The last country in our brief but stretched-out tour of Epcot's World Showcase is Japan. Japan is absolutely the country we spend most time during out visits. Not only are we big fans of the restaurants (I personally love the quick service delight that is Katsura Grill) but we tend to spend quite a bit of time perusing the Mitsukoshi Department Store - the above gorgeous array of kimonos are from their selection. Unfortunately for this blog, most of the time spent at the store is spent, well, spending so I don't have too many photos to share!

Mitsukoshi is, indeed, a department store and they have departments for pretty much everything. I usually enter from what I call the "Hello Kitty" side as you are greeted by endless racks of Sanrio merchandise. My husband and I love this area - me for the Monchichis and he for the Transformers - and they tend to get merchandise that's uncommon elsewhere in the U.S. As you walk further, they have the Pick-A-Pearl station where you can select a pearl to go with various jewelry items which they have on sale. While I've never purchased one, it's always fun to hear the excitement when they open the oysters. It's one of those "You Know You're in Disney When..." sounds!

Next to Pick-A-Pearl are countless other items such as stationery, household goods, clothing, and accessories and then a separate area dedicated to more traditional Japanese arts and crafts such as the beautiful dolls shown above and hand-painted housewares. And then we've reached another one of my favorite areas at Mitsukoshi - the food market!

A little tradition that my husband and I have is stocking up treats from the marketplace and enjoying them throughout the rest of our trip. We typically visit Epcot on our second day (yes, we have a system by now) so we make sure to get enough sweets to sustain us for a few days... because, you know, there aren't hundreds of places to eat at Walt Disney World. Some of my favorites include Koala's March, Pocky, and the unfortunately-named but delicious Cream Collon.

And that, folks, concludes our trip through Japan and the World Showcase! Like I said, I wish I had taken more photos but there's just too much to distract me from my camera in the pavilion. I have always wanted to visit Japan and this place has always been a nice diversion until I can actually get there. I will not end this post with "Sayonara"... I will not end this post with "Sayonara"...