I had a better nights sleep, but still had a couple of wake-ups, before getting up at 7.30. A shower made me a bit more functional, and breakfast sealed the deal.
Kaoru and I got our bags packed, and Mio drove us to the station at 9.00. It was a beautiful, clear day, on its way to 31 degrees. It took us 3 trains to get to Tokyo station, but each change was at the same platform (well, across the platform) so very convenient. We got there earlier than we had planned, so got some nibbles (rather than a lunch) and waited in line for the train to open up. From our experience going to Kobe in March, we learnt that getting on at Tokyo, and being there early enough, means we don’t have to pay for a reserved seat for Kaoru (just a normal ticket).
We got on the Shinkansen, where I caught up on a few more things, and we ate our nibbles. One was a meat pie made with Kobe beef (delicious!), and the other were banana-filled cakes (kind of like a twinkie with banana cream inside). It was then time to enjoy the countryside, and get a little bit of sleep.
We arrived at shinosaka just after 1, and found somewhere to have some lunch. It’s great being on holiday time! After lunch we caught the train to Namba station and were able to check in to our hotel once we managed to find it (about 215). Mikusan had suggested this hotel – Swissotel Nankai Osaka. It was very nice.
Once we were ready we made our way downstairs and awaited Mikusan. She was a little bit late (about 3.40), but we had nothing else to do. I introduced her and Kaoru, and we grabbed a cold drink and chatted for a while. She speaks confident English when she knows what she is saying, but as soon as she had any trouble she would get Kaoru to translate. That Japanese mindset of not wanting to look silly in front of somebody else. We found out that she lives in the mountains between Osaka and Kobe, and that it takes her 90 minutes to get to Osaka. So we were very lucky to have her come all this way!
Matsuyama-san arrived about an hour or so later. He had a meeting but finished it early to come and see us. So we demonstrated Datascore to them, with me driving, and Kaoru translating it all; and doing an excellent job of it, considering she doesn’t really know the indoor sports business. She has learnt parts of it from hearing me talk about it, but has no real hands on experience. Matsuyama-san has already spoken about it to some of his contacts! It could be a long, slow road, but it will hopefully move faster than Konami has over the last 5 years!
Once finished we went to dinner. Matsuyama-san had booked a restaurant that he knows. Miku-san had bought a couple of bottles of wine; the restaurant wasn’t BYO but as Matsuyama-san knows the owners we were able to drink it. We gave Matsuyama-san a bottle of Shiraz that we had brought from Australia, and Miku-san a container of T2 Tea. We then enjoyed a delicious meal and great conversation. We got to know them both better.
After dinner we went for a walk around Osaka. The night life was beautiful. We didn’t go for any drinks, but just strolled around Dotonbori. We passed a shop which sold puffer fish. There were some live ones in a tank in the window and then the frame of a couple of dead ones all blown up. Osaka is apparently a better place to eat it than tokyo.
Matsuyama-san explained how people jump off the bridge in to the river when Osaka baseball team wins a game! Kaoru spoke to him a lot (as he doesn’t speak a lot of English) and I spoke to Miku-san, so she could practice her English without somebody else hearing. We ended up back at our hotel about 9.30 but as Miku-san had a long trip home we didn’t suggest going for another drink.
Once they were out of sight, Kaoru and I went back out, thinking a drink would be nice. But we couldn’t find a pub to drink at so we bought some take away drinks and some sweets and went back to our hotel room. The view out our window (23rd floor) was beautiful at night – it was a pity we couldn’t sit on the balcony. So we enjoyed a drink and snack, and went to bed.