Seika’s mom prepared a typical Japanese breakfast this morning. It was more family style because she wasn’t sure which foods I would like, which was very thoughtful. Typically, the foods are presented all together in individual portions.

The breakfast food items included eggs cooked with soy sauce, salmon, another type of fish called shishamo (smelt fish), tomatoes, two types of seasonal boiled vegetables called ohitashi—one type was nanohana (canola flower) and the other was komatsuna (mustard spinach), pan fried tofu, miso soup, and rice. It was a nice variety of foods and a very good breakfast. Thanks Akiko for the oishi (delicious) breakfast!

This afternoon, Seika’s mom had a haircut appointment. I joined her to also get a haircut myself. It was fun activity to do together! Her hairdresser is her friend and her old classmate.

I am happy with my new do!

Seika’s parents and I went to Starbucks afterwords. I ordered the Japanese seasonal special, the sakura milk latte, themed for cherry blossom season. It tasted like a nice sweet floral and milky drink.

At one of the secondhand Americamura stores near the Starbucks, I saw a sweatshirt decorated with the same type of dog that I grew up with, a Boston terrier. We went to get it, and Seika’s dad bought it for me as a present. Thank you Yasushi!

The rest of the day, I spent time shopping alone for unique Japanese accessories and clothing items. I went to a sock store and bought some really cute socks with different designs and embroidered sayings. I also bought some tights. A lot of girls here wear tights and it looks very beautiful and completes the look, so I wanted to get some Japanese tights too!

Kushikatsu

Osaka is known for a lot of very delicious foods, that includes okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and kushikatsu! Kushikatsu is a skewered item that is lightly breaded with flour and panko and deep fried. It is one of the favorite foods of Seika’s dad, so I wanted to make sure I tried it. I went to a place at Dotonburi to eat kushikatsu.

I ordered a variety of items, some adventurous, and some I knew that I would definitely like. I really enjoyed the quail eggs, cheese, lotus root, and chorizo the most. And the shrimp was my least favorite because they were a tad overcooked.

Kushikatsu is so tasty that I ordered more.