Sachiko in Osaka

One of my good friend came from Hawaii to visit Osaka for a vacation. We took him out to Okinawan restaurant, I thought it will be a good experience to see the deference in culture. Okinawa Prefecture is one of Japan's southern prefectures, and consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over 1,000 km long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū (the southwestern most of Japan's main four islands) to Taiwan. Their music, food and culture is quite different. This restaurant is located in Umeda. It is always packed with people. We ate Okinawan fish, seaweed, better melon tempura, Okinawan peanut tofu, noodles, fried rice, okinawan style pizza and so on. The restaurant, "Shimauta live ryukyu" http://www.hotpepper.jp/A_20100/strJ000662359.html?vos=nhppvccp99002 By the way, Ami is now able to sit up by herself. She is very proud and happy about it. This is at Fujita garden.

We went to Nara for a day trip last holiday. I wanted to show Great Buddha and deer to Ami. Nara prefecture is also known as ancient capital of Japan so it is very historical place. It took us about 40min from Osaka where we live. Tōdai - ji (the Eastern Great Temple),is a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall ( Daibutsuden ), reputedly the largest wooden building in the world, houses a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana , known in Japanese simply as the Daibutsu . The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism. The temple is a listed UNESCO World Heritage site as "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara," together with seven other sites including temples, shrines and places in the city of Nara. Sika deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, roam the grounds freely. My husband afraid of Sika may attack him for the food he is holding...

My friend Aki came over to my apartment for Macrobiotic lunch today. In macrobiotic lunch, we don't use any meat, sugar,eggs, nor dairy product. I was happy to see Aki enjoyed my macrobiotic style of cooking as it was her first experience. Ami and Aki's daughter Shion playing together.

We went to the museum of modern art in, Wakayama and this is the photo I took at out side of the building, you can see the Wakayama castle behind Ami. Still chilling out of the museum... It was such a nice day and they had very nice back garden. Official web sight of the museum. http://www.bijyutu.wakayama-c.ed.jp/ This is the small zoo they have in the park of the Wakayama castle. You can enter for free! Ami enjoyed so much, we went there everyday while we are staying in Wakayama . Ami's great grand ma 95 years old :) There were exhibition of chrysanthemums also in the park of the castle.

I went to Wakayama and stayed for four days with Ami. I met one of my friend and we went to the theme park called Porto Europa. We've been friends since Junior high school. Her baby girl is 6month older than Ami. Here is Ami and I. Ami is bit frightened by the parot..... The web sight of the park.. http://www.marinacity.com/porto/index.html

We took Ami to Utsubo Park for a walk. Utsubo park is one of the big park in Osaka and there are beautiful rose garden. We enjoyed visinting there as all the leaves are also changing colors. The park is located in the center of the city. So you will see many business men and office ladies relaxing in the brake time. They won the award of the garden excellence at one of the most beautiful rose gardens. You can see many different kind of roses and their so pretty! Ami loved them flowers!!! No touching Ami... be gentle... http://www.ocsga.or.jp/osakapark/hfm_park/06utsubo/index.html

Taiyaki is a Japanese fish-shaped cake. The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Taiyaki is made using taiyaki , regular pancake or waffle batter. The batter is poured into a fish-shaped mold for each side. The filling is then put on one side and the mold is closed. It is then cooked on both sides until golden brown. Japanese often eat this as a snack. I personally don't like Taiyaki much because the filling is too sweet for me. However we found this shop selling Taiyaki with cabbage filling!!! Great for health conscious person like my self. 150 yen for one and it tasted good!

Nabe season has come! Japanese enjoy Nabe , Japanese steamboat dishes mainly in winter season. We have many variety of Nabe . Crub Nabe , Fugu Nabe ( blow fish ), Chiken Nabe , Sukiyaki, Botan Nabe (wild boar), Sea food Nabe and so on. This pictures are taken when we had a family gathering we all went to eat Udonsuki Nabe . Udon , Tofu, lot of veggies, some sea food and Udon . You can see how much we enjoyed the food here :) The restaurant is called " Mimiu " Their official sight; http://www.mimiu.co.jp/mimiu/top.html

Sorry, I was not been able to up date this blog for a while.. I had been sick for all week... I feel much better now so I took Ami out to the park. Ami gave me a great surprise to cheer me up! She sat up by herself on the stroller for first time. She was so excited and stayed like this for a long time to show off!!!

One of my friend organised a event of make up lesson and macrobiotic food party which was held on the roof top of the building. Since we have a nice fall weather, we had a nice relaxing afternoon with a great food.

We had a family gathering over the holiday and we went to the picnic at Osaka castle park. I made big lunch for hole family. Vegetarian lunch box. Everyone enjoyed even they are not vegetarians.... Here is Ami. We went on this train to go around the castle . It was a nice 20 min ride.

We went to the Osaka aquerium called Kaiyukan. This place is so popular that always packed with people. We went there on Saturday but late like about 5PM. We made a great decision to go there around that time. The place was not that busy at all even on the weekend. AND we were able to get a descout ticket by going there after 5PM. They are open untill 8PM so I recomend you to visit this aquerium after 5PM. There some shopes and restrants next to it so you can even eat dinner after. Kaiyuka official web sight; http://www.kaiyukan.com/eng/index.htm

These two birds are Sam and Kyo . I got them when I came back to Japan about 10 years ago. I had to leave them at my parents house because most of those apartments in city don't allow pets. This is first time Ami sees birds this close. She was so curious.

We went on the Sagano sight seeing tram " Sagano scenic railway". This is the Arashiyama St. We enjoyed the beautiful landscape on the tram. It was little cold because the tram was kind of open air and we had to go though many little tunnels which made laud noise, I was bit worry about Ami...... but she was asleep all through the ride. The official sight for the Sagano tram: http://www.sagano-kanko.co.jp