Saturday, before I went skiing, I took a trip to Osaka for the day with Lucy and Megan. We went to Shinsaibashi which is basically just a big shopping area. Super crowded… and lots of stuff… We didn’t really buy much, but looked around at everything. One thing that we did do was purikura which I was totally pumped to do. I think it’s kind of for 14 year old Japanese girls, but it’s so much fun. So we got a bunch of tiny little stickers with our photos on them, than walked around some more. We ate lunch and the server gave us forks! I mean, c’mon… we’re so good at chopsticks now. No need for forks.

Later on we met up with some other friends who’d been at the aquarium in Osaka. We all had dinner together at a place where you get served raw veggies and meat, and cook it yourself on a grill in the middle of the table (see photo below). We also ate tako yaki from a stand on the street, which Osaka is known for. Tako yaki are little balls of really soft doughy stuff with a piece of octopus in the middle and special sauce on top. Kind of weird, but tasty.

1. Shinsaibashi
2. Lucy, Me, Megan
3. I almost bought this for halloween
4. Nice glasses
5. Purikura!
6. Decorating and choosing our photo-stickers
7. So crowded
8. These are kids clothes
9. Sophisticated Full Length Office Lady is a fancy brand, seriously…
10. Amanda’s amazed
11. This is where all the restaurants were
12. Tako yaki stands were everywhere
13. It’s kind of hard to eat
14. Dinner
15. …and lot of lights