Japanese Market Mitsuwa

On the weekend I went to my first Japanese shopping center in America! I realize now I should have taken pictures of stuff besides the food I ate. >.< Silly me. When you're there it looks like any supermarket that has Japanese brands.

I was pleased to see not only lots of snacks and seasonings and pastries, but also Japanese brands of shampoo and makeup. Looks like I will be able to buy my old favorite brand of shampoo/conditioner after all! When I was living in Hiroshima, Lux was like the best thing ever and I thought for sure I couldn't get it over here.

I also saw my favorite Japanese eyeliner pens, so I'll be able to stock up on those when the ones I'm using run out. However, the people behind me in line were looking at those at the same time and asked "What's this??" When I said it was eyeliner they scoffed "Eighteen dollars for eyeliner? No thanks!" :( Well, it's only about ten dollars in Japan. And it's way better quality than a pencil.

While I didn't buy any makeup, I did buy some moisturizer masks because 90% of the "masks" over here come in a tube and are meant to treat acne. Ummmm not really what I need right now, thanks. More like, Moisturize Me!!!!!

The line for ramen was suuuuper long, so I pushed for eating okonomiyaki instead. I was with my friend Anthony, and we had already tried okonomiyaki at this Japanese izakaya in Mountain View, but Mitsuwa had a special thing this week where an actual okonomiyaki chef ran a food boot, so this was much more authentic. Unfortunately, it was Kansai style instead of Hiroshima style, but you can't have everything. Anyway it was AMAZING, way better than the weird pseudo-Japanese cooking at the izakaya, and Anthony said he liked Kansai style better. I told him to wait until he tried both in Japan before he made a final judgement because then one we had before was NOT authentic washoku.

The okonomiyaki of awesomeness!

 When we were getting the food (in true Japan style, we had to pay cash), I asked the server in Japanese if there was a place to sit down eating, and apparently he had heard that a lot because he answered me in Japanese right away. But Anthony was pretty impressed and called me out on wanting to show off my Japanese abilities.

All in all it was a successful trip, and I think I will be able to make yaki-soba with the ingredients I bought there. I will definitely go back in the future next time I run out of shampoo or want to buy some Japanese item.