Shopping in Osu

Do you remember my traumatizing lunch where some of the ladies from work scrutinized the food I packed?! We made plans to go shopping way back in December, and the day has finally arrived!!

First, the meet up spot... here is the "Kin no Tokei", which means Gold Clock. It is in the center of Nagoya Station. I walk by it nearly every day and had no idea it had a special name or was such a popular meeting place! As a side note, whenever meeting my Japanese friends, I don't ever bother looking for them. There are so many tiny Asian girls with dark hair it's crazy. I know I don't blend in at all, so I just let them come to me :) Instead, I use that time to people watch. It never gets old... the outfits, the running in heels, the man bags, everything makes me smile!

Kerri and Hiroko at Osu Street. It's about 4 square blocks of covered shopping, lots of little restaurants, and, of course, a diverse group of people!

Yuri and Hiroko picked a yummy Italian pizza place for lunch! Oddly, the restaurant only served 4 types of pizzas, and they were all some version of Margherita with basil leaves, tomatoes, and mozzarella. Even without pepperoni, I enjoyed it immensely!!

Another shopping section of Osu.

We are approaching Osu Kannon temple, and it's guarded by devils!! I thought this building was pretty cool!

Yuri, Kerri, & Hiroko just threw our yen, rang the bell, clapped, and said our prayer at Osu Kannon temple. I'm an old pro at this temple business by now!! My friends were impressed that I knew the drill!

Look at this sweet magazine I found for my sister!! It's all in Japanese and read right to left!

We stopped for Japanese sweets!! This experience was much better than my first one. I got a parfait with chocolate cookies, raspberries, vanilla ice cream, and lots of whipped cream! Hiroko got brown sugar cheesecake, and it tastes exactly like it sounds. Yuri ordered flavored tea.

My favorite part about today was that we truly had no plans. We simply walked around leisurely and explored, stopping to shop whenever a store caught our interest. (I bought some earrings, mint candy, and pastries for breakfast tomorrow!) It was nice to wander around and to not have to rush anywhere. I also liked that we ate whenever we wanted at wherever looked good! Sometimes I feel like Japan is a little too structured, the train schedules are too specific, and people are always rushing some where!

Finally, I told Hiroko and Yuri that I was planning to see an American movie "Valentine's Day" next weekend on February 14th. (See, I have become Japanese by scheduling events so far in advance, even the ones I plan to do by myself!) They thought it sounded awesome, so now we are going together!! And surprisingly Yuri pointed this billboard out to me in the subway! I guess she already knew what movie I was talking about! They both have boyfriends, so we may have to go another day besides Feb 14th, but I think I can be flexible and change my "schedule".