Kiddyland

I went to the main train station during the week. There's a store with cute things there. I believe it's called Kiddyland. I've posted pictures from it before. I have more pictures from the store as well as miscellaneous pictures from this week to share.

I received an advent calendar!! My friend was in Osaka last weekend and accidentally came across a German Christmas market. She bought it for me.
I knew about the German Christmas market in Osaka because I happened to see a poster advertising it as I was returning from Korea a couple weeks ago. I was surprised! Unfortunately, I was on an escalator when I saw the poster so I couldn't get a better look at it or take a picture. I meant to Google it because it's definitely something I want to check out, but I didn't get around to it. Now I know where it is though. I plan to visit it sometime.

It takes at least 15 minutes to walk from the university to the main train station. On the way there's this big hill. There's no sidewalk, which I find quite inconvenient because tons of students walk along here everyday. The train station and the university are major destinations, and there are always people who need to use this route.

Usually it's not crowded when I'm walking here. Still, I often find myself right next to a moving bus.

I don't particularly enjoy riding my bike down this hill because: it's a big hill and I go fast, there's little room, and there's a lot of traffic. I go down this hill every weekend and while it's not exactly scary, in the back of my mind I always think that if I hit something and go flying off my bike, a car will surely run me over.

A little sidewalk emerges further down

Mos Burger

At Kiddyland!

Monsters, Inc. is one of my favorite movies :)

more from Pixar

Disney

bears...

Peanuts

Rilakkuma

Sanrio

going up the hill

haikus that Japanese middle school students wrote

rice balls (onigiri)

one of the folders I use for school ^^

Handmade Udon

Last night an udon-making event was held in the seminar house I live in. We made our own udon to eat! Udon is a type of Japanese noodle. I looked through my entire food tag but apparently I only have one picture of udon.

Seminar house 2 has the smallest number of residents, but even so there was a lot of us that gathered to make udon. We divided ourselves into smaller groups, from 4 to 6 people. I think there were at least eight groups.

First, we got a bowl full of flour. Then we mixed it with water that had a bit of salt in it

We made a ball out of the dough, and then wrapped it in plastic and let it sit for 15 minutes

After that, we rolled out the dough and made it flat

We had to fold it to create three layers, so that the noodles will be long

Each group took turns going up to this table so that every person could choose tempura

My group went last so there weren't many options left. We just got what was left. I was happy with pumpkin tempura though!

Other things that we would add to our tempura once they're cooked

Pots for boiling

These look nothing like udon... (do a Google image search and you'll know what I mean)

Tada! Then we all added soup

Toppings to choose from

My finished udon meal :)

いただきます