Day 7 in Japan - Exploration begins!

Happy birthday Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling and Kim. To celebrate your birthday, Sam and I had a big day of nesting and exploring. First, we swapped stories of our trips to get to our house here and now – me through Tokyo, Sam through Osaka. Then we set to work moving furniture around and cleaning up the house. We rearranged the bedroom, lounge room and kitchen cupboards to set the house up a little more to our liking. I am happier with the place now, although we might still do a little more rearranging. Also talked on the phone to Mum for a while. At about midday, Sam and I hopped on our bikes and headed up to Akashikita High to show him around. We went up the hill above the school to look back a little, and found a golf range and a kids water play park (kodomo only according to a non-English speaking man who came out of his hut to chase us off). Rode back to the CO-OP for some lunch, and had delicious taiyaki – the lady asked if we wanted cream, and we said OK for one. After we had eaten our red-bean paste (ando?) taiyaki, the lady came to the table with two more, both custard cream, because she had forgotten to give us one before. She was so nice, and both the ladies at the café were really nice and helpful with trying to explain signs to us. We also found that the place next door in the CO-OP not only sold hanko, but also copied keys, so we got Sam a hanko and a key for the house here. I found out that I can fit into Japanese clothes! Very excited that I could buy an M and have it fit me.

We headed back to the house to drop off our purchases, and had a quick sit in the shade before we realised it was 4 pm already, and then walked back down to Okubo station. We spent the afternoon exploring Okuboeki minami shops – mostly the My Cal complex. We went into an arcade (although we couldn’t find any real looking games? Mostly kids stuff), took photos in a photo booth, ate a cheeseburger, played with some puppies, and ate some donut circles and bubble tea. We even went and checked out the movie times for Inception at the Warner My Cal. We found a HUGE pachinko parlour while wandering back north again, and seem to have discovered that Japanese call Toyota “Toyopet”? We are pretty confused about that. I successfully used my first squat toilet (or more accurately, had my first successful use of a squat toilet). We cruised the supaa (Max Value) again on the way home, and bought some snacks, and I am very happy to have found some garlic (ninniku) to buy. I think Max Value is probably a better supermarket for most of the packaged stuff than the CO-OP, but the deli and bakery up north are a little better. More cupboard clearing again when we got home, and Sam and I are now discovering the joys of menthol forhead packs we found in the cupboard for making us feel nice and cool while having a rest.

Food highlight of the day: TAIYAKI! These are like fish-shaped waffles filled with deliciousness. We both liked the red bean paste filled ones the best.