Today was another nice day. Slightly cooler than yesterday but still pretty nice. We started off at the “old coffee shop” and it was packed with old dudes reading their racing forms. I’m guessing horse racing is a weekend thing? I got the croquette monsieur which started out a little bland but tasted better as I ate more. I think there’s egg salad in there and the first piece didn’t have much of it. But maybe the weekend chef is a little more sparing with the salt.

We walked around Sannomiya and the only crazy crowds we saw were in Chinatown. I wanted to confirm that Kobe’s is much larger than Nagasaki’s (which is only a city block) and it is much larger. The long line for the famous pork buns looked 100 people deep and didn’t seem to move very fast so I punted. We walked down to the end of Motomachi and back to the Daimaru department store where we ate at the Kyoto restaurant that wasn’t on the restaurant floor. The restaurant floor was pretty spendy but the single restaurants on other floors were reasonable. I had the chicken and mochi soba because I didn’t think it was going to be this large.

Mariko had the yamakake soba.

After that we went looking for the coffee counter we last went to about 15 years ago? It was still great. I had an incredibly strong cup of coffee in a beautiful cup. It’s in Sanchika, on the slope above the Misudo.

We also went and checked out the restaurant area because I think that’s where the Japan Eat guy tries all the restaurants. It looks nothing like what I thought it would look like. It’s old and dingy like the southern end of Umeda and the Daiichi through Daisan buildings.

Then it was back to Umeda.

We walked around a bit trying to decide where to go for dinner and ended up on the restaurant floor of the Hankyu department store. I was in search of chicken nanban and started off with a cream soda. It wasn’t quite as radioactive green as I’ve seen in the past.

There was a lot of chicken in my chicken nanban. It wasn’t my favorite because it didn’t have the sweet sauce and the tartar sauce had a slightly bitter taste. It was good, just now what I was expecting.

Mariko had the tempura udon and the tempura was very good. Not too oily.

We both got the set with a little soft ice cream at the end. Probably more like ice milk but it was a nice way to end dinner.

And that’s about it for the day. I did stop by Kinokuniya to get a couple of calendars. I can’t count on the free ones from my insurance guy any more (he retired and the new guy doesn’t seem to send them out) and some of the other ones quit coming. As my dad would say, that’s progress.

Laundry day!

There’s usually a laundry day in the trip. My last trip this spring I packed a bunch of old underwear and socks. I threw them away after wearing them and at some point I bought replacement underwear and socks on the trip. That meant for the first time I didn’t have to do laundry during the trip!

Unfortunately that also means I don’t have that much old underwear or socks anymore and I had to go back to doing laundry during the trip.

When Mariko and I were planning the trip she didn’t want to spend the weekend in Osaka because it gets crowded at the station. I convinced her we could take trips out of town if we needed to. Today we didn’t and just wandered around away from the station instead.

First, breakfast at the Tully’s in the MBS building! I had chicken toast instead of the hot dog.

Mariko had the hot dog.

We went to the MT tape store north of the station, wandered around that neightborhood, and then took the long way to Tenjinbashi and Japan’s longest shopping street. Towards the end of the street is the Osaka Tenmangu shrine where there were lots of festivities. Probably mostly Shichi Go San (the kid’s 3rd, 5th, and 7th year rites of passage).

We ended up running out of shopping street about 12:30 and I was starving. I was kind of hangry and wanted to stop at a small local place and so we tried this Bistro that had two ¥900 specials: hamburger steak and the special of the day. It turned out to be great, and quite a steal.

The special came with salad and a delicious soup.

I had the daily special which was chicken blanched with herbs. Mariko had the hamburger with demiglace.

Be careful if you want to try it: the proprietor said he runs the place by himself so he often skips opening for lunch.

Afterwards we went for cofee and they seated us in this closet with bizarre furniture.

Here’s a pciture Mariko took of me taking the picture of the weird furniture. They showed us the picture and asked if we were OK with the seating and I had to ask if we were supposed to sit on the plywood things. Turns out the plywood were tables.

I also had a cannele on a big fat plate. It was tasty. The coffee was good too.

On the way back we went through Ogimachi park which is pretty large with a pool and a huge kids play structure. We saw a giant Zumba class (at least that’s what I thought it was) and then saw a competition of “street gymnasts” doing amazing things on a high bar and parallel bars. The kid who won did lots of amazing tricks as well as static holds. His competitor only did static holds which were amazing but not nearly as flashy.

Oh, there was a ramen festival going on in the park as well.

Then we were mostly waiting for dinner. We saw an Italian restaurant that looked like the one we DIDN’T go to in Okayama because there really wasn’t anyone eating there. We ended up going to the busier one next door which was subpar. That was my mistake. This restaurant was tasty. We both had the pumpkin lasagna, which wasn’t baked but was stacked with fresh pasta squares.

And that was our day. We spent a lot of it walking through residential neighborhoods but that’s kind of what I like to do. 17,310 steps of it according to my phone.

Another relaxed day with only two photos. It was a rainy day so we spent a lot of time just wandering around the station. Breakfast was at the usual place, Promenade. No pic from that.

Then we wandered around. I can’t even remember all the places I went. I spent a lot of money at the first store, buying 6 items totalling ¥660. I spent almost as much in a gacha machine for a figurine that makes no sense.

Lunch was at a fancy restaurant with areas to lie down while eating.

I think I liked the lotus root the best.

We walked around the station and waited a ridiculously long time for coffee. Then it was time for a massage and then dinner!

We went to a pork restaurant in the Yodobashi Camera food floor. Stewed pork belly for me.

Gyoza for Mariko.

And that’s about it.

Wow, this might be a quick one today.

Breakfast was at a old cafe underneath the Hankyu Umeda station, next to the Zetteria. It’s rather old school and it’s always had a smoking section that made us a little wary. You’d see old guys with their horse racing newspapers since the off-track betting place was nearby. It’s really not bad.

After that we went to the Royal Home Center that has an Astro Products inside. Astro Products is a little like Harbor Freight, but more like if the Amazon tool section had a physical store. Lots of weirdly cheap tools. Astro Products is more of a DIY home center. Their Makita tool selection was great and I saw athe mini-band sander that’s usually about $400 on Amazon for $170. I almost bought it but I don’t know how much I’d use it and I didn’t want to carry it all the way home. My brother-in-law and his buddy spent a lot of time in Astro Products and my sister never made it upstairs. Upstairs had pet supplies, pens, notebooks, cosmetics, and even more random stuff for the home that wasn’t just hardware-store related.

Oh, and the route they took to get to Royal Home Center had no transfers but requires a long walk. I had a better route.

After that we went to Nishinomiya Gardens (a slightly upscale mall) where we ate lunch.

NO PICTURE

Honestly, the lunch didn’t deserve a picture. It was supposed to be Indian food but mine seemed like minestrone with saffron rice.

I lost my eyeglass sleeve but bought some books. Then we walked to our cousins where we saw all the local cousins! Even the one I usually don’t see because he lives further away.

After that we went back to Umeda and had omurice at the soufflé egg omurice place. Honestly it could’ve used a little more flavor. Maybe there was a price hike on salt or something.

And that’s about it. My cousins loaded us up with some sweets which my sister insisted I eat and she also gave me some coffee ice cream bon bons. Even after 15,635 steps (according to my iPhone) I’m not going to lose any weight.

I felt kind of tired when I got up today. I chalked it up to being relaxed about not having to pack and move onto a new spot. Turns out I was 

For breakfast we went to the Osaka coffee shop where I ate all my breakfasts when I came in April. It was tasty and I was hungry, as you can kind of see here.

Mariko wanted some “traffic safety” amulets, or more accurately, stickers from a shrine so I took her to Sumiyoshi Taisha, one of the Grand Shrines. There’s the arched taiko bashi leading to the entrance.

And this is one of several main shrines.

We kind of took the scenic route back to the Abeno/Tennoji area. I kind of like walking in the area since it’s kinda Showa Era “ish”.

We did some shopping and at some point I started feeling kinda meh. I felt better (still tired) after lunch I was able to convince Mariko to go to Mos Burger. I didn’t have my regular Mos Burger but had the tobikiri (exceptional) cheese burger where the patty is 100% Japanese beef and sticks out the sides. The Mos Burger is still my favorte but this was quite good.

On the way back to the hotel I promised Mariko I’d buy her an ichigo daifuku. She wanted one yesterday but I recommended against it and mentioned it again today. The kid selling it was a crack up and we bought one with white bean paste, one with white bean paste and whipped cream, and one with seasonal fruits (the big one in the middle). All the fruit was incredibly sweet. The seasonal fruits were a giant purple grape with mikan and Japanese pear.

I thought I was too full for dinner, but the fruit digested pretty quickly. We went to Grill Ron (a regular stop) a spot my brother-in-law called unusually good. The menu is quite straightforward and I had the A set with a 100% beef hamburg. Every part is slightly better than normal, enough where it shows why there’s always a line for the small restaurant.

That’s about it for the day. Tomorrow we’ll see our cousins!

Wow, the shipping container hotel room felt really cold this morning. In fact I was surprised at how much warmer it was outside. I didn’t have the A/C turned too low but it was very odd. I got up around 6am and had several hours before my cousin was going to drive me to the tiny train station where the train to Tokuyama came once an hour. Fortunately, nothing predicated a run from train to train. We got to the station about 15 minutes early. We got to the transfer and had another 15 minutes to get from train to train. And when we got to Osaka we were there way before check-in.

I didn’t know what to do with myself and I realized I bought breakfast the day before. An acai smoothie, a lunch pack (Japanese “uncrustables”) with grape jelly and margarine, and melon pan. I didn’t finish the melon pan and Mariko gave me half of her lunchpack (there are two in the bag) that was egg and ham. The lunch packs were very good.

So I mentioned we traveled part of the morning and got to Osaka and went out for lunch. Had “coffee hojicha” which just seemed like very roasted hojicha and not really coffee.

I had a “Japanese style hamburg” set that was pretty darn good.

Mariko had matcha soba which she said was a bit on the bland side.

Then we wandered for a bit and even went for some green tea sweets at Toki (again).

We were able to check in and wander around the station some more. One of the many Family Marts had Osaka socks! We didn’t find Okayama socks or Yamaguchi socks, unfortunately.

We weren’t hungry for a big dinner so we went wandering around and found a place that was also in the big Daimaru department store. I had the soft egg and Japanese chicken meatball gratin (rice base and cheese on top, baked in the oven.)

Mariko had the mixed sando which was way more than we expected. Ham and potato salad, and egg salad with tomato. I think the egg salad with tomato was the better of the two.

And I think that’s about it for the food. I did eat some of my Pretz tonight. I forgot I had some of my melon pan left. I’ll have to eat that tomorrow.

I’m being forgetful today. I forgot I had a blog to post to. I forgot to put in my contacts when I was about to leave my room to catch the Shinkansen. I did not forget to take a picture of breakfast. It would’ve been the same thing and that’s not that interesting.

We took a Nozomi (express express) Shinkansen to Hiroshima (a whole 30-ish minutes) and transferred to a Kodama (every station) Shinkansen to Tokuyama (another whole 30-ish minutes) and then took a very local train to Hikari. Every time we make it to Hikari there seems to be less going on. I took a picture of a train in Tokuyama (I probably have a bunch of the same picture) that isn’t running on electricity because the line is so far in the sticks. But it does go from Tokuyama to Iwakuni.

My cousin met us at Hikari station and then took us to Kudamatsu for lunch. We went to a place around the corner from the curry place we went to a couple years ago (I thought I recognized the library building) and it was kinda fancy. The kaisendon was deceptively large. I didn’t finish all the rice. None of us did.

Mariko had fall tempura donburi and I got her potato and salmon.

I don’t know why but I also took a separate picture of the soup.

We hung out at my cousin’s until we checked into the weird hotel that started across the intersection down the street from her house. They rolled in a bunch of shipping containers (smaller Japanese shipping containers) and made mobile hotel rooms. The back side has license plates on the trailers. The rooms are a little larger than a lot of normal Japanese hotel rooms and have showers and a desk.

What the hotel doesn’t have is a restaurant and there are none very close by. They do give you a frozen dinner for free and there are microwaves in every room. We both got the curry because we figured it would be the hardest of the dishes to screw up. There was also yakiudon, an eggplant stir fry (I think), meat spaghetti, and something else I can’t remember. The portion wasn’t too large so we supplemented it with some food from the nearby supermarket.

Also dessert.

The curry was actually pretty good. The katsu sando was the stalest I’ve ever had (it should’ve been more than 20% off) and I also got some potato salad that was pretty OK. I was still hungry and lamenting not buying more when I remembered I had a Mont Blanc pudding dessert which was pretty good.

Anyway, the typhoon fizzled out and we did get some driving rain for a bit, but it all blew over pretty quickly. I’ve been trapped in a hotel room during a typhoon before and it gets old quick.

OK, I’m going to bed before I figure out what else I forgot to do today.

Another day in Okayama! Same hotel breakfast as before, though some of the items were different. No potato salad and the fried chicken was prepared differently as well. Still tasty, though.

I took a separate picture of the view this time since it looked blurry yesterday.

Our friend Yumi wanted to take us to the place that originated Okayama’s demi katsu, tonkatsu in demiglace sauce.There was a line and I can see why. They had some of the best tonkatsu and the demiglace sauce matched it very well. Unlike the complaints I had in Hokuriku with their sauced tonkatsu, the sides were great as well.

Here’s a picture of the different sizes. Two half-size, one regular, and one jumbo.

Afterwards we went to get some coffee at one of my favorites.

Then we had some time to kill before dessert, so we went to Raffine to get 40 minute massages. Well worth the time.

We went to the Higashiyama district of Okayama city to get some pancakes that were cooked in front of us.

The pancakes came with white bean paste and salt and also some syrup if you wanted. I just ate them with the bean paste and a little salt. They were delicious. The pourover coffee was strong and was perfect with the pancakes.

My sister and I were on our own for dinner and we picked the Italian restaurant that had more customers. It was OK. This mini pizza was fine but mostly lacking in flavor. I forgot to take pictures of the pasta and really it looked better than it tasted, and it didn’t look exceptional. It was OK. I wouldn’t not go, but I’d definitely try the other Italian restaurant first before I came back to this one.

I’m staying at the same hotel in Okayama as I did in May, and got breakfast here as well. Not only is it tasty but there’s pretty nice view while you eat. And the coffee is as good as it was in May. Usually hotel coffee is like most Chinese restaurants in the US: weak and coffee colored.

We met our friend Yumi and our first stop was the Bon Bon bakery, where we went a couple of years ago. I think we could’ve been OK with just the hot dog at the bottom of the picture. The bread there is delicious but i’ts also very hard. Toothsome might be the proper term but it’s tough, tasty bread.

Then we spent a lot of time driving around looking for the Okayama Family Mart socks. I found Family Mart special logo socks, a darker color combo I haven’t seen before, and Coca-Cola socks so I bought those but I’ve struck out completely trying to find any of the limited 47 prefecture socks.

But we did go get gelato.

For dinner we met Yumi’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew for dinner at Tommy’s Shokudo. Here’s how it started, with the Otoshi (also known as the Japanese table charge).

I only took pictures of about a third of our plates. Big amongst the items I didn’t photograph is the pizza there, which was excellent. But here’s our starter Caesar salad with lots of bacon.

The potatoes, missing zucchini (there was some), and huge pieces of pork belly with lemon.

The steamed veggies in a Dutch oven. I saw them crisp it up in the oven before they threw in some water to steam it.

The karaage chicken with tartar sauce.

Ooh, and another good one. Crisped up potatoes with cheese.

There were a lot more plates. Smoked dried beef (not really that dried). Smoked takuan with cheese and something else tasty. Roast beef slices with fried garlic. Mentaiko and cheese pizza. Fried octopus. I’m missing several others but it was great.

I guess in the wintertime they have the stove really going and you can cook S’mores. If you didn’t already notice there’s a camping theme and the chairs were all Snow Peak directors chairs, the plates were Snow Peak Sierra cups, and the lighting was lanterns.

Anyway, that’s about all I have to mention today.

I hope no one is expecting these to come out on a schedule because I keep forgetting to do them before I go to bed like I did on my past trips.

Thank goodness I slept much better. Today I traveled to Okayama to meet my sister. Got tickets for the Shinkansen from Osaka to Okayama online and had it all planned out, starting with breakfast at Tully’s. On my last trip I had a salmon cheese toast somewhere (Doutor?) but Tully’s had chicken cheese toast. It was pretty good.

Now that I know I can buy online and get the tickets at the machine, that’s what I did. And the trip to Shin-Osaka was not nearly as crowded as I remember. Shin-Osaka itself was a zoo. And the trip to Okayama is only about an hour or an hour and a half so it was pretty easy.

I had all afternoon to myself so I just wandered around the station area. The construction in the basement was finished but not all of the stores had returned. I thought about trying to find some hole-in-the-wall like the JapanEats guy does but I didn’t find anything. I went back to the Aeon Mall and took my time deciding what to eat but I saw a bonito restaurant at the Kitte building and so I had that on my mind. I think I overdid it on the bonito but it was tasty.

I had a “second cup discount” from my morning Tully’s so I went back and got some dessert (like I needed to eat any more).

I wandered around until my hotel room was available at 3pm. And I love being in the slightly-less-busy places like Okayama because I was able to go to Bic Camera and play with the new iPhone Duo! It’s cool, but not really for me.

Oh, and no one would give me a bus schedule. The one online was down (PHP issues I’m sure), and no one would give me a paper copy. They told me I could take a picture of it. Sheesh.

I hung out in the room for a while before I decided to get tickets for Monday when we’re supposed to visit my cousin in Yamaguchi Prefecture. I say “supposed to” because a typhoon is hitting that day and there’s a chance that trains will be stopped. The ticketing area was a shitshow as it often is and when I got a number from the machine it told me there were 88 people ahead of me.

Then it was time to head for the bus to the airport. Okayama has a small airport but it was busy. Unlike the places I’ve flown into lately, like Kagoshima and Nagasaki, the planes looked full and the one coffee shop was packed! I ended up getting a half-price rice ball and a beef croquette from Family Mart. I was still hungry so I also got a melon pan. No pictures.

The bus to the airport was so full that they had to add a second bus. The bus from the airport was so full that we had to sit towards the back and it was bumpy back there. When we got back to Okayama Station I had to get more food at 7Eleven. It wasn’t that bad.

And that’s it for the day.

Just like the trip in the spring, I didn’t sleep that well on the second night. I think it got better after that so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I messaged my old coworker yesterday and he was free today. He moved from Osaka down to Wakayama, about an hour away by express train. It’s an hour and a half by regular train and that costs a lot less but it’s nice to have a reserved seat on a faster train. I had to take the green car on the way back because that’s the only thing that the ticket machine offered. Even then it was only $25. The local train only costs about $6.50.

I started the day at Tully’s. I’m not sure why I like the breakfast hot dog so much but it’s great.

Yesterday I spent close to an hour and TEN WHOLE YEN printing out a sheet that I was supposed to show the conductor and then I found out I can just go to a ticket machine and stick in the credit card I used and it print out a ticket! I should be able to use an app but it looks like the JR West app is limited to the Japanese App Store. Phooey. And the conductor knows what seats should be filled and hardly ever asks to see the reserved seat ticket (I’m not going to chance it.)

My buddy took me up the mountain to see the susuki grass. It’s supposed to look the best this time of year. It’s blooming or whatever it is that grasses do. My dad was the horticulturist, not me.

Here’s some awful pictures of me up on the mountain. The pictures aren’t awful, but I must be getting vain because I think I look old. It’s actually because I am old.

We also had curry udon. They were out of rice when we got there a lot of the selections on the ticket machine were sold out. When we finished eating I noticed they’d cooked more rice and the sold out items were available again. I shouldn’t complain because the curry udon was some of the best I’ve had. I took a picture but the phone appears to have eaten it. I’ll tell you now it looked like curry udon.

We drove about an hour to a lookout point which looked close from the mountain but definitely wasn’t. It’s near my buddy’s fishing spot and it’s where the samurai would watch the foreign ships approaching Osaka’s harbor. If nothing else, it was pretty.

And another picture of an old guy. There was a nice Japanese garden and some people were fishing. The waves were choppy and they said they were having no luck at all.

My buddy had to go to the dentist at 5 so we went for an early dinner. Unfortunately a lot of restaurants in Japan close from 3pm to 5pm to prep for dinner. He found one on Google that was supposed to be open but once again Google was wrong. He found a place near the lacquerware district in Kainan just south of Wakayama City. I had the chicken and Shiso spring rolls. It was rather tasty.

The set also came with drink and a dessert. I picked Calpis (also known as Calpico in the US) and zenzai.

After dinner my buddy dropped me off at the Kainan train station and I just missed the 4:37pm express train. They come once per hour so I wasn’t completely out of luck. As I said earlier, I couldn’t really figure out the ticket machine and had to get a seat in the more expensive green car where I sat in front of a couple of guys who didn’t shut up the whole time back. Oh well.

And that’s about it. Tomorrow morning I have to pack up and head to Okayama Station. Then I get to figure out how to get to the airport where I’m going to meet my sister. The web site with the bus schedules is down. With the big PHP security thing going on, a lot of Japanese web sites were taken down for updates. I’m hoping I updated this site correctly (which was another reason it took me so long to get out of the room in the morning).

I passed out and slept all night. I had so many emails that I didn’t finish going through them all. Why am I reading all the NYT emails?

Anyway, I got out of my room and wanted to spend time at the “new” Kitte Osaka building. It’s been here for at couple of years and I just haven’t made it over there. It’s in the west end of Umeda, near the hotel my mom liked but recently we’ve been staying in the northern part of Umeda. I’m staying at the west end right now, in the hotel next door to my mom’s old favorite old hotel, and they’re both close to Kitte Osaka. Even better: this hotel is connected to the underground so I never saw the rain.

The Kitte building wasn’t quite open when I first went, but they did have a few restaurants open for breakfast. I went to a place called Absinthe. The staff was minimal and it wasn’t until I bothered the staff three times that I realized you could (should?) order with a QR code.

I thought I forgot my pill case and a case for my glasses, but it turns out I forgot the pill case and my deodorant.  Stores don’t open until 10 or 11am so I went across Umeda to the 24-hour Don Quixote because they sell western stuff and basicallly a little of everything. Japanese people don’t use much deodorant and they had a very small selection. Then it was off to buy a pill case and Muji didn’t have what I needed so it was time for the ¥100 store (plus tax). That 69 cents. I wandered around a bit more and started getting a headache. It also ended up being over 87°F and very humid!

I went back to the Kitte building for lunch and the headache wasn’t helping me any. I got some comfort food, omurice and Napolitan (ketchup) spaghetti. I also had some Ringl (ibuprofen). No picture of the coffee I had at the end.

I wandered around the five floors of the Kitte building and found lots of places to eat as well as “antenna shops” for prefectures around Japan.

I tried to go back to the room but it wasn’t ready. Luckily the Ringl started to kick in and I finally felt good enough to keep wandering. I went to a bunch of shops where I wasn’t planning on buying anything. There’s a new Apple store in Grand Front, and the Grand Seiko store turned into a Seiko store. I looked for a new iPhone case but they didn’t have anything for the iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro.

I wasn’t hungry but I stopped mid-afternoon for a snack at Toki.

I finally got back to my room around 4pm and sat for a bit before I went back to the Kitte building for dinner. I let a coin flip decide and I ended up getting Niigata tare katsu. I think it was better than the tare katsu I got in Niigata. It was cheap, too.

I made arrangements to see my buddy Moriwaki on Thursday and bought a ticket online. The English version of the web page said I had to print out the reservation so it took me several trips to the convenience store to get that done. And it’s two or three blocks away. Turns out my USB stick was formatted for the Mac, and the print station didn’t recognize it. I have to figure out how to do this without a printer.

Anyway, just stayed around the station and I got in 20,058 steps according to my phone. And I still have 70+ emails.