28th January!

Today we headed down to the station so Charles could look at another Bic Camera. It had 7 floors! He enjoyed looking at all the cameras and headphones and video recorders. Chrissy had fun listening to Jamiroquai on the display headphones.
We had a coffee and cake at a Dotour shop and caught the bus out to the University of Art and Design to meet a lady named Emi who we had arranged to have a cooking class from. When we got there, she was waiting there with one other lady who had joined the class. We walked to her house, where she began telling us all about what we were going to cook and all the ingredients.
We made a meal with five dishes: a salad with sesame seasoning; grilled marinated fish steaks; tofu-skin spring rolls; boiled turnips with chicken sauce; and mochi rice balls with various fruits and sweets. Along the way, she gave us three types of tea and a glass of ume-chu each. Ume-chu is really sweet plum sake. It was an amazing experience and we recommend it to anyone visiting Kyoto. Emi was just lovely and she clearly enjoys sharing her kitchen with us.
We took the bus to the Teramachi covered arcades so that I could visit the shops I didn't get to the other day - Metamorphose, Milk and Emily Temple Cute. I was just going to look, because tomorrow we're visiting Victorian Maiden and I want to see everything before I buy (if I buy at all). First, Metamorphose. I can't believe how different their stock is from last time. Last time it was all leopard prints and disgusting colours, but now they have taken a more classical turn. Some really nice dresses, lovely pintucked blouses, and some socks that I almost bought. Next, Milk. It's not really Lolita, but some of their clothes are frilly and all of them are cute. I tried on a pair of shorts, but they were too big. Too big! Emily Temple Cute was really nice, they had a lot of stock, and a lot of their stuff was on sale half price. Some lovely cardigans and tops, some nice stuff coming in their spring collection too. And the shop girls were the lovliest I've seen in Japan.
We walked to the McDonald's near our hotel, but weren't terribly hungry because of our humongous meal today. We didn't feel like eating more Japanese food.
We washed our clothes tonight. Hah! It's been a while. What a relief.