Sunday morning. Why is it that when we as a family don’t have to get out of bed for anything in particular, the girls pick ME to wake up early, and not Joe? I was up with Maylin three times overnight, and then Téa decided she needed me at 7am as well. Luckily, I was able to fight them both off and stay under the covers.
Today may be a Sunday, but because we’re going on a three-day adventure starting tomorrow, we have school work to do. We are flipping the script today though, heading downtown first and doing school work after. Will it be a good idea?
The first fun vending machine we find at the subway station today, is the IJOOZ machine I’ve been promising Téa that we’ll try one day. That day is today! She inserts her 350 in coins, and 45 seconds later, she has a cup of the very freshest, most orangy orange juice ever!
We are now close to Umeda station, and I suggest that we go find the “ramen district”, Fukushima. Joe suggests going to a couple of stores first, so we head to the Hanshin building. I take a few moments on the cosmetics floor, and then meet the others on the Loft (souvenirs) floor. We browse the Christmas selections and mourn the fact that we won’t be decorating this year. Next Christmas will be all the sweeter!
Loft’s suitcases were more expensive than Bic Camera, so off we go to hunt for some ramen. I’ve got one more stop to make along the way first though…
Another 10 minutes down the road, we finally make it to Tonkotsu Mazesoba Kozou+. They have counter seating visible from the entrance, but tables hidden in the way back. We placed our order at the machine at the front, and took our seats. The girls were splitting one order of noodles, and Joe and I both had the King Pork soba noodles.
The restaurant had scissors on hand for cutting the extra long slice of pork belly, so we shared some of that with the girls. Such a delicious bowl of noodles! Not quite ramen, but lip smacking good!
After lunch, we were going to handle the two things we came downtown for: a suitcase and a cheesecake! We took the subway down to Namba, and split up. Maylin and I were going to buy cheesecake, Joe and Téa were picking up the suitcase. Maylin and I headed into the OIOI mall (I call it oy-oy because that’s what it looks like with Norwegian eyes, and it’s so much funnier in Norwegian) to use the washroom before lining up for what could be a very long, Sunday afternoon cheesecake lineup. By the time we were almost at the front of the line for the women’s washroom, Joe and Téa had already purchased the cheesecake and arrived at the suitcase store! By the time we arrived at Bic Camera, Joe was just paying, and we all headed towards the subway to get home. We had cake to eat!
This cheesecake… If you haven’t had Japanese cheesecake yet, you are severely missing out! In Canada, we are so fortunate to have Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecakes at malls around the country, and their lineups are pretty epic as well. I think my first Japanese cheesecake was when my sister-in-law brought a whole one down for each of her siblings’ families at Christmas one year.
There are two lineups at Rikuro’s cheesecake stand. You can line up for a fresh, still hot, straight from the oven cheesecake, or you can rush through like any old barbarian and purchase cheesecakes that are more than 2 hours old. Joe bought his cheesecake from the cheesecake lockers further down the market alley, and bypassed all lines in total.
These cheesecakes have no crust, no sides, only a few raisins around the outer edge of the bottom, and otherwise it’s all fluffy, airy, lovely cheesecake. There’s no dense, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth feel, just a cloud. Imagine cotton candy but cheesecake. A chiffon cake, but cheese. It’s so jiggly when they take them out of the oven, and then they brand them with the face of Rikuro.
Now my only problem is, how many cheesecakes can I manage to eat before leaving Japan in 12 days?Read more about Rikuro’s cheesecake here https://www.rikuro.co.jp/en/ and then run to book your flights to Japan with your nearest travel agent.
The girls sat down to do their school work while Joe got groceries. NOT a good idea. Always have a carrot for finishing school work. Fair enough, dinner was being prepped, but I think we’ll continue our previous pattern, school work first, exploring after…
Tomorrow is adventure day, the girls didn’t settle down until about 10.30pm, and I’m just finishing this post in time to collapse into bed at 11.30pm… Fingers crossed they let me sleep all night long!