Shopping

Today we woke up at 8:20 meaning we only snoozed the alarm for 20 minutes which, for us, is a great accomplishment. We headed to the kombini for breakfast which seems to be becoming our morning ritual. Everything you've heard about Japanese convenience stores is true...

Konbinis are a place of joy and wonder, filled with food and drink to fulfil all your cravings. Indra had an Anpan, a Japanese Sweetroll filled with Red Bean paste, while Daniel had something akin to bao bread, in a swirl with cream cheese and ham.

Anpan

Bao

After breakfast we headed back to Dotonbori, this time with the intention of actually shopping. Our first stop was Don Quijote, Japans largest discount store. This was quite the experience, six floors each rammed with goods ranging from food, to cosmetics, to electronics, to designer bags and for some reason, adult toys... on display... with "Lets try!" written on them.

Don Quijote

We didn't. Instead we bought some gentle steaming eye masks for Indra's mum, a popular brand of suncream that's advertised everywhere and some acne cream, as well as a couple of Tarami Grape Konnyaku Jelly Drinks which come in a little pouch and is low in calories, and high in fibre. "They're refreshing and tasty and filling and only 39 calories" says Indra who thinks we might have found "the greatest diet snack of all time".

Lets try! Lets not!

Discount Cosmetics

"The greatest diet snack of all time"

Lunch was a quick bite to eat, a tofu salad and a pork raman. We also took an obligatory picture with Glico Man

Glico Man, a popular spot for a photo

We went to the Sanrio store, famous for Hello Kitty, so that Indra could buy cute things, such as the pencil below. This was followed by a trip to Dongurikyowakoku, a shop that sells Studio Ghibli merchandise... so that Indra could but more cute things!

Cute Pencil

Indra in her idea of heaven

Dongurikyowakoku was in Namba Walk, a 600 meter long underground shopping center. Here we took a quick break in Matcha House, a cafe specialising in Matcha based food and drink, followed by a taiyaki, a sweet pastry with red bean paste.

Matcha drinks

Taiyaki is a fish shaped pastry

In Den Den Town, an area known for tech shopping, Indra found some Gashapon with cute plushies inside. Gashapon are a kind of vending machine that are incredibly popular in Japan and serve everything from cute toys like the ones we bought, to adult only toys (we didn't find out what the "female's secret weapon" was).

Gashapon in its ball

Gashapon friends

Finally, exhausted from walking about 13 kilometers on our shopping spree, we ate dinner at Imai Honton, highly recommended for their kitsune udon soup, which we both agree was the most おいしい (oishii, delicious) thing we've enjoyed since we arrived.

A little alley next to Imai Honton

Kitsune Udon

Hidden Shrine near Imai Honton

Lights near Imai Honton

Shrine near Imai Honton

Tomorrow we plan to have a more restful day.