After waking up several times during the night due to the noise from the Phoony winds outside (yup - we invented that word, because Phoon) we eventually managed to get a half-decent night's sleep in. Pete woke up to the first bit of Japanese blue sky he has ever seen, whereas I rose with a pretty strong headache (which I am sure has nothing to do with the collection of different kinds of unknown spirits we were offered last night) and a collection of impressively large insect bites all over my back and arms. After what felt like a two-hour process to get out of the house, we learned that the first train to Osaka was tentatively scheduled for 4.30pm, while the first available bus departed at 6pm so we booked some seats on the train with our JR pass and set off to explore Tanabe with three very distinct goals - have breakfast, withdraw some cash and find a present for Keiji that roughly matched his gift from the previous night.
Gorilla Cafe supplied an excellent cup of coffee and a hearty breakfast and, after about five ATMs, we found one that accepted Pete's card (upsettingly one I had tried the night before, without realising one of the seven terminals accepted international cards...). On track to get 3 out of 3 before lunchtime, we found a nicely displayed 8,000 yen bottle of Sake but decided to check a nearby liquor store to see if they had Whisky, as Keiji had told us he enjoys that beverage as much as we do. There we found the most bizarre selection of Whiskys I have ever seen - two bottles of Monkey Shoulder, one of Suntory Royal 15 (which we got for ourselves), one of Nikka 21y (offered to us for 30,000 yen) and one of Nikka 34y (which was not for sale, but a quick look online reveals it is worth about €5000).
Without finding anything suitable we went back to the Sake store, only to find out the bottle we had earmarked was not for sale either. A walk to another liquor store on the other side of the station brought us to an establishment ran by two old ladies, which obviously only spoke Japanese and adorably burst out laughing at our befuddled faces whenever they spoke to us. We eventually managed to acquire a 5,000 yen bottle of Sake, which we followed up with a card and a presentation bag at a stationery shop we found on the way back to the the drop-off point. We then sat on a bench writing a note on the card, foolishly leaving the bottle by our feet, just in the right spot for Pete to accidentally knock it over with his leg and smash it into bits, spilling its precious contents all over a nondescript piece of Tanabe sidewalk. While we succeeded in finding a card and a bag, we were now out of a gift...
The obvious solution was to go back and buy another one, which we were almost looking forward to just to see the look on the old ladies’ face. When we got there, we were actually served by one of the ladies’ daughter, who spoke pretty good English and looked initially quite confused as her mother told her we had just been there to buy the exact same bottle of Sake. They quickly guessed what had happened and felt so bad for us when we showed them the broken bottle they gave us a small discount (Pete actually stayed behind me hiding the broken glass as we feared they might try and give us the new bottle for free...) and this time protected the item with several layers of bubble-wrap and two plastic bags to make sure we could not possibly screw this one up even if we tried.
With the package safely dropped off we headed back towards the station, stopping for a quick coffee on the way. At the platform around the departure time there was no sign of a train, but luckily we ran into the English couple we had met on the short section of the Kumano Kodo trail we had walked the day before, with the pleasant conversation and a couple of Kumano Kodo beers (accompanied by some horrible prawn crackers that delighted everyone but me) made the wait for the train perfectly bearable. The train journey itself, however, seemed to last forever. While the whole thing usually lasts just over two hours, after 45 minutes we had barely made any progress towards Wakayama (the halfway point) and our plans to get to Nara that day seemed very unrealistic at this point. I am not sure whether the train actually sped up (despite the loud warning messages in Japanese everyone in the carriage appeared to get on their phones) or the Suntory we decided to bring out had a time-warping effect, but in any case the rest of the trip seemed to go a lot quicker and we were at Shin-Osaka by 10pm.
After saying goodbye to our English friends we headed to our faithful J-Hoppers hotel, where we dropped our bags and recovered the ones we had left there in storage before grabbing some absolutely delicious tomato ramen at a place nearby. The tip we got from the girl who worked at the J-Hoppers reception made me feel foolish about my initial skepticism regarding Ramen, with my favourite bit being after you finish your noodles, where you are supposed to pour a bowl of rice into the remaining tomato soup (with the menu perfectly describing it with the words "it looks like a Risotto, isn't it?"). At this joint we also met a group of young guys and girls who worked at the Universal Studios and had a Monday-night tradition of grabbing dinner after work, which taught us some Osaka slang and who we managed not to piss off when answering the question "Which place did you like best - Kyoto, Osaka or Tokyo?". Pete wisely deflected the question as I thought to myself "don't say Tokyo, don't say Tokyo, don't say Tokyo..." We got back to our room fully committed to watching the second volume of Kill Bill, but were so exhausted we decided to leave that for another day and just collapse in a heap...
Cheers,
J-Wowww
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