Fukubukuro Fun!

So I've heard about "Lucky Bags" since the first New Year we arrived here. I was interested but never bought one out of fear of getting some unlucky stuff that I wouldn't want. This year I decided to take the plunge!

I had seen advertisements for the fukubukuro at Toys R Us and figured that if Jude got otoshidama money then I would take him out to get one. He ended up getting exactly the right amount! I asked Mike if I could have some money as well for a late Christmas present and he agreed. He had a lot of school work to finish up so it was a win-win situation to get Jude out of the house.

We headed down the road to the Toys R Us (yes it's almost literally down the road) and I hurried to get Jude out of the car and into the store. Turns out I didn't need to rush because there were still a lot of fukubukuro bags left. I grabbed one of the boy bags (it had blue writing and said "otokonoko") and rushed to the check out. Jude was asleep in my arms and the bag was bigger than him so my arms were getting tired quickly.

After we left, we went across the street to a store called "Bulldog" and I grabbed a Hello Kitty fukubukuro for myself. I knew from the way it was packaged (okay, and from peeking through the zippered pouches) that these bags weren't so much of a surprise but each was filled with the same themed items. I didn't care though; I like Hello Kitty.

I decided to leave myself in suspense till we got back home (plus I wanted to take before and after pictures so I could post an article online). Here is our loot:

Jude's Bag

Size comparison and all the goodies

So cool! We let him have this one for now

Mike tried this out...he's going to take it to school for one of his students to explain to him

A small figurine

These are cool. He'll get them later for Christmas or a birthday.

I think I'll be using this during the summer since I'll be extra hot baking baby #2.

This looks fun but another gift that we'll put away till later.

My Hello Kitty bag. It's about the size of a weekend bag.

All the goodies: pillow, pencil case, blanket, and washcloth.

The pillow. It's really fluffy!

The blanket. It's small but cute :) If we ever have a girl I'll give it to her.

We had a lot of fun going through all the stuff in the bags (especially Jude's). Mike and I decided that next Christmas we'll set money aside and just buy fukubukuro bags as gifts. It relieves the stress of trying to find something that the other will like. Plus, if we don't like what's in the bag then we can always sell it and not feel guilty!

My article that I wrote did get accepted and you can read it here: Okinawa Hai!- Fukubukuro

Japanese Buffet and JA Market

I thought I'd be posting more this week sine it's Spring Break for Mike but here it is 4 day into his break and I'm just now posting! We've had the sickies lately so we haven't done anything too exciting. Today's main goal was to finally go to the big JA Market.

It was noon when we headed out so we got lunch out. I've been craving the Titicaca Peruvian place but also wanted to try something new. I saw a sign for a place on Sunday but it was closed (I think it's more like an izakaya and only open at night). We decided to eat at the place next door called Lima Restaurant. The had a lunch buffet for 750 yen. We sat in the tatami section next to a tableful of sweet obaasans who we were pretty sure were speaking a lot of the Hogan language. The buffet was not big and had a lot of traditional Japanese food: white rice, jushi rice, japanese curry, tempura, bean sprout chanpuru, salad, red beans with mochi, and soba to name some. I was able to find enough to eat so I wouldn't cry (as Mike said, alluding to the few times during pregnancy when a lack of gluten free options would make me upset). It was pretty good, not my favorite but I was definitely not disappointed.

Later we went to the JA farmers market which will become a favorite of mine. We went in and didn't know where to look first! There were so many vegetables (not a large selection of fruit though) to choose from! The prices were really great too. We walked out with broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, onions, cherry tomatoes, a yellow squash, green beans, carrots, a small papaya, celery, and 2 small onigiris (I think that's all we bought) for less than 2500 yen. I think we'll be going there a lot more often now!

It was a pretty productive day :)