| 19.Apr.2023 | It pains me to hit Starbucks for coffee and a pastry in the morning, but if you want something other than canned or convenience store coffee, that’s what you get.  At least it’s guaranteed non-smoking.

It started pouring while we were consuming said coffee this morning outside the JR Osaka station. Not prepared for rain, we tested the theory that we could traverse the 8 or so blocks back to our hotel entirely in the subterranean warren of subway stations and shopping arcades. In a fraction of the time it takes at street level, we exited about 50 feet from the hotel entrance. Woot!

As we learned on prior visits, Wednesday is a common day for retail businesses to be closed so other arrangements would be needed for at least some of the day. After stopping into a Lawson convenience store to print out our tickets for New Japan Wrestling (!) on Friday, we headed to the Art Museum. (Yes, I know those two things together make for a weird sentence.) Anyway, we saw the visiting Picasso exhibit with quite a number of works.

Lunched at Craft Burger Co. It was delicious. More subterranean navigation over to Disk Union where Jeff picked up some records.

 

 

Made our way back to the Hankyu department store which is home to a lovely fabric and notions boutique on the 10F. Fabric was purchased.

 

 

Activity of the day was a ramen cooking class with Sakura Cook! We made noodles and thee kinds of base: salt, soy sauce, and miso. the spicy chicken in miso broth was my favorite, but the trick Fumi shared for pork belly had it a close second. Our table of four included Veronica from Bern and Damian from Berlin. So much fun!