Two poos in the toilet!

An unexpected entrance to the shopping mall - very lovely

Today we planned a quiet day, so no alarms and no fixed plans. Typical, we all woke early. After receiving a stern e-mail from Grandpa regarding Tom's toilet habits, Tom had a good talking too - he was quite concerned that Grandpa was upset with him. He wasn't allowed any hugs, toys basically no fun until he pooed. We kept him naked in the house, but he was determined that he didn't want a poo.

We decided to go into Osaka today we found an article in an English language magazine about parks in Osaka and decided to explore one whilst also giving ourselves the chance to walk down one of our favourite streets in Osaka - Dohguyasuji (Tool Street), then we were going to go to an onsen for a soak.

Namba Parks Shopping Mall

We got our usual white train (Hikari) into Osaka and then the subway to Namba. First stop was the park which was on top of the 9th floor of a new shopping mall which is built on an old baseball ground. Now, neither Matt nor I are good shoppers, meaning that normally a shopping mall wouldn't have much appeal, however this one was fantastic, it's called Namba Parks and that's just what it was - a park on 9 levels with a shopping mall on the inside of it. It was beautifully designed with greenery and flowers everywhere. You really did feel you were in parkland rather than on a high rise building. You could walk up the 9 levels of the mall on the outside quite easily losing yourself in the gardens. We made our way to the top where we found a small playground - it had some steps and a bridge made of wood and a slide.  It was very small but Tom really enjoyed it - just goes to show that you really don't need much to amuse a toddler.

Playing on the roof

After a while we all began to get hungry so we headed down to the restaurant level and had a good look round before settling on a Japanese noodle restaurant for lunch. I had Ten-don (mixed tempura on rice) which was served with cold soba noodles in sauce and Matt had Katsu-don (pork cutlet and egg on rice) which was served with hot udon noodles. Tom had half of my noodles, half of Matt's noodles, half of one of my ebis, half my pumpkin and half my seaweed as well as some of Matt's pork and ate it all up with no fuss. Matt then took Tom to the loo. They were gone ages, but when they finally came back Tom had some good news - he had done a poo in the toilet - yahooooo. He got lots of hugs and kisses and praise - our mood certainly got lighter. As a treat, we took him to what we thought was a toy shop. It was a toy shop, a gadget shop, a book shop, a everything kind of a store really. I think the owners buy in what they like rather than buying in a certain genre of product. It was huge, a real Aladdin's cave - the more you looked, the more things you saw - we could have stayed there for hours looking at everything. Matt bought himself a Dr Yellow headphone socket insert for his iPhone - I'm beginning to think he is as excited about Dr Yellow as his son.

Lunch

Once we left the store, we had a look round that level for more interesting shops. We didn't find any but we did find a toddler toilet area which was fantastic. A mini toilet in its own cubicle which parents could look over, a mini urinal and a mini basin. Tom was very excited to find it and immediately made himself at home on the mini toilet and did another poo! Wow! Maybe we should come here every day. Unfortunately he also managed to push the 'in case of emergency button' whilst in the cubicle so we had to explain to an attendant who came up that it was a mistake, but apart from that it was great and he was very eager to tell Grandpa straight away that he had done two poos in the toilet.

We all sat down and enjoyed some chocolate ice cream as reward and then had a quick look around Toys R Us - a much more pleasant experience in Japan.  Must say we couldn't help ourselves and bought a couple of things. We then headed off to Tool Street.  Here they sell lots of kitchen stuff: bento boxes, crockery, knives, takoyaki pans, plastic food models - you name it they sell it. I could happily spend my life savings there - however, with a destructive toddler in tow, even looking in the shops is hard work (all very narrow and stacked to the ceiling with stuff). We had a sit down and drink in a restaurant there then decided it was time to call it a day - Tom was looking tired. The onsen would have to wait for another day - it was the shopping mall's fault - it was so nice that we spent too much time there.

So we got the subway and white train home. Tom decided to fall asleep on Matt today leaving me free to write some postcards. Tom slept the whole way to Aioi, Matt gently manoeuvred him so that he could get off the train. In doing this, Tom dropped his little sunfish we was holding and we left the train without him. We realised he was missing when we got back to the house, so Matt went back up to the station to report it as missing - we will see how good lost and found on the Shinkansen is - I'm hoping they don't disappoint and manage to return it.

The afternoon was spent playing football (Matt and Tom - some other boys actually joined in today which was good - we are certainly a novelty here - the only foreigners in town) whilst I went to the local grocers and got some bits to eat - curry tonight.

Anyway thanks Grandpa for writing a stern e-mail to Tom - he certainly did his best to please you today - we have warned him that it wasn't just for today, but he needs to build on what he has achieved today and then he will make you very very happy.


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Location: Osaka