Shinsaibashi Shopping

So I was a little discouraged after yesterday, but felt better after talking to my mom this morning. She was encouraging me to go out and do something fun, and she mentioned to me that there are Marriage Freres tea houses in Japan. This was a brand of tea we greatly enjoyed in France, especially their Fruits Rouge, a black tea with red berries. I looked it up online, and lo-and-behold there was a storewas in Shinsaibashi, Osaka! So, I had my mission for the day. It was an easy trip on the subway to Shinsaibashi, then a short walk to Daimaru (a fancy department store where the tea house was supposed to be). But when I got to the floor that the salon was supposed to be on, it clearly wasn't there. I double checked a few times, then decided to have a snack at a fancy sweet place. I got a strawberry and chocolate frozen yogurt and iced tea. It was good, though definitely expensive for the size!

Note: this is actually only an inch tall.

That wasn't really enough for a lunch, even for a sweet-tooth like me, so I left Daimaru to find somewhere to get some more food. I walk a few feet, and find... another Daimaru?? Oh, the Daimaru I just left was the North Wing or something. This is the main Daimaru. Alright, I go downstairs where they keep all the good food. Mmm lots of tasty stuff going on in here. I'm especially liking the bakeries. They smell heavenly. But I still have my tea mission. After walking around unsuccessfully, I write down the name of the tea shop (because I have no idea how it would be pronounced in Japanese) and ask a random employee if she knows where it is. She pulls out a super-secret store map, and points me just a few stands down. I find it, but it's not quite what I was looking for. Unfortunately, it's not a a tea house, just a shop where they sell the tea. However, they had the much sought Fruits Rouge! Success! Then I enjoyed walking around the various specialty food stores. I picked up things from a couple different bakeries and then decided to try a fancy bento (prepared lunch with different components in a box). I couldn't read the names so I just picked the best looking one. It turned out to be a great choice! It had some kind of mild, tender fish, flavored rice, lightly pickled vegetables, and a weird black thing that looked like it could be sea urchin. (I ate it but I still don't know). They had the fancy overpriced fruits you have heard so much about in Japan! They are packaged very prettily and look delicious, but I don't know if I could justify the prices... Here are some $20 grape bunches!

And here's my delicious food haul! I got a scone (!), fancy egg sandwich thing, tonkatsu sandwhich (you can't see it cause it's wrapped up with a mini ice-pack!), and the bento. Each store wraps up the food all fancy like and puts it in a bag so I was walking around with four bags of food lol.

The yummy food perked me up. After that I walked through the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade, which had some great shopping and some stores from home like The Body Shop and Lush! There were nice mid-range clothing and accessory stores. I'll definitely come back - after I move in! I restrained myself and didn't buy anything because I really have no more room left in my bags!

After that, I went back to the guesthouse and relaxed a little, then went to the bar! I caused a little trouble today by pouring cooking oil down the drain! Uh oh. I'm such a kitchen noob. I think I cleaned it up successfully though. Then I gave Noco and Gandhi their little ceramic cups that I made. They received them very well and Gandhi had an inaugural drink so I was happy. Then he walked me home (they are still worried about the creeper from last night). After that I ate my creme puff and now I'm going to hit the sack! I'm pretty tired because I went to bed at 5am today.... haha. Sleeping early tonight!