June 10, Wednesday 1:28 pm, Shin-Osaka Station

We found J-Hoppers after about an hour last night. There were a lot of people on bikes, and still plenty of people in suits walking around, although the city was definitely quiet.



We went to sleep around 1：30. I woke up a few times through the night, but it was pretty comfortable.

I got up around 8:15 and showered. Looking out the window in our room, I could see many people walking by with umbrellas. I really like the clear ones.

We checked out around 10:30 after everyone had showered. We wandered outside looking for breakfast. A lot of people seemed to look at me first, probably because my hair’s not dark brown or black. We eventually decided on heading under Fukushima Station. Most places were closed still, but at an intersection, we found a breakfast joint. Outside were the famous fake displays of food.


It’s really amazing how realistic they look—it’s only the texture that looks a little off sometimes. After about 10 minutes of staring at the food outside, we finally went in. The whole place was run by one older Japanese man, and there were quite a few people for such a small place. I got the ‘ham-egg-toast’, or in katakana, the ‘alphabet’ for foreign words,　ハムエッグチイズ　[ha-mu-e-ggu-chi-i-zu].　Double letters means you sort of hold that syllable. It turned out to be a kind of sandwich.

It was absolutely delicious—it even had a little kick to it due to some sort of sauce. It was a really well spent 500 yen (円).　　The nice old man even gave us lemonade, which was probably the best lemonade I'd ever had, and it was on the house. The whole thing completely exceeded my expectations.

Afterward, we wandered around, eventually resting in a big hotel/department store lobby. After maybe 20 minutes, we went to nearby Osaka station and bought 160 yen tickets to Shin-Osaka station. The train was very smooth. We crossed a bridge over water to get there, which I hadn’t expected.. We arrived, hung around a bit, and then bought drinks from a vending machine (jidouhanbaiki or じどうはんばいき).

I got a water from 110 yen, and it was icy and as tasteless as anything can get, which was good. Finally we decided to go sit in the waiting area near a bunch of shops and cafes. We’re probably grabbing a train, the Raicho, to Kanazawa at 4:15 or so. Right now it’s about 1:45—we might go into the gift shop/food area soon. That’s it for now.


All photos can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266917&id=736370424&l=37441abaf1