesy eggy cream, this dessert has a white, sweet, gooey layer based on sticky rice flour. There is also a soggy cake layer at the bottom, mine drenched in roasted green tea, Joe’s in matcha. Of course the dusting on top is the corresponding tea as well. Both were exquisite, and we’ll have to hurry to find these as often as we can in our remaining two weeks and one day (don’t remind me, I might cry)!
After our snack, we briefly stopped by the small Ghibli store to take this picture, and to admire the toy sized replica of the entire home from the Totoro movie. Oh to have this at home, to dream and remember the movie by! Now that we fully understand why the joke is that most visitors leave with double the luggage they arrived with, it’s bitter sweet to see all the wonderful memories we COULD be bringing home, but lugging it through 5 countries with limited luggage is not an option… We’ll just have to come back!
We found cardboard boxes at Daiso and brought one home to see if our shipment would fit. On our way home, we split up and Téa and I went to the grocery store. There’s a reason Joe does most of the grocery shopping at home, I tend to buy everything fun that I discover on my way. Particularly dangerous in new countries, but we generally end up trying lots of fun things this way! Téa wanted pot pies for lunch for tomorrow, so we picked up three of those (they are not my favourite, and I have yogurt I need to finish), some pork for tonight’s dinner, and eggs, bread and milk for upcoming breakfasts.
We got home and tried to package one of our boxes for shipping. We’d stopped by the post office on our way to the train this morning, so we would pack it up at home and bring it in to ship it tomorrow. That was, until Joe was having difficulties creating the shipping label on the Japan Post website, no matter what he did, it would not let him continue after putting in the postal code. Then he started reading the limitations… Of course. Canada Post has rotating strikes, and has been partially on strike since late September, so they are not accepting shipments from abroad at the moment! Japan Post won’t accept packages destined for Canada (why couldn’t the “helpful” attendant have told us this when we asked this morning?). After thinking, it’s ok, we’ll bring it all to Thailand and ship it from there, we looked on Thailand’s post office website as well, and same there… So hurry up Canada Post, resolve your issues already, please!!
That’s it, thank you for reading my rant. It’s getting late and I need some sleep. I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with more fun and less frustrations!