Kuromon Ichiba Market is in downtown Osaka, off of the Namba station exit. We found out by trial and error that this is a daytime market, not a nighttime street affair. It is fascinating! The narrow alleys are crowded with stalls and people and the sights and colors are all vibrant shades that pop out. The smells wafting out from each stall let you know if something is being cooked for the crowd. Fresh, premium fish can be found here. Wagyu and Kobe beef are cut here in generous strips and grilled on the spot. Thick pieces of fatty sushi sit atop little pieces of rice. Huge crabs, whole or cut up, are on sale. Fresh fruit and vegetables are…
Fun photos
Fun times in Japan! This guy is the mascot of our city, Minoh. He is a yuzu, which is a citrus fruit that is very popular in Japan. There’s yuzu sauce and yuzu soda, alcoholic yuzu drinks and yuzu sweets… From the City of Minoh’s website: “The city’s mascot is a Samurai with a tender heart called “Takinomichi Yuzuru”. He goes everywhere in Japan to promote Yuzu and the Minoh city. If you can meet him, you are very lucky! Pat softly his eyebrows of the trademark and the happiness will come to you.” Oh shoot. Kaiyo didn’t know this and didn’t pat his eyebrows! This sweet treat is called taiyaki. It’s a detailed fish shaped snack usually filled with…
Cat Cafe – for Cat Lovers
Today, Sunday, October 23, Avalon said her dream came true. John and I took her and Kaiyo to find a Cat Cafe. What is a Cat Cafe anyway? It is a place where you can pay an outrageous amount of money by the hour just to sit in a place with a lot of cats wandering around and have a drink of coffee, tea, juice or cocoa. You can’t even have a fun cocktail or champagne while you pet the furry felines crawling all around. Actually at least half of them are sleeping soundly like lumps on logs. I now want to open my own Cat Cafe in my house and charge by the hour and guests can come over…
Dumb Dental Disaster
Ugh. I had a dental accident today, Tuesday, October 18. I was walking upstairs swinging a little, white, empty, hard, plastic laundry basket and suddenly I tripped on one of the stairs. I fell forward and the laundry basket flew upward forcefully (Issac Newton’s third law of motion? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction? That basket hit me hard.) and it hit me square in the front tooth. Maybe I was huffing and puffing from the steep stairs, making me breathe with my mouth open. Anyway, the laundry basket hit my mouth at just the right angle and it broke my tooth. A whole corner of my front tooth just cracked right off. I couldn’t see…
Shoe Rules
In Japan, when you arrive at just about any house, apartment, some businesses, some schools, some restaurants and on and on… you will step into an area called the genkan. The genkan is the entryway of a structure where you will take off your shoes and leave them before moving further into the house, building or wherever it is that you have arrived. When it is required, taking your shoes off in the genkan is a pretty strict rule. Here is an explanation of genkan from Wikipedia: –The primary function of genkan is for the removal of shoes before entering the main part of the house or building. Genkan are often recessed into the floor, to contain any dirt that…
Appliances That Talk
Tuesday, October 4 My cousin wrote recently to say that she’s really enjoying the blog. She and her family live on the US east coast and we don’t get to see them that often. One of the best things about writing this blog for us is getting fun comments. To everyone who has commented on our posts: Thank you! It is so fun for us to hear from you. Please keep it up. And if you haven’t commented, but have thought about it, please do! Let us know that you are reading. Thank you Val and Alisa for being our most prolific commentators. We love to hear from you! Also, thank you to Michael, Mayumi and Tipton who re-posted our…
Typhoon Malakas
8:30am There’s a typhoon arriving. We received notice at 6:30am that school has been cancelled for today, Tuesday, September 20. This is our first weather-related school closure ever. While that’s very exciting I also wonder how bad the wind and rain is going to get. The hourly weather report says that right now is the calm before the storm. It is 8:30am and it’s already raining fairly hard by our California standards. The real wind tunnel and downpour is forecast to start around noon. It’s a good thing I biked to the store last night (in light rain) and made 2 pots of beef and veggie curry. We can have leftovers today. I also have a big box of Swiss…
Special Guests Who Love Tigers
It is Friday, September 16 and we are getting the house ready for special guests coming tonight. My second cousin Mayumi is arriving this evening with her family from Sapporo. Mayumi is a big reason why we were able to come to Japan for a year. Without her help it might not have happened. She spent many hours talking to the people at the Sapporo Immigration Bureau on our behalf. They are planning to spend the night with us and we are super excited to see them. Sapporo is a 2 hour flight from Osaka. It’s the main city on the northernmost island of Hokkaido and home of the Sapporo Brewery. John and I spent the whole morning cleaning the house….
Talking Trash
Let’s talk trash. It’s Thursday, September 8 and I’ve been working on this post for a few days. It is possible that there is nothing more confusing or frustrating about Japan than the Japanese trash collection system. From day 1, it’s just over my head. I’m sure I’m super confused right now because we just arrived but I know I’m not the only one. Both Japanese natives and foreigners have expressed confusion to me about this crazy trash scheme. Andrew went over the trash with me several times when we arrived but I still get lost. He said he doesn’t even deal with the trash, he gives his wife that dirty job. It is even hard to know where to begin. …
Scenes From Our Surroundings
Wednesday, September 7 Here are a few interesting comments about our blog: From my 100-year old Grandma: RE: the Minoh waterfall post: Taki-michi means waterfall road. — Winnowing rice is shaking rice to separate from straw. — Momoji means red leaf. — Hyaku-en is 100 yen. My friend Sandi says she is impressed by my new commitment to Costco. But here is a seriously impressive commitment to Costco… I met a mom today named Julie whose son is a high school senior at OIS. She and her husband do not have a car. They bike everywhere. They say biking is cheaper than riding the train (and it is, but oh so much more work). She and her husband ride their…