noda fuji

Saturday, after lunch, Satoshi and I went to check out the Noda Fuji.

This year the strands of fuji (wisteria) weren't too long. After chatting with one of the volunteers, he mentioned that all the weird weather was to blame.

He did recommend a spot for us to check out, near the Ajigawa (Aji river).

It was the first time I've seen pink and double wisteria.

cool, yeah?!

The fragrance is quite heady, but I like it!

saturday

It seems that we've jumped from Spring head first into Summer...

The daytime temps have been quite warm.

At least early mornings and evenings have been quite comfortable.

Saturday after Satoshi's class, we headed to Fukushima for lunch at Pannya.

A tiny curry shop, they have about 6 different types on their menu.

I went with the dry keema...this wasn't too spicy and had lots of cilantro.

I loved the baked naan-thingy, it was crisp with a little salt...kinda like chips.

Satoshi went with the katsu curry.

His came with pickled cabbage and a nice piece of pork loin. The curry was "soup curry style" and very spicy (it had many chili pepper markings on the menu)

Both lunches also came with a small salad and cup of coffee afterwards (hot or iced).

There are other items on their menu we'd like to try.

We'll be back.

After lunch, we walked to check out the Noda fuji (wisteria) at their community center.

It was beautiful!

Have a nice week.

Pannya
2-9-10 Fukushima
Fukushima-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.4256.6319
Closed Tuesdays
Hours: 11:00-15:00 (lunch), 18:00-22:00 (dinner)

alien to resident to fuji

Recently Japan changed their "alien cards" for foreigners to "residence cards".

Since my re-entry visa was coming up for renewal, we called the Immigration office to see what we needed to do.

It turns out that all we needed to do was come in to change the "alien card" to the "residence card" and we no longer had to renew the "re-entry visa".

Talk about spending less time and money at the Immigration office.

I think we used to pay something like 6000 yen for the "multiple re-entry visa" every 3 years or so.

So, we got there after lunch, filled out the paper work, I took an ID photo in their photo booth....

Paying 800 yen for 4 photos & they only use 1 is a total rip-off! But I'm glad we received the card that day. The next time we need to renew this card is in 7 years...whoo!

On our way home, we noticed a board with a notice for the Noda Fuji Matsuri. Fuji is wisteria in Japanese and Noda is the area which this flower grows in Osaka, Matsuri is festival.

Since the area was kind of on our way back, we checked out some of the many spots they have listed on the festival map.

Some turned out to be duds because they were located inside of many school grounds or some hadn't started blooming yet, but for the most part, most were located at parks.

One location was in front of an apartment building this was really nice to see in the concrete jungle.

I wish they would've given more addresses than just points on their map, we had a "scavenger hunt" of a time finding some of the locations.

I want to go back to see some of the spots we weren't able to see.

If I get a chance to I'll definitely share the photos with you.

Have a nice week!