Friday is Norwegian class, and today we had an agenda! We quickly got all our language class and Duolingo exercises out of the way, showered, ate lunch and THEN! We headed in two different directions!
Téa and I headed downtown. She’s finished the book she got last time we went to the only bookstore in Osaka with a decent English language section, so today we made that our destination. Umeda Station is immense, and of course connects several malls and buildings both above and below ground. We were so quick and efficient with our main goal, that 15 minutes after arriving at Umeda, we had not one but TWO new books for Téa in hand. This girl is truly turning into her mother, and I can’t wait to return to Canada and find our new local library!
Books secured, we ventured off for some browsing. There are lots of fancy malls down here, so always something fun and cute to look at.
Anime and Manga culture is everywhere, and I may not know this robot’s name or genre, but you’ll find life sized character statues in all directions.
Whenever Téa gives a little squeal and runs towards a store, I know she’s found something cute. And no, I will not bore you with AAAALLLLL the pictures, because there are many.
Food souvenirs and food gifts are huge in Japan, and every tourist destination has a shop that sells branded snacks for you to purchase and gift when you return from your travels. We would need at least five more suitcases if we had bought everything we saw, wanted for our selves or wanted to gift along the way. That’s why our “shopping trips” are browsing trips instead.
Meanwhile, in another part of town… Joe and Maylin headed for the Science Museum!
They had a blast, three flours of new things to learn and explore!
We didn’t have groceries for dinner, and so when I passed a poster on the restaurant level where Téa and I had our snack, I sent it off to Joe. I was craving sukiyaki, my favourite meal from my last trip to Japan, and I hadn’t had it yet this time around!
Joe and Maylin met us on the restaurant floor, and we headed in to a Kyoto style restaurant, where I finally had my sukiyaki, and Joe had a grilled fish and sashimi kaiseki meal. Both of our sets came with pickles, miso soup, vegetables, dessert, rice and tea. Joe also got a bowl of stewed shredded daikon radish, and I had my large bowl of sukiyaki, thin beef slices cooked in a sweet and savoury sauce with noodles, tofu, mushrooms and onions. It’s SO GOOD! There’s also a raw egg on my tray, and my favourite part is the silky raw egg dip. Whisk the raw egg up, and then dip the hot elements from the sukiyaki into it. Nothing compares!
The girls picked the kids set, which is always a safe choice. This time it had a meat patty, a hot dog, a chicken nugget, a slice of omelette, some rice, a juice box and a couple of jello “shots” (non alcoholic, just teeny tiny and you’re supposed to gulp them down in one shot). The server also came over with a giant plastic basket with toys to choose from, so both girls got a new toy with their meals. And getting to eat their meal out of a fire truck? SO COOL!
After dinner, which was on the 14th floor, we descended to the 13th floor for some character browsing. Téa and I checked out the Harry Potter store, while Maylin and Joe headed to the Pokémon and Nintendo areas.
The Nintendo store makes my fingers and wallet itch so much, with the memories of my best friend Torunn and I spending countless hours playing the classic Super Mario Bros on my NES when we were growing up. All these characters bring back memories! I love that my girls now like the same family of games, so I guess this is a store we could all agree on.
We made it home in the dark, and nibbled on my baumkuchen purchases from yesterday’s shopping excursion. Even though I thought for sure the salted caramel would be the crowd favourite, we all agreed that the purple sweet potato was much tastier. I think the salted caramel maybe tasted too… fake? Intense, but not in a good way?
That concludes our Friday night, and now to plan our weekend…