tuesday

Tuesday, I started French language classes again.

My teacher was on maternity leave during the summer so she had a substitute come in, then I went to Hawaii during the summer, and went back to Hawaii in October, so I am starting mid-way through the Fall session.

No worries though, our classes don't cover a lot of information all at once, just a little at a time, so I don't think I missed TOO much.

I still have problems with pronounciation, but I am slowly beginning to be able to read and figure out what is being said.

After class, I had lunch at Daimaru Department store, they have a cafe called Galleria. I love their cappuccino.

Up until Tuesday, there would be a heart or leaf pattern on the cappuccino, I was pleasantly surprised to see this...a little chick!

After lunch I went to check out the Italian Fair at Hankyu Department store. They recently merged with Hanshin Department store, so I wondered what kinds of things they would have at their fair.

Competition for business is always quite intense between department stores, so they had several different Italian chocolatiers.

I bought some bon-bons from Giraudi, a chocolatier near Torino. The cremino (a hazelnut cream and dark chocolate square was creamy and not too sweet). The pistachio bon-bon had a pistachio paste inside but I thought it was a bit chalky...242 yen each (about US$2.42)

I also got some Majani chocolates, a Bologna chocolatier....126 yen each (about US$1.26) Apparently these chocolates were made when Fiat produced their Tipo 4.

Besides their Fiat chocolates, they also had these cute car shaped chocolates--cinquino (dark blue foil--dark chocolate outside with dark chocolate ganache inside), gippino (red foil--hazelnut ganache/milk chocolate outside), furgoncino (green foil--pistachio ganache/milk chocolate). My favorite was the cinquino.

Giraudi
via Giraudi, 16
Castellazzo Borimida (AL)

Majani
via G.Brodolini 16, 40056
Crespellano, Bologna (Italia)