I was dragging again today and it was a rainy day anyway. My mom suggested that I hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and go back to sleep. I figured I’d go walking the underground a while.

One of the first things I saw was people lining up in the basement of the Hanshin Department store to get the cheap cake. I forget why there’s cheap cake, whether it’s oddly shaped or if they just sell a bunch of them for cheap.

Anyway, I had no idea what I was doing so the first thing I did was head towards Hep Five. And what did I run into? Whity Umeda!

And the first things I saw in Whity Umeda? Beard Papa and Baskin Robbins! (Actually the first thing I saw was a store selling traditional Japanese sweets, but that doesn’t make for as good a story.)

I didn’t actually go INTO Hep Five, because, well, I’m an idiot. And I had more time to kill. While I was there, I thought I’d try looking for our favorite green tea sweets shop. But what I found were new restaurants with a new underground river! Turns out the store I was looking for is BEHIND this store. It’s still there.

So this is in the northeast of the underground and I thought I’d go to the southwest where I was two days ago and where it was all shuttered up.

But I started getting tired and stopped at Chococro, in the middle of everything (pretty much) and had a coffee. I had to ask the woman like a retard what the strongest coffee was and she just didn’t understand what I was asking. So, for the second day in a row, I felt like I was getting in an argument about something completely stupid. I just didn’t want a weak-ass cup of coffee (again). I was in a much better mood after the coffee (especially since the girl running the coffee machine gave me and the girl on the cash register some advice on coffee).

Turns out the area towards the southwest isn’t shuttered up during the week. Lots of businessmen and stores.

Hell, I don’t know where I’m taking pictures any more. I think this is where I decided that I was going to follow the road to the far northeast again.

Sometime in the middle of all of this, I went back to Hep Five and, stupidly, sent Facebook messages to co-workers and got some information about next years insurance changes. You have to do it now, and I don’t know how you’re supposed to get it done when you’re on sabbatical. I also heard about some customers and I shouldn’t have asked. Fortunately there are plenty of things to distract you in Japan. Like a giant red whale in Hep Five. And women trying to help direct you to the proper boutique while wearing ridiculous uniforms.

I thought I’d get some lunch and by the time I got closer to the hotel and found a place to get some lunch. The Wired Café sounded annoying, and of course, it was. My phone stopped connecting to the cellular data network and I couldn’t get onto the “free” internet.

Fortunately, the taco rice (not tako rice) was pretty tasty.

I got back to the hotel around 3 or so and decided to take a nap. In fact, I didn’t do a whole lot more today. But I did get into my head that I wasted to get some tonkatsu. I asked the front desk and they sent me from the west side of Umeda past the northeast corner of Umeda to Chayamachi. I could swear they said Katsukura was in the Apple Rose building. Turns out it’s in the APPLAUSE building.

It was a serious tonkatsu restaurant. They give you goma (sesame) in a mortar and you grind it.

Then you add two types of sauce. And no matter how hard I try, I take a fuzzy picture.

On the way here I was thinking I haven’t had much seafood. I won’t point out the baby octopus in one of my previous pictures, but that and some fried shrimp are probably the only seafood I’ve had.

I had this exact same combination in Tokyo but I think this was a little better.

Tomorrow I’m meeting some old co-workers. The company that Mitsubishi turned into through mergers of several different companies is finally cutting back on all the factories they own and a lot of them are quitting or getting laid off. This may be my last chance to see a lot of them! In any case, I don’t know what else I’m going to do. Maybe see the Ando instant ramen museum? Or see what my cousin’s kid’s new house looks like?

Apart from the arguing, I do like Osaka best.