It's All Good In The Hood

On Monday I took Mia to the arcade area next to the food court at Jusco - picture Chuck E. Cheese on STEROIDS! Here she is coloring in a picture on the computer, which then - despite the language barrier - we somehow figured out how to print & take home. All for 100¥! (ya like that? I finally looked up how to code the yen sign in HTML)

Here's the place - you can see some women on those machines where you put in coins and the little arm pushes them off the edge - and there are also slot machines & video poker & pachinko games. This area at Jusco actually puts Chuck E. Cheese to shame. Wait until I send you pictures of the SEGA store - it makes the games at Dave & Busters look like pong.

Another Mia shot - here she is next to the flowers at the "Make Man" store (like Home Depot with a big garden section and a 100¥ section too). Another one of our favorite places to spend time. They have so many kinds of plants there, it's fun to browse and smell the flowers. We might get a veggie plant or two for our balcony. Definitely some orchids.
Mmmmm....Coffee Casa. Happiest place in my world right now. It's a block and a half away. To the left is a new Turkish Kabab restaurant, and one more block to the left is a new sushi joint. Note the outdoor patio - I'll partake when the heat index is below 100 degrees.

The lovely environment in which to enjoy your iced chocolate banana mocha - or whatever you choose. And a homemade delicious muffin (oy-shi is delicious or yummy in Japanese we learned, and "cohee" is coffee). The place is decorated with pictures of American cities & Route 66 memorabilia.
The next shot is of the front counter. The woman who works here brings you some water glasses with ice and a Perrier bottle filled with water with a pour spout put in it. Love the recycling. And to sweeten your iced coffee they give you a tiny pitcher (like a pancake syrup pitcher) with simple syrup (sugar syrup) so you don't crunch on sugar crystals.

So as we got ready for typhoon Man-Yi, I was explaining the situation to Mia so she wouldn't be scared. We might lose power (it's a category 4 now, but it's supposed to weaken before it hits us - still, we're bracing ourselves!), we will be stuck inside for a while, etc. Yesterday morning she came up to me as I was tracking the storm on the web and said, "Mom, when's the futon coming?"

It took me a few minutes, but then I just started to giggle. We're all calling it a "futon" now just for fun. Ok, off to get ready to buy some candles and more water. We're charging all of our photo & filming gear to capture Mother Nature's wrath for you all!