it's (almost) a wrap

so as the year marches on, today was put aside for gifts and cards. for the shopping part I headed to kintetsu department store in tennoji and their wonderful food hall. whether you are in Japan or not, the next time you come to osaka I recommend going to the food hall in a department store. perhaps tokyu hands, den-den town, horie and a department store food hall. it's magic. especially at this time of year.

today was very much a food theme with some toy shopping thrown in for good measure (any excuse, eh?). the sweet and cake section is a wonder to behold in kintetsu: it's a huge underground labyrinth which smells amazing and the food looks even better. so much care goes into the packaging too and this is all before you eat any of it. three of the counters we went to today started again after failing to wrap our chosen gifts with perfection - notably this was not through lack of skill, but more in trying to be flawless. we suspect the staff were later sacked though.

I remember an assistant wrapping a present in scotland for yuka and the look of astonishment on her face at the mess of sellotape and crumpled paper. I admit that before I met yuka - a botch job would absolutely suffice.

as I was looking for typically japanese stuff, the locals were often buying french tea and italian wine. the frivilous youngsters shopped for christmas presents for loved ones but the old guard remained, doing their best to buy annual gifts of gratitude, and so maintaining the tradition of o-seibo.