Monday 17 January 2011

SNOW! and some other things....

Back in November we went to Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. Here are few pictures I took with the point an shoot camera in Osaka.
Night life in Osaka. It's no Tokyo, although still pretty huge. This is Shinsaibashi
In Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori (two parts of one huge shopping and nightlife district) you will find many interesting restaurants and shops. We ate okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake. It is savory and has thin slices of dried fish on top. We can eat this in our city (and all over Japan, I assume) but Osaka is famous for okonomiyaki and takoyaki. Takoyaki is pretty similar, but it is smaller and has a piece of octopus inside of it.
Okonomiyaki! yum!
Another delicious thing you can eat in Osaka are Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I knew there were starbucks and Mcdonald's in Japan, but who would have thought Krispy Kreme would be here! We had them in the morning and it was about 5 minute wait. However, if you don't go early in the morning then you will have to wait a while. Every time we past the place the waiting time grew.
Shockingly enough, we actually saw waiting time go all the way up to 1 hour 40 minutes!
Japanese fashion is well...it's special. Here's one style I can't quite wrap my mind around......
These outfits are not for your cute little girls, but for grown women.
 At home in Mizuho we found an all you can eat within 90 minutes buffet called Mamma Mia. There is also a drink bar where you can order cappuccino's with cute pictures.
It's a bunny, how cute!
Last week (Jan. 9) We decided to buy bikes. I am so glad we did. It now takes us three minutes to get to work! We've ridden them every day since we got them.
On Sunday we got our first snow since we've been in Japan. (However, I did hear it snowed when we were back in the states for Christmas). So, when I saw the snow I thought it would be nice to make some chili. So, we road our bikes to the store. Here are some pictures from that glorious time.
the maroon bike with stuff in the basket is mine. The silver one next to mine is will's.
At Piago, the local grocery store

Don't I look special.
Will getting ready to park his bike.

Hooray! it's snowing!!!
Outside of apartment. Snowy Japan!

View from our balcony.

There's snow on our AstroTurf. Yes, we bought astro turf for our balcony back in October. It's our fake grass :) Now we can pretend its our backyard. But really it is just to wipe our feet on before coming back in. When it is warmer we drink tea out there, also.  
That's all for now. :)