It's over!

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We're sitting at an un-namable cafe in kansai airport waiting til we can check in. How do you frap a cino?

The guy at the next table can't connect. lol. he keeps glancing back at me... hehehe. If he hadn't put his comp away i would help him out. It's the least i can do considering the supreme helpfulness of the native Osakans over the last couple of days. In fact, whenever we opened our Lonely Planet Japan (an indispensable resource, btw), we had to try very hard NOT to attract a helpful Osakan. The trick is to look super casual and avoid looking like you're looking at a map and/or around at signs. Being pasty and wearing a gigantic pack doesn't help either. Especially if your mouth is open. Yeah, Osaka wins.

And Kyoto is not EVEN that great. Nobody likes busses and you know it.

Food:

Takoyaki (octupus balls - fried) with asahi super dry. Yum. Very pub food.

Okonomiyaki (big omellete/pancake thing). Best when topped with fried noodle and doused with every condiment on the table. The place we were at served it onto a hotplate built into our table, from where you slice it with your very own paint scraper and inhale each chunk hot off the grill.

Robatayaki (sort of like teppanyaki but with all the ingredients laid out between you and the chef). Went to a super place (starts with I, listed in lonelyplanet) where the enthusiastic host gave us special english treatment and basically ordered for us. Huge beers and heaps of fried stuff. The chef was super cheerful, probably because he gets to deliver your plates via a big wooden stick like a baker's bread extractnion device (whatever that's called).

Various chain cafes (not recommended) In fact Japan basically has shizer coffee. The cafe food is like they've seen a blurry photograph of a gaijin's packed lunch and built their menus from that. And there aren't even little bags of twisties.

So the food was a highlight, but making a permanent switch to an all japan diet is not on the cards. Anything healthy has a 700% surcharge and all your favorite foods are extra moist and oversweetened. They do have tasty crisps tho.

ill try to squeeze some new pics up once we check in. If i can weed out anything interesting.

eh... eurr...(squeezing noises).

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