Our neighborhood

Ohayo! (Good morning!)

I'm sneaking a few moments while she sleeps to share some of what we were up to yesterday!

We went downtown to find Daiso, a 100 yen shop (dollar store basically), to find some cheap things to make this apartment more of a home.

We took the subway to Susukino, the shopping district, and went to underground Pole Town, which is a shopping mall. We took the stairs about midway through (it's HUGE!) and were at Tanuki-koji shopping street. It's a tourist spot but big with locals and there's a lot to look at!

We ended up going too far and made a wrong turn and ended up here: the tv tower in Odori Park.

Consult map. Turn left.

Then left.

 (not here though, just thought those bridges looked cool.)

Ah. There it is!

FIVE floors of dollar store stuff. :D 

Some of it is actually quite nice. There were a lot of people shopping there. It was actually quite busy on my standards.

 

After Daiso, we took the subway home. Kevin stopped in our Co-Op, our local grocery store, for some ready made lunches.

This is on the walk home on our street. I was hoping it'd be a cat cafe, where you can visit and pet cats while drinking coffee, but it's a karaoke place?!

 

Here's some of what we bought at Daiso.

A little money  pouch for me. This is a cash only kind of place mostly and their bills don't start until 1000yen (about $10), so there's a lot of loose change to contend with.

On the right is my new makeup pouch. Small and compact. Kath Kidston-y on a dollar store budget!

Below  is my new mug for coffee.

Center is a strawberry sponge for the kitchen. They had so much cute strawberry, apple, and cupcake stuff... 

On the left are my chopsticks for upstairs. They have the white lucky cat on them. 

 

We also bought Kevin a mug and chopsticks. Two bowls for cereal upstairs etc. A couple forks and spoons. A knife and cutting board. Soap for the bathroom. A small broom and dustpan.

Kevin picked up from the grocery store a bag of these:

 

They're daifuku, a candy here. It's white mochi (made from rice) which is really soft and chewy, filled with anko, or sweet red bean paste from adzuki beans. 

We had them in Kyoto in 2011 and it wasn't my thing, but this time around, they're actually quite tasty.

Want to see more of our neighborhood?

OK!

We took a sunset walk and this is why I love it here so:

Beautiful, right?

It's Mt Moiwa. You can go to the top and it's a lookout point. I want to do that sometime!

We walked along this busy road parallel to the Toyohira river (I think) for about 10 minutes just to enjoy the sunset and get Elisabeth to sleep.

In the blue railing, there's a decorative detail:

 

 This is the view looking back toward the city.

That park will be nice in the spring!

A lot of the small trees and bushes have these constructions around them. Apparently, they're covered for winter in plastic tarp or straw mats. I like them a lot. 

 

This building is close to where we live. I like the contrast.

 

Here's another busy street close by. 

 

Close by is also a soccer field. On Monday, we saw a group of boys shoveling snow and Kevin's friend said they're probably the junior high soccer team trying to make it melt  faster. They shovel it into little compartments to melt faster from all sides. 

My kind of people -- let's melt it faster!

:)

Eilen käytiin shoppailukadulla Tanuki-kojilla, sitten Daiso-halpiskauppaan. Ostettiin jotain pientä kotiin. Kuvia naapuristosta ja auringonlaskusta. Olemme daifukua syöneet, riisitaikinakuori ja makeaa papupastaa sisällä. Lähellä sijaitsee myös jalkapallokenttä, jotka nuoret palloilijat käyvät systemaattisesti kolaamassa pieniin pinoihin, jotta lumet sulaisi nopeammin pois. Miksei Suomessa tehdä niin?!