July 16th, Osaka

In preparation for our departure from Japan, we relocated to Osaka in the morning. Our hotel was located in the business area of town. The streets were pretty empty as we headed out to the busier areas -  Dotombori District, lively Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Street, and covered markets trying to escape the heat.

The crowds here were less fashionable looking by and large and there were fewer tourists around. We grabbed lunch in the area. It's a competitive exercise, with people starting to line up outside restaurants around 11am and places filling up fast. We were fortunate to grab a spot for 8 at another sashimi place with a fun pricing manual with diagrams - rice was dolled out in sizes small, normal, large and extra large with corresponding price adjustments, and fish, similarly, was given out in accordance with a pie diagram. You could have one type of fish that occupied the whole diagram or two, three or four :) Dan grabbed takoyaki outside and joined us later.

After lunch, we continued our journey and ended up the tour at the Harukas Observatory, which offered stunning views of the surrounding areas including a glimpse at the universal studios. We had a hard time finding a place to take a break to prepare for dinner, with all the places around either being full (coffee shops) or closed for the afternoon break (dining venues). So we grabbed a train back to our hotel. 

On the way home, we stopped at the izakaya for the best (izakaya) meal ever. Everything was so tasty that we continued to add items to the ordering app, and the young waiter kept going up the stairs to deliver yet another delectable morsel. 

Here are the highlights :) raw liver with spices (aha), lightly seared duck with spices, you get the idea :) carrot salad with some crunchy bits, edamame boiled in salty wasabi water, chicken caraage, please repeat, twice, more beer, please, dried fish backbone,  and my favorite salted raw squid so similar. To keep the dinner costs reasonable in the face of unhinged gluttony, we also helped ourselves to the buns we got at Harukas underground desert court. 

It was sad to be saying goodbye to Novichenoks - two weeks flew by too fast. 

We dropped off the kids at the hotel, where they hung out at Georgia & Isabella's room late in the evening and walked around with Romik & Polinka looking for drinks. 

Finally settled down at the 40th-floor bar at Konrad Hotel overlooking the town & the skyscraper we were at earlier. Two African American jazzists were playing near us and we were enjoying our company, drinks, and the last of Japan.