Out and About

Busy weekend. Saturday we went to Umeda and did some shopping. Bought some simply delicious green tea and a few other things. I forgot how cool the basement level of department stores are. First, you must know that ALL Japanese department stores have the same basic floor layouts (and how Japanese is that..) and the basement floor happens to always be restaurants and tons of little specialty food stores. They're great places to find hard to get food items or to just find high quality, if not somewhat expensive, food. They also have a terrific open market type atmosphere. I wish I had taken some pictures. Next time.

After that, we took a trip to Osaka Castle. That was pretty nice, though the weather was not. I had been there before, but it's a beautiful site to see either way.

We spent Sunday at my old host family's house. I hadn't seen them in a while. I always enjoy going there, though I usually end up staying hours longer than I planned on. Miwa, my host sister, was in a particularly good spirits, which is quite rare, to say the least. She wanted to go out to karaoke, but it was a little too late and a school night at that. Maybe next time.

I have off tomorrow! And this coming week is super easy. Monday and Tuesday are mid-terms, so no classes and Friday is school trip day. I'll be accompanying the 8th graders on their trip to Universal Studious!

Lastly, I would like to start adding in some more general interest type content, but still keep with a Japan theme. I sort of did this in the beginning, but lately I haven't. So here is a nice picture that helps to sum up Japan in the fall. It almost time for fall leaves here, so I hope to get some nice photos posted in the coming weeks, check back soon!