![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/cousins.jpg\" "\\"cousins\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nKimikazu is the cousin I was avoiding for all those years because I knew he’d have something to say about my lack of job, or not being married, or something else only a cousin can give you grief about. But like I said, he’s a bit of a drinker and his grandkids keep arriving less than 9 months after his kids’ marriages, so I’m not so worried about what he has to say any more. He’s a good guy, really, but does give me more grief than most of my relatives.<\/p>\n
Here’s a picture of my mom, my aunt, and my uncle. My uncle is the oldest of the three, and there seems to be a lot more Tamuras around. No more Fujitas (my aunt only had a daughter) and no more Fujinakas thanks to me and my sister. This next picture doesn’t prove any of that since Miyaka is no longer a Tamura (and while she looks twelve she’s in her mid-twenties) and Yasuko (Kyoko’s daughter-in-law) is a Hashimoto. I can’t remember what the kids names are. I’m not even sure that Yasuko is really Kyoko’s daughter-in-law’s name.<\/p>\n
Well, enough of the family. More pictures of food. I forgot to take pictures at lunch. We went to a shopping center I never knew existed, since the last time I was in Nishinomiya Kitaguchi there was a baseball stadium there. It’s pretty fancy and I wondered where all the rich people came from and I found out they were all from further north towards Takarazuka or towards Ashiya, not near the station. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that we went to a pretty darn nice mall and had a great Japanese lunch today.<\/p>\n After doing the family thing, we came back to Umeda and went to an even nicer mall (I keep thinking they’re going to kick my ass out for being so darn poor) with a Gucci store, a Swarovski store, etc, so we could find the shop that had mugs designed by my sister’s old high school friend Chico Hayasaki. We made it in and out without getting thrown out.<\/p>\n Dinner was in the Acty Building (Daimaru Umeda, I think) where there used to be two floors of restaurants including Chico’s and Charlie’s where we had the only Mexican food we could find in Japan. The floor with C&C is now missing and the lower floor is quite different. I voted to have dinner in a place that mainly had cakes and waffles and I made the right choice. The beef stew (in a set with coffee and cake plus sandwiches) was tasty and my sister and I both had it.<\/p>\n My mom and my aunt split an omurice gratin (omlette with fried rice inside, covered with cheese and baked) which was tasty as well.<\/p>\n On the way home I decided to try the \u00a51000 haircut place (haircuts here usually cost twice as much and include a post-haircut shampoo and a straight razor shave). \u00a51000 and 10min\/haircut is what they say. It took me a while to make it through the line, but it wasn’t so bad. But really, I just get it cut the same length all over, so how bad could it be? I just was a little off in my conversion from US measure to the metric measure they use for hair length.<\/p>\n Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My sister was hoping we wouldn’t have to spend all day with the relatives, but I knew that’s what we were in store for. It’s not that bad, especially since the oldest cousin, Kyoko, is such a crack-up. From the left, there’s Kimikazu, the oldest male cousin (Kyoko’s younger brother), Kyoko, Miyaka and her kid (Kimikazu’s daughter), and Ikuko (Kimikazu’s wife). Kimikazu is the cousin I was avoiding for all those years because I knew he’d have something to say about my lack of job, or not being married, or something else only a cousin can give you grief about. But like I said, he’s a bit of a drinker … Continue reading Family day (last day in Osaka).<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n