Finding Pots and Pans

We had been mostly eating out since we arrived to Japan. We didn't have any kitchenware and our kitchen also needed to be cleaned before we could use it. Once the weekend rolled around we decided to head to the downtown area to look for some pots and pans.

The struggle was real.

The shopping area downtown is huge! It is an outdoor covered shopping district. We went into the indoor shopping area where there were about 5 floors. We finally found what we were looking for but the price was much more than what we wanted to pay (~$110), especially since we had no idea what we would be cooking or how often. We turned around and started walking back. We both were getting tired and hungry. At that point – having arrived downtown via a scenic route around Himeji Castle's moat – we had been walking about three and a half hours! We were feeling pretty defeated and it looked we weren't going to find what we were looking for.

As we started walking back to where we came from and looking for a spot to eat lunch, I saw a green banner that said in English "Japanese Kitchenware." They had exactly what we needed and quite a few options to choose from. I did notice that most of the pans were sold separate from the lids. The other thing that made it a bit difficult was that our stove is an induction stove and not all cookware would work for that stove. We had to find a store, the cookware section, and then check whether it was compatible with our stove all while not being able to read or speak Japanese.

 That green English sign was a life saver. 

We found the cookware section and thanks to some of the other residents at our complex we knew to look for a sign that said IH, which would mean it was compatible with our stove.

Now that we had finally found what we wanted, we had to find a place to eat lunch. We ran into other participants from our program and they highly recommended a ramen place. We went to the place but it was closed during lunch hours, then we went to another area where there would be more restaurants but they were also closed. Not sure if it's typical to close on Sundays during those hours.

We went out of the shopping area and were on the main street. It was already 2 p.m. and we were starting to head back home when we saw a display case with meals. It was also open until 3 p.m. We went inside and no one else was there except for an older Japanese woman that was running the place. She was very kind and gave us a menu with pictures. Blake got ton-katsu and I got omurice.

  

Now that we had been able to shop and eat some lunch, we headed back to our apartment – mission accomplished!