The Weekend Begins

Saturday started off as a bit of a dreary and overcast day. After a lazy morning in the hotel room, and in a slow drizzle, we all walked over to Osaka Castle, which is surrounded by a really nice park. It's such a thoughtful/respectful culture here - at the first drops of rain, the hotels put out a large number of umbrellas for guest use. And when you walk in the mall, there is a dispenser of special plastic bags made just to "bag" your umbrella, to keep water from pouring all over the shiny clean floors.

After our journey, we snacked on Takoyaki (balls of mushy dough with a bit of octopus in the middle). Its a regional specialty. Ilena and especially Jacob didn't care for it, but Lauren liked it. Mike is not sure yet.





We then went back to Osaka Business Park to visit a doggy daycare center with big glass windows that the kids love to watch. There are cute little shitzu's with orange, blue, green, and pink dyed tails. We also grabbed some hot cocoa. When Lauren spilled hers all over the place, the waitress rushed over with a new cup, something you don't see everyday back home. So nice. After an unsuccessful attempt at napping, Ilena and Mike each went for a run near the Osaka Castle, and Mike discovered a cool playground.





Also, there was apparently a big concert going on at Osaka-Jo Hall; a group called L'Arc~en~Ciel, on a Tour called Theater of Kiss (apparently they are huge here!). The youth of Osaka were out in full force.

We all went running/jogging/walking to the playground and then ventured out deeper into Osaka and found a place to eat dinner. No english on the menu (And no pictures either! One great thing about Japan is that usually there are plastic display cases with fake food outside the restaurant and pictures on the menu. That makes it easier to figure things out. ) This time, it was just a Japanese menu. We made do (we actually had to walk outside to the display case and do some pointing and asking how to say those things in Japanese so we could order), but it turned out to be a really great meal for everyone. We were deeply craving green salad (gareenu sarada in Japanese!), and it was nice to have some greens. The kids enjoyed too! We took the train back home, and Lauren got a shoulder ride back to the hotel from the train station. Right now, we are having a family movie night - the kids are watching Ratattouille as we type this.

We leave you with these gems :)

"Dorink (Drink) Corner" and Random Shirt Display in the Mall -- "Delaware - First State"?