Adventures in Japan

Last Day In Umeda

This was our last full day in Umeda, we’re moving tomorrow, so we wanted to make the most of it. The day started with the front desk calling at 10:00, asking us to check out. Oops. Carla sorted out the confusion and we set out for... we weren’t really sure. Since this was our last day in the neighbourhood, we figured we should give the noodle shop right across from the hotel’s front door a try. Its lack of plastic food and pictures to point at had frightened us, but we figured what the hell. We ducked inside and seated ourselves. We were busy trying to decipher the menu when the chef came over. He was a very friendly looking, smiley guy who reminded me a bit of Chow Yun Fat for some reason. He pointed to one of the items on the menu and said, “Number one!” so we ordered two of them. And they were good. This noodle shop was a ramen noodle shop. Ramen noodles are the noodles you get in instant noodle cups. Mr. Noodles are ramen noodles. Ichiban are ramen. Those were what I knew ramen to be. Now I know that Mr. Noodles is to ramen what Pizza Pockets are to pizza. Real ramen rocks.

First of all, real ramen noodles aren’t mushy. They’re more like spaghetti in consistency. They stay firm to the very last one. Plus they are not all wavy, they are straight noodles. I don’t know what our ramen dish was called, but it was filled with everything I like. There were onions, there were mushrooms, there was smoked bacony tasting pork, the broth was hot and a little creamy. I wolfed it down very quickly. The chef seemed pleased. Or maybe he spit in my soup, whatever: he was smiling. As was I.

Not knowing where to go, we set off in a direction we hadn’t much explored. Just a few steps into our day’s adventure and we stumbled across the Pokemon store. It was crazy go nuts busy too. Pikachu was in the hizzy, y’see. Since there was no room in the store, AT ALL, and the line was nutty long, we decided to amble on.

Did I mention what a beautiful day it was? It was a freaking beautiful day! Upper twenties, easy. No clouds to speak of. Gorgeous. And this is nearly the middle of October.

We had been walking for quite a bit, so we stopped into a convenience store for something cool to drink. Feeling low on aminos, we picked Amino Suplis. Sitting in the shade, drinking our amino drink, we espied the Umeda Sky Building off in the distance. You know, the one with the Floating Garden Observatory. We decided that was where we wanted to go. So that is where we went. There was a nice little garden and stream right near the building, full of plants that I will never know the names of.

At the base of the building(s), there was a little bit of something going on. An International Beer Summit was going on. Beer and food from all over world, all congregated in this one place. What fortuitous timing on our part. We poked around a bit. Canada had a couple of booths set up. But one was for Labbatt Blue, so I guess it doesn’t really count. Also, did you know that Moose Head is the Kilkenny of Canada? Neither did I until today. There were live bands playing and all sorts of good smelling food. We were still full from breakfast, so we decided to wander a bit more before we ate or drank anything.

There was a mini jungle/forest type thing just a stone’s throw away from all the hectic hub-bub. There were waterfalls, and fish and a nice little stroll through shady trees. There was also a talkative man from Sri Lanka laying in the grass off the path. He talked to us for a while. Then he glanced around furtively and asked, “Do you have ‘smokes’?” we replied in the negative and he told us not to worry, that he had some and we were free to join him. We responded in the negative and continued on our way.

After walking for a bit more, we happened across a few groups of Japanese teens dancing to no music in particular. It looked like they were all practicing their hip-hop stylings, so we stopped and watched for a spell. It was pretty cute.

We wandered back to the beer and the food and decided to partake. We settled on a Tequila flavoured beer. The flag on the booth was German, but the writing on the bottle led us to believe it was a Mexican beer. A surprisingly good Mexican beer. Very refreshing, especially after all of that walking in the hot October sun. Plus, it had a built in bottle opener. As we were drinking, an MC came on to the stage and introduced the hip hop kids we had seen earlier. His exact words were, “In Za House!”

Their dancing was even cuter when set to the thug-a-bling music of American rappers. We had a Johnsonville brat (pronounced braut) and a spicy taco as we watched the kids do their crazy dancing. Once the dancing was done, we decided to split as well. Beer Festivals aren’t the cheapest places to get drunk, or to eat. Plus we had a big day ahead of us.