Well, there really wasn’t much else to do in Onomichi but it was a beautiful morning and I tried walking around the hotel a bit but it takes a bit for my back to loosen up. And there really wasn’t much to eat in the area besides a coffee shop next door. But I had the idea that I wanted to try finding a rolfer in Osaka so I just got going. Not the best plan. Fortunately, sitting on the train isn’t too bad for me.

Onomichi station is actually not that small and there’s even ticket area. They told me there were only three seats available on the shinkansen and all three were middle seats. I was dreading it but when I got to the train there was no one else in my row. A woman came and sat in the aisle seat but no one ended up in the window seat. That was fine. I passed out most of the way. I haven’t been sleeping through the night. I should probably quit drinking so much Pocari Sweat in the evening.

I made it to Osaka and man was it crowded. Both Shin-Osaka station and Osaka station are a special kind of hell on the weekends. I dropped off my bag at the hotel and sat down for a minute and saw lots of other people doing the same thing. It’s a fairly industrial looking lobby with some interesting touches. And it felt good to sit.

Then I decided to go look for lunch at 11am before the crowds hit. I must’ve missed my chance by a lot because there were lines at the most popular places that looked like they’d take hours to clear out. And most places that were open had the kind of seating that wouldn’t let me stretch my bad leg so they were out. I walked around for almost an hour before I started feeling like I was going to throw up. A breakfast of Advil and chocolate will do that to you.

Fortunately I saw some older ladies go into a brewpub and I thought I could try the pizza. What’s the harm in getting a ham pizza? Well, even though they looked to have a wood fired pizza oven, it was underdone. And there was a fishy cream sauce and a soft-boiled egg on the pizza. It wasn’t bad, just a bit weird. At least it helped my stomach a bit.

The brewpub seemed to be a big date place. Someone even had a birthday and they turned down the lights and played special music. The poor birthday girl was embarrassed and what the heck are you supposed to do with a sparkler in your dessert?

Check-in time wasn’t until 3, but I got back at 2 and sat in the lobby for a bit. I got to my room and it might even be smaller than the one I had yesterday, but I like it better. Industrial concrete walls don’t bother me much and I wasn’t expecting as much from this place.

My coin flip app told me to actually go to a restaurant when I considered just grabbing something from the combini. So I made it up to the food floor of the Yodobashi camera. I came in from the new, fancy side and saw that the Kobe beef restaurant was booked solid for the night. I was more thinking about two places I always seem to go to, and omurice restaurant and Baquet which has a variety of unlimited bread rolls that’s constantly being baked. Baquet was out of style for a while but today it seemed to be the go-to for families with small kids. Omurice it was. I got the seasonal set with a bolognese sauce which I’d never heard of. It was a little weird.

And it was butter rice inside which could’ve used a bit more flavor.

It came with a salad, a paper cup of miso soup, a drink (I had lemon squash!), and mini-marron dessert.

On the way out I looked at some fancy kitchen knives and then foam rollers. I figured it would be a pain to carry around but my back hurt. I also looked at a tiny massage gun and actually tried it out. It got the pain out immediately! I knew it was probably too good to be true (and it was) but I bought one. Dr. Air, the company that had a back massager I wanted a few years ago but no one would send it to the states!

Anyway, I killed some time talking to some people from the East Bay who bicycled around Yakushima. They bought some fancy knives and I showed them how to take their receipts and try to win some prizes. All we won were the booby-prize but it was umaibo and I love those things (I won two).

And that’s it for the day. I think tomorrow might be an exciting laundry day and I hope this massage gun lets me limp around better!