March into Mitsuwa
When I was offered the chance to explore more of Chicago I took it. This chance happened to be a very long journey to Mitsuwa Marketplace which is an indoor Japanese market that has a grocery store as well as a food court and several other stores. While I took the long trip there with a group I branched off on my own to explore all that the market had to offer. First I went into a bookstore called Kinokuniya. I was very excited to visit the bookstore since there was one of these in my hometown that I went to almost every weekend. As I entered, I felt this overwhelming sense of home and familiarity. I loved seeing the giant Totoro at the front of the store welcoming in the customers as they passed. After giving Totoro a pat I continued into the store to browse the many shelves of books. There was such a variety of different titles including some I had never seen before. The book section led into a long magazine rack with several Japanese magazines. Unfortunately none of them were in English so I had no clue what they were about but they seemed to be mostly about fashion. Behind the magazine rack there was a section dedicated to stationary. This included origami paper, pens and pencils, small crafts, notebooks and journals, letter writing kits, washi tape, stickers, stamps, and even art supplies. Everything was so colorful and very cute, often times there would be flowers, cats, or other characters on the pens and paper. Another thing that surprised me was how reasonably priced things seemed to be compared to the times I’d go to a craft store looking for the same things. I had to exercise a lot of restraint in this next section, the plushies. They had ducks, cats, anime inspired plushies, and even food plushies. These all came in different sizes and some even had hooks so you could attach them to a keychain or a backpack. There were also plushies in blind boxes so you could get a surprise plush from a series. I ended up getting two of those to add to my collection.
After I completed my purchase I decided to walk towards the food court and explore some more. On the way to get food I found a miniature arcade with lots of crane games. There were two large crane machines containing giant stuffed cats and hamsters but there were even more tiny crane machines all stacked on top of each other. These had mini plushies, mini figures, keychains, and candy. I spent about ten dollars trying to win a prize from a few of the machines but unfortunately I didn’t win anything. After my terrible defeat I left the arcade and went to the food court. Each restaurant had some type of Japanese food whether it be ramen, sushi, or rice bowls. I opted for a chicken cutlet bowl which had fried chicken on top of white rice. It tasted amazing, the chicken had some sort of sauce on it which added this unique flavor to it and when mixed with the rice it tasted even better. Part of the reason I think this tasted so good was because I was eating with chopsticks. I’m really bad at using chopsticks so each successful bite felt like a little reward, so not only did I have a great lunch, I got some practice in too.
My next stop was a serve yourself bakery that had fresh breads and other sweets. I got a chocolate melon pan, a crab shaped bread filled with chocolate, a chocolate panda bread, and a chocolate coronet. I ended up eating the chocolate melon pan as soon as I got it and I wished I had gotten more because it tasted so good. The bread had chocolate swirls and sugar on top and the inside was also filled with chocolate yet somehow it wasn’t overly sweet. My last stop was the grocery store so I could stock up on some Japanese snacks. There was so much variety in the basic snacks I usually get so I had to buy extras including some new candy I had never tried before. I ended up spending a lot more money than I had planned but that’s ok because I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
Walking has offered me ways to explore the city and also some new feelings. I enjoy the feeling of anonymity because it allows me to blend in and be a passerby. Most recently while walking around Mitsuwa I enjoyed the feeling of not knowing anyone and that no one knew me. It was a different feeling from walking around school where it feels like everyone knows you and is constantly judging you. With walking around the city I’ve found this new sense of freedom that I haven’t had before. While I feel like no one knows me I don’t feel alone. We sort of talked about this in class at one point about how when you walk you are a part of this community of other walkers so you never really feel alone. It gives me this sense of safety when walking in a crowd with others and knowing I’m not alone in what I’m doing. Finally walking gives you variety because while you may walk the same way every day you never see the same things or have the same conditions. You may not even wear the same shoes which as I’ve learned can make a big difference in the experience. Every time you walk there’s going to be a different experience so it’s important to note that.
