Wednesday and English today. We have discovered that Maylin and Téa have opposite favourites in school, at least so far. Téa loves English and dislikes math, and Maylin loves math, but dislikes English. I hope it’s not the teacher influencing their opinions!! At least they both agree that learning Norwegian is the pitts…
After our disappointing discovery yesterday that we are not currently able to ship gifts to Canada, we look through our gift table and check all the expiry dates. There are a lot of snacks to go through, if we won’t be able to ship anything! One particular treat has already expired (oopsies!) and is in need of being eaten – asap!
Luckily the girls love all things cute, and don’t care that they are 14 days past their Best Before date.
We had the pot pies that Téa chose yesterday for lunch today, and then we were ready for our day. Our plan for today is looking for a new suitcase to bring all our Canada-bound gifts around the world, so off we go towards Namba again.
First things first, we needed a snack, and after searching high, low, left and right for an independent local treat café, we ended up at Tully’s. Maylin chose a strawberry swirl muffin, I had a matcha latte and a chestnut pastry, Téa had a walnut donut, and Joe got a cinnamon roll with his coffee.
If you run a café or restaurant inside a mall or other large building, you have the advantage of not having to provide your guests with a washroom, as one is available in the public areas right outside your door. This is why, once we finished our treats, we got to explore the lobby and public areas of a theatre! On the second floor, right at the top of the escalators, we were met with this amazing scene, all carved figurines! It’s an actual 3D scene, I wish I could show you the full 360 degree view!
There was also a Costco product I’d never heard of downstairs:
We headed over to Bic Camera, which you wouldn’t guess is the best luggage store, but they have everything from pharmacy to cosmetics to cell phones, cameras, luggage, stationary… you name it! We found suitcases in all price ranges, which means we also have to do some thinking – quality, durability, price… And also size. Do we need a big one? (Yes!) Can we get away with a small one? (No!)
We walk out empty handed, for now, and head over to Dotonbori. We are aiming for Donki, where we do some more comparison of suitcases, from the cheapest to the most expensive, and the girls shop for socks. Fuzzy socks. Sleep socks, they call them. I line up to pay for their socks, while they go outside to watch the tourists along the river.
We were considering actually doing the ferris wheel here today, but then Joe discovered the “river cruise” option was on the right, and the ferris wheel was on the left. Suddenly, he appears with cruise tickets in hand! The boats were leaving every ten minutes, so we didn’t have to wait long before we could get on and enjoy our ride.
And because we weren’t quite ready to set off on our cruise just yet, we also had time for a family selfie:
The river cruise takes us 6 minutes in one direction, then turns around sloooooooowly under a very low bridge, and I fear this will be a 12 minute excursion. Then we take a goooood long look at the Glico running man. As in, the boat stops there and waits until each party has been able to take pictures of each person at least once, before we continue on down the river. All along the way, we are encouraged to wave to everyone walking or sitting or standing along the river.
By the time we make it back to the dock, it’s been a full half hour! Time flies when you’re having fun, too bad we couldn’t hear or understand any word the guide said (it’s all in Japanese, which is surprising for something that caters to tourists, but it is the same in all the amusement parks as well). And I guess we ended up with the dull guide, his colleague on the opposite boat was the life of the party, playing the trumpet, and I promise you that everyone on the sides of the river could hear her words, clearly!
After the boat ride ended, we were getting hungry, but couldn’t find or agree on a restaurant. We ended up in the very luxurious basement of one of the high end malls, and ended up purchasing from three different vendors for tonight’s dinner!
Clockwise from top left: My Kaizen bowl, delicious mackerel, mystery fish, salmon, squid, tuna, shrimp, crab, bbq eel, scallops and tamago on rice. Maylin wanted gyoza and rice. Téa wanted a cheese hamburg, and it came with corn soup, cured meat salad, rice, demi-glace and roasted vegetables. Joe went for a delicious bowl of ramen, which came with chicken karaage.
At this point it was getting late, and we contemplated heading down to Namba Parks for a third time, just to see if they’d managed to get all their Christmas lights up, but no. We were too tired. We headed home, where the girls played until bedtime, and Joe and I worked for a bit. (Have you noticed all the blog posts now have headlines? Changes are coming…)