Happy Birthday Yukiko!!

Not only is it Children's Day in Japan it's also Yukiko's birthday. Happy birthday sweetie! We're also smack in the middle of Golden Week, which is a string of national holidays all in one big bunch. Both Yukiko's company and my school were nice enough to to also give us off the few days inside Golden Week that aren't technically holidays. So all in all we have 10 days off in a row. Well I've got some weddings to do but not many this year so we've been lazing around quite a bit.
Being as it's Golden Week and most people are taking off the holidays we weren't really able to organize a party for Yukiko with her friends. We'll have a nice quiet dinner together tonight and then a couple of my friends will join us for some Mexican food at El Pancho's in Osaka tomorrow night.
The other day we met up with Seigo, Keiko and Yuka again to go to an international food expo in Osaka. We ended up arriving really late, sorry guys.
Our first stop was the Asian pavilion which featured a wide array of noodles from all around Asia.

The god of tapeworms!

Cool decorations are everywhere. I feel like I'm in Asia.

An instant ramen museum. And look how busy it is!

The noodles here looked delicious but there was just one problem. Despite the thousands of people coming and going between the pavilions there were only 2 ticket vendors selling tickets for the various noodles here. That meant some lining-up was in order. But I didn't realize how much lining-up there would be.

This guy's sign marks the end of the line.

After some major zigzagging we ended up outside the building.

Then it was 1 block down and 1 block back. And this was just to get food tickets. Then we had to line up for whichever bowl of noodles we wanted to try. Needless to say I was a little annoyed by this pavilion.

Luckily the other pavilions were far better organized and everything became much better when we discovered the German and Belgian Beer vendors.

So is there a hoegaardener?

Oktoberfest in May?? What the hell, I'm willing to compromise.

Little Yuka took everything in stride though. She seems to very happy most of the time and rarely cries, at least when I'm around. Maybe I've just got good timing.

Who needs beer when you've got a groovy 'Roots' fashion bib from your uncle Jason!

The local Asahi beer is good too.

As Yukiko can attest to...

Just kidding, no one got blotto like Otto there. We did have some tasty; Osaka udon, Ehime Mikan juice, vegetarian (eggplant) takoyaki, Thai rice & noodles, and delicious cappuccino frosties. There was even a lone Canadian stand selling, you guessed it, maple syrup.

A couple of unemployed NHL'ers were working the cash register.

Does anyone else still shed a tear for the demise of 'Due South'? Keep on saluting brother!

On the walk back to the car the sun was going down and we passed by some interesting looking buildings. In case I never get the chance to come back and check these places out I thought I should at least take their pictures.

The Osaka wine museum.

One of the biggest clubs for live bands - Zepp Osaka.


Back at home it was about time for us to get a little dirty in the garden. And I mean 'a little' because it's just a little garden. My radishes and peas look to be doing good with lots of green stuff coming out of the soil. Time will tell if we'll be able to give up our supermarkets and Costco and just live off the land though.

The veggie and herb wing, with some flowers and a snow willow thrown in for good measure.

The other half of our garden. Be careful, it's easy to get lost in there. What with the 4 corners and all.