Our plan today was to go explore the giant ferris wheel right next door to our favourite area, Umeda. We had never even seen it, because we’re always inside or below ground, so we decided that today would be the day.
First we waited for Kristian to come our way so we could head downtown together. We walked to the subway, and about half an hour later, we were right back downtown where we parted yesterday. We had to walk past this impressive takoyaki tower:
The ferris wheel is on top of this new-to-us mall, with a giant red (!) whale and baby whale as a focal point:
After hunting for, finding and finishing our business at a store for Kristian, it was time for lunch. I decided Kristian needed to try okonomiyaki, so we found a great place with large tables to introduce him to this very unique Osaka dish.
After lunch, Kristian headed back to his hostel to rest up for his fireworks event later in the evening (oh to be young again). We headed back into the red whale mall, and roamed around for a bit. What Joe hadn’t told us, was that there’s a Disney store here! I love Disney stores, and I cannot wait to go to Disneyland Hong Kong again in February. It’ll be my fourth time to this particular park! Téa is starting to see what my obsession is all about, and she speaks of our afternoon alone at DisneySea often.
This mall had many different stores, with clothing much more towards the edgier local youth than necessarily the rich travelling tourists that frequent the neighbouring malls. There were second hand shops and lots of outfits that could go straight on stage at a J-pop concert. There was also another familiar brand in this mall; Crocs! I did not purchase these heavily sushi, cookies and popcorn-decorated clogs.
As is our habit, mid afternoon we hunt for a snack. So we ventured back out onto our familiar network of floating walkways and picked a mall. I was originally hunting for a particular café and a particular dessert, but found 20 people already in line, and a menu starting at $18CA per item, so we abandoned that thought, for today at least. (Weekends get crazy busy out and about, this is why we’re fans of calmer weekdays, at stations, at restaurants, at the grocery store…)
But this mall, which I have shared pictures of before, with the unique architecture – today we discovered what’s with the wider flower portions at “the bend” in the building! Each floor, no matter which theme shops the floor has (women’s clothing, kids’ clothing, homewares etc), there’s a cafe right at the bend! Big bright windows and unbeatable views, THAT’s why I’ve been loving this building! I will definitely be back one day, on a weekday, after the lunch rush, to sit and enjoy and take pictures…
So realizing that the 4th floor café was not for us this day, and seeing that the 9th floor had only food, no desserts, we headed for the basement. We found two ice cream shops facing each other, one perfect for the girls, and the other for Joe and I. No seats, but we grabbed a standing table and had ourselves a little sweet break.
After that, we headed home. It was still early, lots of daylight left, but we needed groceries, and the girls needed showers. On the way from the subway station, I finally remembered to show you this colourful sewer lid, which I actually think is a fire hydrant?
Because I’m of the curious type, I tried to Google Translate the above picture, but the app didn’t read all the signs, so I painstakingly sat here and “typed”/painted each character into the translation app to get you an actual meaning of the writing on the lid.
Joe went to get groceries while I stuck the girls in the shower and said “abracadabra, clean yourselves”. It sometimes works… Joe then cooked a fantastic beef stir fried udon, and we had red bean mochis for dessert.
Tomorrow is another day, and according to the forecast, it’s high of only 23! That’s the coldest we’ve experienced so far in our Japanese journey, and a stark reminder to get Téa some new pants! I look forward to not overheating for once…