I woke early this morning – we had a travel day ahead of us so no time for resting :).  After a shower we walked for about 20 minutes to a place Kaoru wanted to go to for breakfast, which was a bakery so had a collection of pastries, and also dining in.  We grabbed a few and enjoyed our breakfast, but it was only “ordinary” – not as good as Kaoru was expecting.

On the walk back we passed a place, the name of which pretty much describes its purpose…

Back at the room we did our teeth, and packed our bags.  We checked out around 10.30, and made our way to the train station.  From there we got a “super rapid express” service to Shin Osaka.  We decided against the gamble of getting unreserved seats, so booked reserved seats for the Shinkansen back to Tokyo (Shinagawa).  It was free for me anyway with my JR pass, so we just had to buy Kaoru’s.

It was early, but we needed to get some lunch.  Our aim was to get Osaka-style Okonomiyaki in Osaka.  But we still wanted to get back to Tokyo before peak hour.  So we found a restaurant and placed our order.  Because it was lunch time, we didn’t get to cook it ourselves at the table like most places.  But it meant it didn’t get messed up when I attempted to flip it, so there was a good side!  I managed to see the chef’s cooking it.  Amazing seeing how many they were managing at once.

After lunch we browsed around the Shin-Osaka, having a look outside to say we had at least *been* to Osaka (it doesn’t count if you don’t leave the airport / train station).  Then we caught the Shinkansen back to “the big smoke”.   It was about a 2.5 hour ride, so a good chance to catch up on things.

We got off the train at Shinigawa and changed to Shibuya, and then to Sukara Shinmachi. Mio had to pick Arisa up from Juku and it was timed well for her to take us home as well, which saved us having to walk.  Once back at the house we sat down and had a drink and a chat, while we waited for Yoichi to come home.  Mio presented me with a new beer taste.  I never thought I’d find something to equal the Premium Malts, but there it was!

Mio had also done some shopping for us.  There is a whisky brewery called Ichiro’s Malt, which has a very limited number of releases each year.  Kaoru has looked for it in the past and been unable to find it.  Mio found it at her local department store – they only had 12 that they could sell, and only one to each person at a time.  So she went back a few times to get a few.  She also got carried away and bought some other whisky’s, including a bottle of Hibiki.  We had already purchased our duty free allowance (less one bottle), so basically we now have stock for our next couple of trips!

Once Yoichi came home we went out to dinner.  Now when we got to the door and I realised that’s where we were going, I must admit I was a little reluctant at first.  But I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food.  I had the salmon and Kaoru had hamburg steak.  Both were delicious.  They also had “make your own taco rice” at the all you can eat salad bar!  Dessert consisted of profiteroles, jelly and ice cream.  And for once I managed to get in first and pay!

We walked home and decided we needed to sample the Ichiro’s Malt, so cracked one of the bottles open.  Yoichi normally drinks brandy (Henessey) but he actually really enjoyed this and came back for more!  However I was quite tired and struggling to stay awake – still on the tail end of this cold so not the best nights sleep, plus the travelling for the day – so I excused myself and had an early night.  I later found that Mio and Yoichi enjoyed a couple more glasses!

A few more photos from the day: