Well, I sure didn’t sleep well last night. It must be travel jitters or something. I had all sorts of weird dreams and I swear there was some reason I was supposed to sync up two of my programs or something. Yeesh. Well, I still got up at the same time and went to Hoshino Coffee again. I think the strong coffee is too strong sometimes! Maybe I’m just a wimp.
After saying goodbye to the big celebrity at the hotel, it was time to pack everything into one bag since I mailed most of the gifts that were filling up my suitcase. If I buy any more crap I’ll have to go back to using a suitcase and a duffel bag, but right now I don’t even have my suitcase expanded.
It was mostly an uneventful trip to Osaka. I fell asleep soon after leaving Tokyo and didn’t wake up until the little old lady next to me starting going around trying to take pictures of Mt Fuji. That’s always hard on a train that’s going 300 km/h (186 mph). Something is always getting in the way.
Before leaving Tokyo Station I bought lunch, an ekiben. I had to brave the crowds in the store and reject a bunch of different options, mostly sliced beef, before I found one that seemed more traditional.
And it was!
I made it to my hotel to ditch my bags (check-in wasn’t for another couple of hours) and it was raining! That didn’t last long, but it was colder and windier than I expected. I wandered all over Osaka Station looking for a map of the craft beer shops which I never did find but with time to kill I stood in a line to watch a VR presentation of Panasonic’s home goods. Not that great for the 25 minute wait in the cold but I did get a free mini-tape measure that looks like a microwave.
I can’t remember what other nonsense I got myself into. I do remember fighting with the WiFi on my laptop before giving up and borrowing a network cable from the front desk and searching for a place to eat. I ended up going to Molto! on the 31st floor of one of the Hankyu buildings. They wouldn’t seat me at the window, but all I had to do is look over my shoulder to see the view. I was there for the beer and for some dinner anyway.
I ordered something that I thought would be a beef pot pie but it was beef in pastry dough!
And I was going to follow up with a salad, but I ended up with the smoked plate, where everything must’ve been flash smoked because it tasted smoky but the fish was very moist and almost like sushi.
It wasn’t nearly as expensive as I thought it might be, but it was still ¥6200 or so (~$54).
I was walking home and I knew there was another Molto!, a standing bar, on the way and they had beer from some of the Japanese brewers I met. Even one from Tsutsui-san who I just visited. So I headed in for a quick drink (hah). The other Molto! made me fill out a form to become a “member” and that meant I got a free snack!
That beer looks like a pint, but it was only a glass, so I felt bad about only having one. That lead to a couple more small glasses (from brewers I know!) and that lead to me talking to the paralegal who was standing next to me, and that lead to her taking me to another bar, and that lead to me getting back to the hotel just before my sister at around 11PM instead of 7:30PM if I had avoided the second Molto! altogether. In case you’re wondering, I left the poor woman to her own devices after the second bar and she was pretty tipsy.
And there’s my Osaka adventure so far.
