I Lose

Today is "take it easy" day. It started that way because we went to bed fairly late and consequently Tai-chan was not up and at 'em at the usual hour of 6:30 a.m. Indeed, I too was late awakening, at 8:30 a.m.

Besides, it was showing grey outside and upon drawing the blinds, I saw rain. A quick check and the forecast for the next five days includes most with thundershowers . . .

When we finally did get out of the room it wasn't raining but the Humidex was unhappifying. Got Tai-chan his new "normal" breakfast: a Doutor "German" hot dog. I found out that the coffee place just a couple of doors down offers a breakfast with a fried egg on toast (the thick-sliced bread that serves as white bread here) with a small side salad for a mere ¥150 -- about $1.50. Who said Japan was insanely expensive?

The coffee is, admittedly, sickeningly expensive -- anything over $3 for ANY kind of coffee, be it café-au-lait, cappuccino or plain ol' espresso is highway robbery to me -- but here it's mostly $4 and up. Mellow Café's café-au-lait has to take the prize for a pathetic serving of probably ¾ of a cup of café latte for about $5.50 (and ANY juice for around $5.50) but you just have to swallow it. If I knew what I know now I would have brought along my Aeropress, a bag of fine-grind coffee and just bought some milk and sugar at the grocery store. That alone would have saved what is going to end up being around $120 worth of coffee by the end of this trip.

Oh well, you live and regret.

So after that we went to the ¥100 shop and bought two umbrellas for ¥100 each -- that's $1 an umbrella, folks -- and came back here to camp out and take it easy. Tomorrow is our big trip to the Osaka aquarium -- the biggest in the world. That's where we will flex our considerable combined camera muscles. We will have a LOT of material to post tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, Tai-chan beats me at Reversi, that black and white checker-type game . . .