Today there is not much to write about. I had caught a cold a couple days ago, and wasn’t feeling so great. Mariko, her mom and sister, and Bay actually went out to see a NewS concert. NewS is one of the popular boy bands here in Japan, and Mariko’s family is crazy about them. So they all went off to see them. Koa and I just hung out at home, then went for a walk for some food. We ended up at McDonald’s again for some chicken nuggets for Koa, and I had an ebi-filet sandwich (Shrimp). We sat next to an elderly man (in his 90’s), and he gave Koa a small package of chocolate cookies. It’s an Osaka thing that older people give treats to kids. Koa and Bay got some candy from another guy on the bus. Osaka is an interesting place, that’s for sure!

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Today was a whirlwind tour of Kansai. In the morning, we had a quick breakfast at home. Mariko’s mom always prepares some food for us before she leaves for work, and today we had tamago-yaki (scrambled egg), sausage, gohan (white rice), and coffee/juice. Our only appointment for the day was meeting our good friend Kayo’s parents in Kobe for dinner that evening, so our day was open.

We decided to take advantage of our JR rail passes and hop on the Shinkansen for Nagoya to eat at an unagi (eel) restaurant that our friends had recommended. I thought it was so cool that we could travel so quickly to another city just for lunch. Plus, riding the shinkansen is pretty cool, no matter how many times I have done it. So, we took the train from our station to Shin-Osaka, which is where the shinkansen stop in Osaka. We found seats in the non-reserved car and the train quickly sped up to Kyoto and beyond. I think it took a little over an hour to reach Nagoya. We switched to a local train, then found the restaurant, Unagi Horaiken, which was up on one of the top floors of a building.

The line for the restaurant was huge! There must have been about thirty people ahead of us, and the restaurant had chairs lined up outside in the hallway. I had forgotten this fun aspect of Japan. It’s basically a line, but just sitting, and every minute or so, you have to get up and move over to the next chair as people are called to their tables. While the unagi restaurant had a huge line, the other restaurants up on that floor didn’t have many customers at all, even though it was about 12:30pm.

We actually didn’t really have to wait long at all, and were seated at our table, where Mariko and I ordered the popular unagi set. We also got some karaage (fried chicken) for the kids. The unagi set was pretty huge, and looked delicious. There is a certain way to eat it, which is to take a big flat spoon and divide up the food into quarters, then put the first quarter into your bowl and eat it as-is. The unagi tasted so good!!! When finished with that part, you scoop the second quarter in the bowl, then add nori (seaweed), wasabi, and green onion on top, and eat that bowlful of food. This was even better than the first! For the third quarter, it’s the same as the second, but then you also add some soup broth to the unagi and rice. And the fourth quarter is any way you like it. I just added the nori, wasabi, and green onion, which was my favorite way. I hadn’t had wasabi with unagi before, but it was really good. By this time I finished, I was pretty full. The amount of unagi and rice was incredible.

With the unagi lunch finished, we headed back to the shinkansen, and headed back to Shin-Osaka. Then we caught another train for Kobe, we we did a little shopping at the 100-yen store before meeting Mariko’s mom and Kayo’s parents for dinner. Kayo’s dad took us to an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant called Fisherman’s Wharf (I think). We waited in line for a couple minutes, then were seated near the window, where we had a nice view of the harbor. The food here was great. They had a wide variety of food and dessert, plus coffee and soft drinks. Some of the foods were: roast beef, salmon, whitefish, paella, several pastas, mussels, steamed crab, shrimp, pizzas, and sushi. They also had cakes and a chocolate fountain. I at tons (yet again)! It was a fun dinner, and the kids had a good time too.

After dinner, Kayo’s parents drove us home in their car (they were so nice), and we ended another long day.

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We woke up at the ryokan at about 8am and watched some cartoons on the tv. Mariko went to the combini (convenience store) to pick up some food for us to eat before heading out. She got some onigiri, a hotdog sandwich thing, some other small sandwiches and coffee, tea, and juice. Even the convenience store food was great! One thing about Japan, the food is the best!

Next we made the short walk over to Mariko’s dad’s place and met him and his mother. We spent some time there munching on snacks and talking to Mariko’s grandma, and then went out, not sure where we were going, but just following Mariko’s dad. We ended up at the Osaka Municipal Housing Museum, which was on the 8th floor of the Municipal Housing building. The museum has a recreation of old Osaka circa 1860. It is pretty awesome. The lighting changes every several minutes to simulate all the different times of day. There were even sound effects of birds. It was amazing. Bay and I checked out the sento (public bath house) and he got to open up one of the lockers with an old key. Koa had fun taking photos with Mariko’s camera and running around the town. I really enjoyed walking inside the buildings to see how life was like in the old times. Besides the town, there were models showing the city of Osaka in the early 20th century. These models were so incredibly detailed! There were a few that even moved, and it was so well-done and stylish, with 2D cutouts of people walking on the street, and then other overlays that showed how the city changed over the years. I really recommend visiting this museum if you are ever in Osaka!

After exploring for a couple hours, we were pretty hungry, so we walked down the street to find a place to eat. We quickly found a kaiten-sushi place. Kaiten-sushi is a sushi restaurant where you sit at a counter, and plates of sushi move past you on a conveyor belt. You just grab the plates of sushi that you want, and after you are done with your meal, the wait staff counts up the number of plates and tallies up the bill. Bay loves sushi, and ate so much. I too ate a ton, and drank a bunch of green tea as well. I don’t know how many plates we ended up with, but it must have been around 20 or more.

Mariko’s dad said goodbye to us after lunch, and we headed back to the subway and headed for home. Along the way, I made Mariko stop at the McDonald’s so I could try the Mega Tamago Burger, which I see advertised every day. Mariko was unimpressed with the burger, but I thought it was pretty good! Especially with a nice Kirin. We relaxed the rest of the day, and ended it with a nice hot ofuro.

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Today was going to be a busy one! We left the house at about 8:30am and made our way to the station. Along the way, Koa got to ride on the back of Grandma’s bike, and he said he had fun. We said goodbye to her at the station, as she went off to work while we went to meet Mariko’s dad at a different station. We put our overnight bag in a coin locker, then took the Keihan Line towards Kyoto.

Our first stop was Otokoyama, which is famous for its bamboo groves and temples. We took a cable-car ride up the side of the mountain, and found ourselves among super-tall bamboo and camphor trees. Some of the camphor trees were several hundred years old! We also got to see a few momiji (Japanese maple) leaves that had not yet fallen to the ground. Mariko’s dad conducts tours sometimes, so he explained a lot as we walked along. There were some temples at the top, and we paid our respects to the gods there. It was really amazing to walk among those bamboo groves and temples, high above the urban sprawl below.

After we decended from the mountain, we had a quick lunch near the station. I had gyudon (beef over rice) and the kids shared kitsune udon. Mariko had curry udon, and I can’t remember what her dad had. Our bellys full, we got back on the train and headed towards Uji. When we arrived, we got a little bit of dessert: ice cream and macha (green tea). In Uji, there is a famous bridge, which is one of the first in Japan. The river it spans is very wide, and flowed very quickly. Mariko’s dad explained a couple of the famous battles that took place long ago, and how the samurai would cross the river on their horses. There is also a statue of Murasaki Shikibu, who wrote The Tale of Genji. Much of the novel takes place in the village of Uji.

After crossing the bridge, we wandered thru town for a bit, then found ourselves at Byodo-in Temple, which is featured on the 10-yen coin. The temple is amazing, and houses a large Buddha. There is also a very modern museum on the temple grounds, and the exhibits are interesting and explain much about the importance of the temple. It’s always fascinating to me to visit these temples because they are so beautiful and serene.

It was getting late in the afternoon when we left Byodo-in and we made our way towards the river again, this time crossing over a brilliant red bridge. Mariko’s dad and I quickly visited two more temples, before heading back to the station. The train ride back to Osaka was a nice rest, with Koa falling asleep on Mariko’s lap. When we arrived at Sekime station, we decided to head straight to the ryokan we would be spending the night at so we could check in and drop our bags off. The ryokan was small and basic, but would be perfect for a tired family. But before we could rest, we needed to have some dinner!

Mariko’s dad led us to a fugu (blowfish) restaurant a few blocks away. Fugu must be prepared by licensed chefs, because it can be deadly if not prepared correctly. This particular restaurant had a glass window where you could watch the chef prepare the fugu. It was somewhat disturbing to watch as he skinned the live fish, then proceeded to cut up the squirming body. Then we settled into our little enclosed booth and table, where a gas stove sat below a large nabe (pot filled with water). We ordered a special drink of sake with broiled fugu fin for taste. It was pretty tasty, and we also had beers to wash it down. The first foods to be served were fugu skin, then fugu sashimi, which was pretty good. Nothing so special, though. Then we had some deep fried fugu, which didn’r really taste special, but was good since I was really hungry. Next, the server brought in a big plate, with noodles, veggies, shiitake, tofu, and chunks of raw fugu. I’m glad I had sake and beer already, because it made it easier to handle the sight of the fugu pieces, which were pulsating and twitching, still full of life. It was pretty gross, actually. But after cooking it in the boiling nabe, it was just like any other fish. Lastly, came another “specialty” dish: fugu sperm sacs. I really wasn’t having any of that. So, I politely refused, and ordered another beer.

After dinner, we headed back to the ryokan, said goodnight to Mariko’s dad, and unpacked. A quick shower and a little tv, and it was off to dreamland. All-in-all, and great day, with an unforgetable meal to top it off.

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Today we went to drop of the kids at the kindergarten. We took the bus again, which is cheap, just 200 yen per person! But it does take longer than the train. The big advantage is that the bus stops are very close to our starting and ending destinations. The walk from the bus stop to the kindergarten is about 10 minutes, and includes a shortcut past a nice vegetable garden and a secret passageway. After we dropped of the kids, Mariko and I went to another coffee shop for their breakfast sets. Before that, we stopped at a convenience store to pick up some magazines to read. I took some photos in the store, and as we were leaving, the manager asked us what we were going to use the photos for. Mariko just said, “He’s from overseas and thinks all of this is interesting.” Then the manager said, “Ok. Have a nice remainder of your trip.”

Today’s coffee shop wasn’t as nice as yesterday’s, but it was still good. The only problem was that one of the regulars there was chain smoking, so Mariko started feeling a little sick. They did have some magazines, even some “men’s” magazines, with articles and photos aimed at the males of the population. Nothing like looking at pictures of naked ladies while eating breakfast in a coffee shop!

After we finished there, we went back to the kindergarten and saw that they were having an assembly in the big auditorium. All the teachers and some office staff were singing and playing instruments for the kids. It was really neat! And when each class got up to leave, we saw that Koa was holding hands with one of the girls. It was so funny! Back at the classrooms, the kids said their farewells to Koa and Bay. It was so great that the kindergarten would let our kids attend their class for a few days. We thanked the vice principal of the school, then decided to head home and have a nice rest and a drink before heading out again for dinner.

At around 2pm, I got really tired and crashed out on the tatami, and put my glasses on the floor next to me. Unfortunately, Koa came in a little while later and stepped on them, snapping them in half at the bridge. Mariko and I had actually discussed a few weeks ago about getting new glasses in Japan, since it was much cheaper, faster, and you don’t need a prescription. So we left home a little early and went to the glasses store in Yodobashi Camera. I found a nice pair of frames for about 5,900 yen, exam included. Unfortunately, my vision is a bit strange, so my lenses would take a week. Mariko’s lenses would be done in an hour, though. The eye exam was quick, and it is so nice not to have to deal with insurance!

After Yodobashi, we met Mariko’s mom at Umeda and then went to a nearby yakiniku place for some grilled beef, pork, and vegetables. It was all really good, although Bay got very tired and took a snooze. After stuffing ourselves with good food and a few draft beers, we took a taxi back home for a good night’s sleep.

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Today was Bay and Koa’s second day at the kindergarten, and we decided to take the bus there. We had a bit of trouble though since we got on the wrong bus! But we switched to the correct one at Umeda and were on our way. It was a long bus ride, maybe 30 minutes, and the kids were falling asleep but we finally made it to the school. After dropping them off, Mariko and I started on foot to look for a place to have a cup of coffee and relax. We eventually found a really cool coffee shop that had a couple breakfast sets, and at night the place had izakaya food. The sushi menu on the wall looked really tempting! But it was morning, so we ordered our breakfast sets which included hard boiled egg, small cucumber and ham sandwiches and some fresh fruit. Mariko had toast with marmalade instead of the little sandwiches. The coffee was really good too! Soon it was time to leave and walk back to the kindergarten.

Koa had a good day singing songs and listening to the teacher read from the storybooks. He even picked out the book he wanted her to read. He also seemed to become labu-labu with one of the girls there. Bay also had a good day. At the end of his class, they ate dried persimmon.

After we left kindergarten, we caught the bus back to the city to look for Dotonbori Gokuraku Shotengai, which is like a small theme park, where the theme is old-time Osaka. There are lots of old ads and posters on the walls, and the little restaurants serve typical Osaka foods, like takoyaki. We of course had takoyaki, but also some kimchee-yaki and some other thing that was like takoyaki, but in a broth. Mariko and I shared a cold beer, which really hit the spot. After we ate, we went up to the 7th floor (the place is on the 5th-7th floors of a building) to catch a show. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was better than I could have imagined. It was like a small musical, but very old Japanese style, and very funny! There was even some wire-work flying at the end. The singing and dancing were excellent, and the crowd really got into it. When that was over, we went to another show, which was an actor’s improv. Before that show started, each member of the audience filled out a few questions on cards. Then the acting troupe would act out a story, using the cards as plot drivers. It was sort of like mad-libs, and very funny. Even Koa had fun, busting out laughing a few times.

When we left Dotonbori Gokuraku Shotengai, it was about 4pm and time to head home. We were all pretty tired, but we had a good day. After bathing, we ate some more takoyaki that Mariko’s sister brought home. A nice snack to end a fun day.

We got up at 7am this morning and ate a nice breakfast at home of tamago-yaki (scrambled egg), sausage, and more maki-zushi. Then we were out the door at 7:50am and headed for Tsukamoto station, which would take us five stops thru Osaka to Suita, to meet Mariko’s friend and her son. Bay and Koa would be spending the next few hours attending a Japanese kindergarten. A quick cab ride to the campus, and the boys were busy in class. The only think I knew about Japanese kindergarten was what I saw in the dorama “At Home Dad”. This kindergarten was exactly like that show. The teachers all wore the same kind of aprons, and they played songs on the piano during songtime. The boys did really good in their new class! Bay’s class took a little walking trip to the post-box about a half-mile away. When we got there, the postman was there, picking up the mail in his mail-truck. I thought that it was pretty cool that they arranged to have him there. After the kids sent their postcards, they marched off back to class and finished up the day at around noon.

We were all pretty hungry by then, so we went to Kobeya, which is a restaurant famous for their fresh bread. You order a meal off the regular menu, but they also come by every few minutes with baskets of assorted breads to choose from. It’s all-you-can-eat bread, so we went a little crazy. I don’t really care for raisin bread, but Kobeya’s is really oishi. We also had milk-bread, orange bread, walnut bread, but the best was the cheese bread. My entree was a combo set of hamburger steak, whitefish, ebi-furai (fried shrimp, and potatoes. It was yummy. The kids got their kid’s meals, which was like mine, but no whitefish. Instead they had omuraisu (egg omelette and rice), fries, spaghetti, and hot dog. Plus a little Japanese flag, which was neat. The ladies ate some pasta, which was also delicious.

While we were eating, Mariko’s friend showed me her keitai, which had a tv on it. It was pretty cool and amazing! I am hoping to see a bunch of cool electronics while here, and this was a great start.

After lunch, Mariko’s friend suggested we visit the Pokémon center, and of course the kids were in agreement that we should go. The center was pretty cool. It was basically a big store filled with anything pokémon related you can imagine. There were these big video games where you put tokens on a gameboard, and the pokémon on the screen would battle. I had no idea what was going on, but the kids certainly enjoyed it. Also, Bay and Mariko learned how the proper way to play the pokémon card game, from an official pokémon trainer. It was pretty neat, I only wish I could understand!

When we left the Pokémon center, we were getting tired, so we decided to just head home via train. But on the way, Koa said he wanted ice-cream and Bay said he was a little hungry, so we stopped at a little cafe in the underground mall below Osaka station. Bay had some spaghetti and Koa had some chocolate chip ice cream on corn flakes. Mariko enjoyed an ice coffee, and I just had a few glasses of water. I was so thirsty! It must have been all that bread I ate at lunch.

We arrived home after that and Bay and I took a hot bath together. It was so relaxing! I love Japanese ofuro (baths)! It was the perfect way to end a long day.

View the photo set here!

We were planning on sleeping in this morning, but we all were jetlagged and were up by 5am so we decided to take the free shuttle bus to the airport. AA gave us some vouchers for 1,500 yen worth of breakfast for each of us, so after giving our luggage to the storage service (we couldn’t check them in until 11am), we went to look for a good place to have breakfast. Most all of the restaurants looked so good! Much better than the typical Chili’s you find in American airports! There were restaurants serving Italian, sushi, ramen, katsu, etc. We settled on a Japanese restaurant and Bay had the kid’s set, which was some onigiri and tempura served on a cool space shuttle plate. Koa had soba, Mariko had soba, tempura and sashimi, and I had ten-don (tempura donburi) with miso soup. I also had a glass of cold beer, which was so good. The vouchers said “not good for alcohol” but the lady said it was ok. The food was delicious, and we ate it up quickly.

After that, we walked around the shops and bought some frozen mochi treats. They looked really yummy, and we picked out several to eat later (you have to wait about 30 minutes before it thaws out). Our next thing to do was to hop in a cab and head over to a shopping mall in the city of Narita to find haircuts for the boys. They were going to a kindergarten for a few days starting on Monday, so we wanted them to look good. We had let their hair grow pretty long because we wanted them to go to a Japanese stylist.

The mall was really big, kind of like an American mall. There was even a Hard Rock Cafe there. First, we went to the Jusco dept store to buy some shoes for the kids for kindergarten, and browsed around the toy section. Koa is nuts for power rangers, and he found a bunch of cool stuff to buy. There was also a big game center for kids, and we spent a lot of time there, just looking around, trying to avoid plopping 100 yen coins into the machines. After Jusco, we went to the mall shops and found the haircut place, where we made a reservation for noon. While waiting, we sat in the “picnic court” and ate the mochi treats, which were awesome! We got mocha, chocolate, marron (chestnut), milk tea, and matcha flavors. The picnic court was so much better than the food courts in American malls. Besides the McDonald’s and Baskin Robbins, there was a Korean place with bibimbap, a takoyaki/okonomiyaki place, a ramen place, steak place, and a few others. They all looked so good, but we were pretty full still from breakfast.

Soon enough, it was noon and time for the kids’ haircuts. We picked out some kakkoi (cool) styles from the stylist books and the kids were transformed from American hippies into Japanese idols. We were done by 1pm, and we had to check in at 5:30pm, so we still had a few hours. I guess we killed another hour shopping, then went to the McDonald’s on the first floor to get a Pokemon calendar and something to drink. The McDonald’s was cool, with a little toy conveyor belt that cranked out the burgers. It was pretty neat.

Finally, we had run out of things to do at the mall, so we hopped on the bus and headed back to the airport. The bus went through a pretty cool part of Narita, which was kind of touristy. We caught a glimpse of Naritasan, which is a group of temples, before making it to the shuten (final destination) of Keisei Narita. Then we got on the train for a quick trip to the terminal, where we checked in and waited, and waited for the JAL flight to Osaka. I had a cold Kirin (always good) and the kids shared some strawberry milk. The flight was ok, and we took a cab from Itami to Mariko’s mom’s place. It was so nice to finally be at home! It had been five years since I had visited, but it felt just like yesterday. After a quick meal of maki-zushi and oden, it was time for bed! Another travel day, but this one was a whole lot more fun!

View the photo set here!

We are finally in Osaka! But it was a crazy trip! First of all, we were supposed to leave the house at just 3:55am, to get to the airport just after 4:15am, which is the time that the AA ticket counter opens. Either my stupid watch’s alarm didn’t go off, or I didn’t hear it, but instead of waking at the planned 3am, I woke up at 3:45am. I was instantly in panic mode! Forget the shower! Luckily Mariko had showered a few hours before. I hurridly brushed my teeth, fixed my hair, got dressed and then “ding-dong”, the doorbell rang and Mariko’s friend was here to take us to the airport. I felt so bad because we weren’t ready, and she was right on time. It didn’t take us long to throw the rest of our things in the suitcases (just toothbrushes and stuff) and then get the kids dressed and into the car. I guess we were out the door at about 4:10am, but then we needed to hit the ATM for some cash also! I was in a daze, since it was so early, but my adrenaline was pumping.

We arrived at the airport at about 4:35am, and there was already a longer line than I thought would be there, and then the stupid self-service ticketing machine was giving me problems. Mariko was in line, and she was almost at the front when I finally got the machine to give us the boarding passes. Perfect timing! Also, there is no more checked baggage security check that we have to go thru. I guess it is all taken care of behind the scenes. Next was the trip thru security, which went without a hitch. Whew!!! We had made it to the airport in time! In fact, we had a few minutes to relax before boarding the plane and got some water and coffee. The plane ride up to Chicago was good since Mariko had made a bunch of spam musubi for us to munch on. The kids did really good on the plane as well, with no meltdowns to speak of. But AA no longer has free decks of playing cards, which is so bogus!!!

We arrived at O’Hare and made our way to the connecting flight. On the way, I saw Jesse Jackson. He walked right in front of me. He was wearing a black hat and was about 7 feet tall it seemed. Anyways, we had plenty of time to wait at the airport, since the plane was scheduled to leave at 11:05am, but was delayed until 12noon. I figured that it wouldn’t affect our schedule since the pilot should be able to make up the time in the air, and our stopover in Tokyo was over two hours. But soon we found out that the plane was delayed even longer, now leaving at 2:40pm, which meant we would miss our connection in Narita. I spent several minutes on the phone with the AA agent, but there were no later flights out of Narita to Osaka (Itami), so we would have to spend the night, then catch the flight out of Narita the next evening. That kind of sucked because instead of arriving in Osaka on Saturday night, we would arrive Sunday night so that was one less day for the kids to be with Grandma.

The flight out of O’Hare took off at around 3:30pm. It turns out that our original plane had mechanical problems, then they had to wait for a free plane, which was arriving from London. Also, while we were taxiing on the runway, another plane broke down and we had to wait for that to get out of the way. You know what? O’Hare sucks. I never want to go thru that airport again. Unfortunately we had to go that route because we were using our miles to get three freebies.

But once we were in the air, things went well. The kids were excited because there was a video screen in front of each seat. I was excited because of the free beer. Except that it’s not free anymore. So I just had some tea instead. The kids slept most of the way there, which was a whopping 13 hours. I watched Ratatouille a couple times (what a great movie) and slept a bit. Lunch (which was served at about 6:30pm) was really bad: some meat-like pieces on Uncle Ben’s, plus a piece of salmon sushi. The salad was decent, tho. Oh, another complaint. They ran out of custom forms. How hard would it to be to keep a stack of 300 customs forms on the plane? Jeezus!

Well, we finally arrived at Narita at around 8:15pm and then had to wait around while the AA ticket agents arranged our flight, which we had already arranged via the ticket agent on the phone in Chicago, but had subsequently been changed by the AA people, who wanted us to fly out of Haneda instead of Narita. We told them to switch it back to our original flight, which meant we would spend most of the next day in Narita. As soon as the flight was taken care of, we went thru customs. We were lucky because when we came into the immigration area, one of the immigration officials took us straight to the priority line, bypassing about 40 other passengers. Maybe they just didn’t want our kids, who were getting rowdy, disrupting the area. 🙂

After clearing customs, we gathered our bags, picked up our box dinners and headed for the shuttle bus, which whisked us to the nearby hotel. Another wait to check in, then it was up to the room, which although a non-smoking room, reeked of cigarettes. The boxed dinners were pretty good. Even these simple convenience store meals in Japan blow away the gross economy class airplane food. Our dinners were slices of smoked salmon, deli meats, Japanese style sandwiches, and fried chicken drummettes. It really was quite delicious. We finally hit the sack at around midnight, thinking we would just sleep in the next morning and take a late taxi instead of waking up early to catch the 7am shuttle bus back to the airport. So ended our first day of travel to Japan.

View the photo set here!

America is ripping off Japan this time?! “It’s Pantastic!” – Pancake Puffs

[link via Jeremy>