Sunday is the only day of the week for Kuniko to sleep in. I slept in with her and were able to sleep until almost 11 a.m. After that we got organized, had breakfast, and headed into Osaka.
We started with a visit to McDonald’s. I had mentioned the documentary “Super Size Me” to Kuniko a couple of weeks ago, and that had her craving fast food. Kind of the opposite effect of what the filmmaker intended, I think. I like going to McDonald’s in Japan because the menu is different. I had the ‘月見バーガー’, literally translated, the “See The Moon Burger”. It’s a regular burger with some ham and a fried egg on top.
Kuniko had to get some new clothes for work, and I had a few errands to run. We started by going to some of the department stores in the Hankyu building.
Shopping in these department stores is always amazing to me. First, the stores are jam packed. The clothes are super expensive – a blouse starts at $50, and jackets run around $300 or more. I had a lot of time to browse, and it’s easy to see all these high prices and think prices are out of control in Japan. When you think about it, we were shopping in downtown Osaka, the third largest city in Japan. We were in the glamour district, and these prices wouldn’t be much higher than shopping department stores in downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco.
As usual I got lots of looks walking around there. The place was crawling with women, and it’s a little unnerving to have them all looking at you. I earned a couple of joking punches from Kuniko because I said hello to some people that couldn’t stop staring. It’s all in good fun, though. I’m the nice foreigner!
Kuniko made some hard decisions and came out with a new blouse and skirt. The skirt is a great print – we were looking at it on the hanger, and I said that it reminds me of a 3D picture. She laughed and shook it in from of my face, saying “3D, 3D”, and that’s when the clerk came over to see what the crazy mixed couple were doing to her merchandise. I think my “out-of-the-box” nature is starting to rub off on Kuniko a little bit. She’s always been pretty independent, and gradually she is doing more little things that are not typical Japanese behavior.
After shopping hard, we went back to Kuniko’s place, and she cooked us a comparatively healthy meal – pasta alfredo. Dinner turned out great, and for dessert we had a cup of yogurt. The flavor was one I couldn’t recognize, though. The name of it wasn’t in our dictionaries, so I have no idea. It had pictures of palm trees on it – that was my only clue.
Kuniko sent me home with some habanero cheese that she had found, and also some Spongebob Squarepants macaroni and cheese that she had bought at an imported goods store. I guess she knows what I like.
I left her place a little earlier than usual so that I could go home and finish my weekly laundry, get organized for tomorrow, and write the words that you are reading right now. She walked me to the station, and even gave me a kiss goodbye in front of the main gates of JR Shin Osaka station as hundreds of people walked around us. That’s definitely not typical Japanese behavior!
On the train ride home a lady from Phoenix, Arizona chatted with me a little bit. She had been in Japan for a month, working on a teaching program supported by a sister city system. We chatted about what we missed most, and everything came back to food. She was one month into her year assignment, and she had already went crazy at Costco.
I’m getting ready to hit the sack. I’ll be busy tomorrow with a full day of classes, and two Japanese lessons.
