Didn’t sleep great, because I woke up at 5am thinking I had a stomach ache. I had a slight stomach ache and I think I’ve come to the realization that I can’t drink Japanese sake just like I have to cut way down on the beer. Oh well.

I’ve told my cousins about my fantasy plan to move to Japan and I guess if I move out into the sticks it would cost me around $250k to build a house out here. I think it would probably be at least 10x more near Tokyo, but this is the sticks. And brand new apartments are selling for about the same amount. Of course, that’s with today’s favorable exchange rate. In any case, it would be much less than my house in the US. While I really do like it out in the sticks, I think I’d get lonely out here with no one I knew.

Anyway, back to the food pictures.

Breakfast was a buffet at the semi-fancy hotel. I got a little bit of everything, and overate again. My only complaint was the natto was better in other parts of the country, but my cousin was complaining about it too.

Our Shinkansen didn’t leave until 12:28 so we had time to kill and we walked around my aunt’s old neighborhood, where I’m considering moving if I didn’t think I’d get too lonely. There’s some neat temples.

They’re confusing because they combine parts of temples and shrines. Like the temple incense burner.

And the gong like a shrine.

Oh, and we saw some turtles sunning themselves and it took a minute to realize they were real and not statues.

There’s also new boutique shops popping up and rental sauna rooms.

I finally visited the Shunan City Library (you can Google it to see how nice it is) which blends a library, bookstore, and a Starbucks and was disappointed to find out that the wall of books was fake! No picture because there was a sign that said “no pictures”.

We made it to Okayama in under an hour and I took a nap during the trip. We checked into our hotel but couldn’t get into the rooms until 3pm. My sister wanted to see the local TeamLab exhibit, TeamLab: Tea Time in the Soy Sauce Storehouse.

It was pretty interesting. You go down into a dark space and drink chilled tea. Your interactions with your glass changes the sound and light coming from the glass. If you drink it all, it’s over and you get 30 minutes to just relax and enjoy the space.

I’ve been in the soy sauce storehouse before. It’s used as a gallery for art installations.

After that it was some more wandering around and the back to the station for dinner. I ate too much again (I’m already planning on a diet when I get back because I can’t afford to eat like I was for both health and financial reasons and to keep from being pestered by my cousins.)

But until I get back, TONKATSU.

We had a travel day to where my grandma used to live and my aunt and cousin still live. We came to see my elderly aunt, but unfortunately my aunt is in a care facility because she needs more help at 94 than my cousin can give her. You have to schedule time to see people and even then it’s like visiting a prison where you see people through a glass over a phone (I guess, I’ve only seen that in a movie.

Anyway, my sister got us a fancy hotel room and my cousin and her husband decided to join us.

Oh, first I should mention breakfast. My sister said we should ship one of the suitcases to the airport (actually a giant duffel filled with clothes we bought) and they couldn’t figure that out. I shipped it to my Tokyo hotel instead. Then we went to get a combini breakfast and I realized I had very little time to pack and eat the sando and bread. I ended up downing some coffee and shoving the sando in my face and leaving a juice smoothie box and corn/mayo bread in my bag for the Shinkansen ride.

Our cousin came to get us and we went to lunch at a hotel on a nearby island. It was an interesting buffet and pretty tasty and the views were great.

This coffee cup is tiny btw. 4 oz?

There’s a ship repair facility nearby.

And a giant ferry anchored in the waters.

We went to check in at the fancy hotel (it’s an onsen hotel that unfortunately has a couple of families with kids visiting too) but very near where my aunt used to live. Here’s her last house. Someone bought it and made it even fancier.

I watch YouTube videos from TokyoLens and he’s so amazed at some of the small towns he tears through. Well, he never had to stay in them for weeks or months at a time visiting relatives. There’s nothing to do. It’s fun to visit though and I might even end up moving to one of these places (a fantasy of mine is to move to Japan, probably somewhere not Tokyo).

There are at least a half-dozen small shops that weren’t here before. Boutiques, coffee shops, bakeries, etc. I should make a couple of those singular. I think there’s one new bakery.

Anyway, Another fantasy is to come out here and fish off the dock every day. Seems better than pachinko.

We got back, hit the onsen (little kids were running rampant in part of it and I didn’t want them to give me the ‘rona) and waited for dinner. The dinner was great.

Appetizers and great sashimi. (It pays to visit fishing towns.)

I was complaining to my cousins about ankou nabe (monkfish) and of course it was part of dinner. There’s “Sterno” underneath and the nabe cooks while you wait.

Yeah, I can’t remember what this was. Simmered fish at the top and some soup with yuba wrapped something. It was good, but I can’t remember what it was.

Here’s the Matsumoto beef plate. Some roasted vegetables and four slices of roasted and chilled steak. I made an instagram post about why I wasn’t an influencer. I’m more interested in eating the food than taking pictures of it.

Instead of just rice, we had lightly grilled omosubi ochazuke. Put the sliced shiso in the bowl and pour the tea on top. It was very flavorful because of the miso on the rice.

And finally a small fruit plate. Persimmon, apples, and melon. I ate that before I remembered to take a picture as well.

And there you go. This is basically the area my family is from. My mother’s parents had rice paddies here and my dad’s family is from the mountains nearby. Not sure what they did. Not much going on here but then again there’s a Komatsu (tractor) factory, a Hitachi plant that makes Shinkansen trains, and old chemical plants that are supposedly shut down but I saw flames coming out of the refinery so some of it is still going.

I did not sleep very well last night (big surprise) and I’m about to pass out. We spent the day doing a shopping speed run, going to a mostly uninteresting museum, and going to visit my cousins where we yakked for hours.

In any case, I won’t have a job that much longer and there are options I’m supposed to decide, remotely, without any access to any information. More later. Sleep now.

Edit:

OK, it’s not the morning, but the next evening. Sorry, travel day. Anyway, about yesterday. I found out my job was “gone” (as did another person who is older than me) so this sounds like classic age discrimination but whatever. We’ll let the lawyers decide and I’ll get another $5 from a class action suit or something. Anyway, I’ve been told I can wait ’til I get back to take care of this stuff.

Back to what we DID do. We went to the Tully’s in the MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting System) lobby for breakfast. We’ve been there a few times and it’s usually very empty with lots of space.

As a plus, Tully’s coffee is better this year too.

We were off to see our cousins, but had some time to kill, so we went to the Mister Donut/Duskin museum. I think it’s the corporate headquarters and it’s located behind this Mister Donut that’s tucked away on a back street.

There wasn’t all that much to see. It’s just a little more than what you’d see in a corporate waiting area describing the company. There’s also a couple of kid’s displays. I think you can decorate your own donut and upstairs you can use various Duskin cleaning appliances in a simulated room. And I think there’s a shooting game.

My sister said we should get donuts as long as we were here. We thought about getting lunch, but the lunch at Mister Donut is limited.

Instead we went to Mos Burger and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I remember it being better.

We went to visit my cousin, and I think I had the time wrong. I thought we were supposed to be there at 3pm (we were a little late) but she started sending me messages at 2:20. Of course she doesn’t know how to use her cell phone so all her messages come via email and I didn’t see them until later that day.

We saw four cousins (one is a cousin by marriage) and most of them are pretty smart. One is kind of a redneck and he was spouting some interesting right-wing stuff. I also found out that my grandma’s house was probably modeled after a samurai house and that’s why when I tour old samurai residences i think it just looks like a very nice version of my grandma’s old house. We also talked about the old goemonburo, something that the foreign YouTubers always talk about being so odd. Yeah, I had to use one when I went to see my grandma.

Anyway, we made it back to Umeda (where our hotel is) and had some omurice for dinner.

Oh and I had a side-salad. They also brought us little paper cups of miso soup. That was kind of funny.

And then it was back to the hotel where I thought about posting this blog but I passed out early instead. Tomorrow it’s off to visit a different cousin!

Fortunately, I went to bed a little early last night and that’s what it took to make me feel better. Or something. Either way, I felt better today and I suggested we go to Uji just south of Kyoto.

First, we went to a breakfast place and I got my bad luck for the day out of the way. We ordered a small sandwich set, which was pretty simple. Let me show you.

Somehow they lost our order. Then they delivered the wrong thing. It took half an hour to get this and Japan is usually a place where things come fairly quickly. It wasn’t much of a problem, but we were sitting right next to the door and it was a little chilly.

Anyway, off to Uji. It has a lot of matcha stores and the Byodoin Temple. It also has a shrine that didn’t seem like much but a web site I looked at said it’s the “oldest extant shrine in Japan”. I guess the tea is famous because Uji is “believed to be the original site of tea cultivation in Japan”. Or something like that.

We got there around lunchtime so we had some matcha soba. Well, I had nishin soba, which has a herring simmered in soy sauce and mirin.

Then it was off to see Byodoin. I’ve been here before, but I never did go into Byodoin. It was quite impressive.

You have to pay to get in, and pay extra to go inside the main temple.

You’re not allowed to take pictures inside, so this is it. You line up and cross that bridge to the right and go into the large structure in the middle where there is a seated Buddha surrounded by ancient paintings and carvings. There’s also a museum with examples of the paintings and carvings that’s part of the main entry fee.

Afterwards, we went to get a matcha soft ice cream from a traditional stand.

Just kidding, I just wanted to show that the Starbucks blends into the local architecture. Here’s the ice cream.

Uji is an interesting place. I think they do cormorant fishing here as well. Never been here at night.

We took a route back that wasn’t recommended by google, but was a lot more fun and had nicer train cars. And google said the Keihan Uji station was busy.

Anyway, we made it back with no problem.

We went to the Daimaru department store for dinner and some shopping. Can’t go to Osaka without having okonomiyaki.

And that’s about it. I’ve been laying off the beer because I was thinking it was upsetting my stomach. My stomach is upset all the time anyway, so tonight I’m having one beer.

Cheers!

I got up this morning and I knew it was a nap day. I was dragging all morning. My sister just wanted to go shopping in the area so we planned a low-key day.

First, the morning set. We went to Chococro and had a quick bite.

And it was off to buy train tickets for the rest of the trip. We had a rest back at the hotel and then started shopping. I was taking it easy and at 11:12am I got a message from my 2nd level manager asking to have a phone call on Tuesday (my Wednesday) two days from now. Getting a text message from work while on vacation isn’t a usual thing and getting one from your manager’s manager is more than ominous. Just like most companies, the place I work has announced layoffs and I figured I’m on the chopping block. I won’t know for two days. Thanks a lot for ruining a couple days of my vacation, even if it isn’t bad news. Even worse, it took me a bit to get ahold of any co-workers and no one knows anything. Of course that’s when I found out that it’s Sunday night there.

OK, so that snapped me out of feeling poorly, but I wasn’t that hungry. We went to Nana’s Tea (I think) and had a light lunch.

We’ve been there before and it’s quite tasty. A little more shopping and I made it back to the hotel for a nap at 2pm. My sister went shopping for a bit and then hit the laundromat, something we have to do a couple times on our trips because we don’t travel with huge suitcases.

I still wasn’t feeling great after the nap, so it was just combini snacks for dinner again.

And that’s about it. On Wednesday I find out if I’m unemployed, I guess.

One of the biggest disappointments was finding out our regular Pronto was closed. It’s right next to the hotel and we’d see this one guy eat there every morning. There’s nothing to special about Pronto. It’s a coffee chain and they have a morning set. We had to find our way to another coffee shop that my sister found online. She didn’t read the reviews closely enough, though and the shop turned out to be super-smoky. Tokyo seems to have cut way back on the indoor smoking but there are still spots in Osaka that allow it. Especially morning coffee shops. We had to go to plan B, and we just ran into another Pronto. Cheese toast and salad plus coffee for ¥470.

Then we hung out at the hotel because my sister wanted to go to a book release event for a knitting book she wanted. It was POURING out. Fortunately we found the shop and my sister bought a book and a sweater kit. She didn’t want to get the book signed, but I insisted that she try. They were happy to sign the book and rather than just sign it, they doodled in it for her. It was pretty nice.

I wasn’t feeling 100% (I think my blood pressure meds are making me dizzy the last few days) so we went to a coffee shop for some sandwiches for lunch. It was quite good, but it didn’t beat the sandwiches that the little old lady made at the retro cafe near Inuyamayuen station.

My sister has this clothing store she likes to go to that’s a little hard to get to and it was still pouring down rain, but we went (why not?) Totally hipster, but there’s some nice stuff there. Not for me, I’m a slob, but there’s some stuff she likes to buy. And they have had purple-label North Face goods there (Japan-only).

On the way back we stopped at Toki again for our favorite matcha treats, matcha shiratama with cold matcha tea. Yes we were just there yesterday but we did not have our favorite.

Then it was back to the hotel for a bit before we were supposed to do some more shopping. I tried my best not to pass out at 4pm and my sister said we should go get massages. Instead of our planned evening (we had several tasks we were planning to carry out) we went to Raffine where they beat the hell out of me and gently massaged my sister. I was starving before the massage but only hungry afterwards.

We decided to get some dinner at a pasta place and I forgot to take any pictures. I had an excellent Bolognese and my sister had carbonara. We also had spectacular garlic toast. You can imagine what it looked like.

And now it’s already almost 10pm, my usual bedtime here, so that’s it for the day. I guess we did more than I thought. Oh, and my travel umbrella gave up the ghost. Parts were bent and when I bent them back straight it quit staying open. I hope I don’t break too much more on this trip.

We had to leave our nice hotel today and travel on to Osaka. For some reason I was way more tired that I should’ve been. In fact, I felt kind of bad a lot of the day. I checked my camera and I had three almost identical pictures of breakfast and one of dinner and that was it.

Well, here’s one of breakfast.

It as nice, and the view was great, but it wasn’t anything as s special as I would expect from a fancy hotel.

The hotel is attached to the train station so it didn’t take us long to get to the Shinkansen. It was less than an hour to Osaka, and we just took the subway to get us slightly closer to the hotel. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and I think they dinged the corner of my laptop. Oh well.

I still wasn’t feeling well and I guess that’s why I never did get a picture of lunch. We got taco rice at Wired Cafe. I seem to get it almost every trip. y sister sent me her picture of it.

Then we went shopping for a bit before checking into the hotel at 3pm. We didn’t leave until looking for dinner. I wanted something light, so we ended up at a shop we go to every trip for matcha treats and had yuba rice. I had the set with dessert and noodles. It was very good. The yuba rice was also very hot because it was 75 degrees today and Japan seems to think it’s wintertime. Everyone is wearing heavy coats.

In any case, I’m feeling a bit better now but the room is HOT and tiny. They decided to add a queen sized bed to a Japanese hotel room and that means I keep bumping my knee into things. We’re at a hotel we go to every year and I think we’re going to rethink that in the future. Especially if the yen stays weak.

Anyway, I think my sister and I are kind of satisfied with just being here. The fact that we couldn’t come was the biggest hurdle and now that we’re here our usual rush to buy things and do all the things is no longer a worry. We just want to see friends and wander around.

I think I’m just tired from rushing around for a week and Tokyo isn’t exactly a relaxing place to be. It’s too bad that I don’t feel like buying everything when the yen is so weak.

Ha. Well I forgot to post yesterday. There was a bit going on in the evening.

Not many pictures today. We were meeting my sister’s friend Jen for lunch and I got us a bit lost. I knew where we were going but let me describe it further.

I’ve been getting up later and later, thought that just means I’m getting up at 6am now. Since I’m not traveling every day, I don’t need to get up at 5am every morning. I got up fuzzy this morning after waking up several times in the middle of the night. Our first stop, though was my favorite spot for morning set, Hoshino Coffee. And they have the Eggslut back! My guess is that they made a deal with the real Eggslut store because its only served at breakfast and the Eggslut store isn’t open that early.

Soon after it was off to see Kagurazaka before heading to Tokyo Station to meet my sister’s friend. However, being an idiot, I got us off at Ichigaya station (one early) and we decided to walk to Kagurazaka. Of course that was just the start of my mistakes.

We had time so I decided we should walk all the way to Tokyo station. I don’t have any pictures because I thought we could see a couple of things on the way and I found NONE of them. It was quite a walk. Google shows it as a 2.5mi walk and I didn’t take the best route. I was mostly lost. We were meeting at Tokyo Station, so we did walk by the Imperial Palace.

Another quick snapshot of Tokyo Station.

We had lunch at the KITTE building.

And coffee at a very fancy Starbucks.

Well, we sat in the park outside. Even saw a huge motorcade of some dignitary going to the Imperial Palace. We all had the same thought: I wonder what it’s like to be a Japanese Royal? There are never any non-staged photos. What if they want to go to the combini? I’m guessing they can’t; a servant would have to go. But would a Japanese Royal know about combinis enough to even want to go?

I made my poor sister walk another 30 minutes to my favorite shrine in Tokyo.

It’s pretty nice and there’s usually a horse there for some reason. This time it was a sad looking miniature horse.

We got back to the hotel and as soon as I sat down I almost fell asleep. We decided to keep it simple and go to Shake Shack for dinner. Holy hell it was expensive. $30USD for the two of us. My sushi in a fairly fancy restaurant was less. Looking out the window I realized we could see the lunar eclipse and some googling told me we could see the total eclipse. Here it happened around 8PM. We stood around outside while we waited for totality.

Yeah, I was one of those idiots taking pictures of the eclipse with his iPhone. I watched a livestream of the event and it looked kind of like that the whole time.

Anyway, after that I took a bath and then watched one YouTube video of a guy on a motorcycle channel making fun of foldable e-bikes. After that, I realized it was time for bed!