Today we met my friend Tomomi^.^
She suggested to meet at 11:30 am at Yodobashi Electric Store. So we took the Midosuji subwayline to Umeda and tried to find the right exit. It is really comfortable that in Japan every exit has a number and sign for the places you can reach there.
Tomomi fetched us and introduced us to her new collegue. She can speak fluently English because she has been to Canada for one year. She also brought her two children (two girls) with her. Both have opposite charakter^^' While the younger sister is very lively and curious, the older one is very shy and didn't say anything to us.
Tomomi's former collegue Tanaka who I already know, also came to join us.
We intended to visit the Umeda Christmas Market but first we had lunch. The children were allowed to decide and they went for Omuraisu (tomato or butter rice rolled in omelette). Kiki and I weren't hungry at first, so we just wanted to have a coffee and little cake but when we saw the Omuraisu of everyone, we wanted to try ourselves XD Kiki and I could agree on butter omuraisu with kare (curry). We shared a ss-size portion. It was totally delicious^^
So we took the cake for dessert XD the restaurant offered an amazing combination of chocolate and matcha cake, so I couldn't resist X3
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| kare omuraisu/cake set X3 |
Finally we went to the Christmas Market at the Osaka Grant Front Building. It was a bit complicated to get there. Tomomi and Tanaka tried to take the lead but they were a bit confused, too XD
But anyhow we managed to arrive at the market. Visitors are welcomed with 'Willkommen zum Weihnachtsmarkt' (welcome to the christmas market) ^__^
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| entrance of the christmas market |
This market was really cool and much bigger than the small ones we saw in Tokyo. There were really many typical German market booths and they even write almost everything in German on their goods. You could get food and drinks like Glühwein, beer, bratwurst, Spätzle, Pizza ('German' pizza - we didn't know that pizza is German XD), Spekulatius, Lebkuchen and waffles.
In the middles of the place was also a huge Christmas tree^.^
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| christmas tree |
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| our group picture^^v |
Unfortunately it started to rain so it was no more fun walking around outside. So we avoid the rain by going in to the next café. We warmed ourselves up with a café latte and chatted a lot. Tomomi also tried to make a plan for the afternoon.
I would like to see some parts of the Festival of Lights illumination of Osaka, so we pointed out the nearest spots. But the illumination was just start at 5 pm, so we had still a bit more than 2 hours time to spend.
Around 3 pm her collegues had to leave already, so the three of us were on our own. For spending some time and not walking around outside (it was still raining -_-) we went to the shopping building Hep5 and stroll around the shops.
Kiki and I had to take a look at Cecil McBee again and we were totally happy to meet the shop staff member from last time again. She also recignized us and were also crazy about meeting us again^__^
That was so cool! We hope to see her again.
Then Kiki came up with the suggestion of having early dinner because she was hungry again O.o
Tomomi and I didn't mind so we went to the restaurant floor of the Hep5 and decided to have katsudon XD
The restaurant really sold interesting versions. Kiki and I took the mayo-katsudon (so the normal katsudon is topped with Japanese mayonaise) and Tomomi decided fot the cheese-katsudon (the katsudon was gratined with cheese). Totally delicious *_*
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| mayo katsudon & miso soup |
Now it was passed 5 pm, so we could go back to the Umeda station and took the subway to Yodoyabashi and headed for the Osaka City Hall. In front of the City Hall the building was beautfully enlightended^.^
The path around the City Hall was also covered with lights and there were also some christmas market booths located. On the other side of the hall they showed in illumiation show which had the frontof the building used as screen. That was awesome^^
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| Osaka City Hall |
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| light show |
Unfortunately the rain got stronger and our feet were already wet so it was no use walking around outside anymore U.U We quit our plan to visit another light location and had back to Namba. In the Namba Walk (an underground shopping mall) we went to the Café Break and had another coffee. It was very enjoyable and we had a lot of girltalk XD
We spend two hours chatting before going back outside. But in Namba and Shinsaibashi the shopping streets are roofed,so we strolled around the area till Kiki suggested again to have late dinner now XD
Tomomi and I were quite surprised... and not hungry but we hadn't got better ideas so we visit an Okonomiyaki restauant which offers some drinks, too. I tried the cocktail I had in Los Angeles again but this time with apple taste. The drink had a nice cyan colour X3
Kiki was happy about her yakisoba while Tomomi and I shared an okonomiyaki with pork and shrimp.
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| Kiki's cooking show |
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| the okonomiyaki makers XD |
We had much fun together but finally around 10 pm Tomomi wanted to leave because she had to work the next day. She went to Namba Station while Kiki and I went down the Shinsaibashisuji to get back to our hotel.
Although we couldn't enjoy the christmas market and illumination to its fullest, it was nevertheless a nice day and I was happy to meet Tomomi again^.^
Tomorow will be our last day in Japan. And it will be my first time I am not at home for christmas...
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