The Wife walked into Ousu no Sato and almost didn’t make it out

The Wife is an addict, and there are a few things that she’s addicted to. Coffee is the first, followed closely by yuzu and kkaennip.

Recently, another item joined the club: Ume (梅), or Japanese plum. She’s always been partial to sour-flavoured foods, and it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

It happened during our day trip to Uji, after we had spent a relaxing two hours strolling in the Byōdō-in temple grounds.

We were walking towards the Tsujiri teahouse for matcha, and she noticed a large but empty shop with a familiar-looking signboard.

The large wooden block had おうすの里 (Ousu no Sato) carved into it, and bore the same name as a shop that was just down the street from our hotel in Kyoto Gion.

She had walked past the Gion store several times, but given how crowded and noisy it always seemed to be, she had never actually stepped in.

I suppose it was fate, and matcha could wait.

There was no doubt as to what they were selling. The shelves against the wall and the display tables in the centre of the shop were filled with beautiful boxes and jars of preserved ume.

Inside the spotless glass counters were even more packages of the pickled fruit.

Some were individually-wrapped, with majestic names like 鳳凰梅 (Phoenix Plum) and 宝玉神梅 (Precious Jade Divine Plum). It goes without saying that the fancier the name, the higher the price.

A super kawaii salesgirl stood behind the counter and politely beckoned The Wife over. She poured out some hot tea into small paper cups for the both of us, and started introducing their products.

As she slowly and patiently went through their extensive catalogue, small food samples would magically appear for us to try.

It was at this exact moment that it happened.

The Wife had a look in her eyes.

The very same look that I saw about a year ago, when we were inside the Pleats Mama store at the Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul.

The Wife walked into Pleats Mama and almost didn’t make it out

Thankfully, the food samples didn’t include any of their premium plums and mainly covered their range of plum-flavoured pickles and sauces.

After realising that her inception was successful, the salesgirl escorted The Wife over to the island displays that stocked the various samples that she had tried.

There was a flurry of activity as she happily picked up the packets and bottles of stuff that she liked. Not just for our own consumption back home, but also as gifts for a couple of her foodie friends.

First, しそ 大根 (shiso daikon) 160g x 2 packets for ¥1,512.

Second, 梅ごぼう (ume gobo) 160g x 2 packets for ¥1,728.

Third, 梅しそとうがらし (ume shiso togarashi) 60g x 2 bottles for ¥1,512.

All the purchases were carefully wrapped and placed into a pretty paper bag. I could tell that The Wife was very pleased with her purchases, and I was pleased that she was pleased.

Remember the super kawaii salesgirl I mentioned earlier? Well, we managed to find out that her name was Yui, and she’s the one standing on the left in the photo below.

She’s wearing a face mask, but it’s obvious from her happy eyes that she’s simply beaming inside. Yui-chan, arigatou gozaimasu for such a lovely shopping experience!

We walked into the Uji store of Ousu no Sato by sheer coincidence that day, and almost didn’t make it back out.

But I’m glad that we managed to spend some time with Yui-chan and experience her warm and wonderful omotenashi.