It's a normal tea cup.

Day 14

We woke up late today. It was hot at night and I think we are getting tired of the trip. Driving takes it's toll. 

Maybe I should have included more rest days. I say that every time I plan a trip and every time I want to do as much as I can. In the end I never allocate enough 'lazy' days. Saying that, I'm sure Will and Jorge are going to be a lot more tired than us when we finish.

No plans for today I must say. All we knew is that we had to return to Tokyo by the end of the day. Manuel did not have any ideas, as usual!, so I decided I wanted to buy noodle bowls as we have none in London. We have tried to eat noodles in soap dishes and that has proven to be a bad idea...

We took the subway this morning and found the picture below on the platform. Does this mean there is a lot of 'grabbing'during rush hour?

Yesterday, at Shinsaibashi, I did not see many home shops. It was mainly fashion, many high street names and I even found a branch of the street with luxury brands. Today we went to another area of Osaka that is popular for shopping: Tenjinbashi-suji Shotengai.

Tenjinbashi-suji shopping street (shotengai) stretches from north to south approximately 2.6km from Tenjinbashisuji 6-chome subway station to Tenjinbashi bridge. It boosts to be the longest straight shopping street in Japan. The street is covered by arcades in succession with gaps in intersections. Each section of arcades has it's own theme, one with red toriis, another with blue toriis, another with flags, etc.

It is like this street is your local high street. Old ladies pulling their shopping trolleys into grocery stores. People on bikes stopping at the door of the mini-market to grab some lunch. Shops selling groceries, clothes, shoes, books, snacks, medicines. Food restaurants and food stalls. It is clear that this shopping street has more affordable items and caters for the basic needs of life. Saying that, pachinko is not a basic need and the amount of Pachinko Halls is unbelievable!

Shinsaibashi has a shopping mall feel, Tenjinbashi-suji has a neighbourhood feel.

We walked literally for miles. It takes a while to walk the full 2.6km! It was not as crowded as last night Shinsaibashi was, but it was a weekday morning so instead of crowds of tourists and fashionistas you could see the locals going about their lives.

There were some food stalls along the route. One of them selling soya milk products. We bought a soya desert. I ate a chocolate pudding and Manuel bought a plain soya pudding and was given maple syrup to pour on top. They were delicious! I do not eat soya related products in the UK because I really don't like the taste, but the soya products in Japan are absolutely delicious. They clearly keep the best stock for themselves...

I was paying for my chocolate pudding and, clumsy as I am, I managed to drop it. It splattered on the floor. The old lady selling the desert came quickly to clear it away and gave me a new one. No hesitation at all! I tried to pay for the second one but she would have none of it. Customer service at it's highest level even on the streets.

I did find a homeware shop to buy my noodle bowls. The shop was packed with porcelain ware and I spent some time there choosing. What do you think?

As I was paying a tea cup caught my eye. I fell in love with it and added it to my shopping. I was remarking to the shop assistant how beautiful it was, she looked at me, frown her brows a bit and replied 'It's a normal tea cup'. Well... it may be normal to you but I don't see such pretty bamboo painting on tea mugs commonly in Europe!

It was just after lunchtime and we decided that we were done with Osaka. We picked up our backpacks from the hostel and headed on to Shin-Osaka train station. 
Below, a photo taken on the subway. Manuel's only comment was 'If it was me taking that photo, I would have been arrested'.

We had time to quickly buy a bento box and board the shinkansen to Tokyo. Eating in trains is frown upon in Japan, bento boxes in shinkansens are the only exception. 
As usual I slept the all way. Damn comfortable and stable these shinkansens! Worth their price in gold (one way Osaka-Tokyo per person: ¥14450, £99, €116.6, $127.5).

Wise Owl Hostels Tokyo. Yes, we're staying at the same hostel and we arrived there almost at the same time as Will and Jorge.

Will had dinner with his friend Chris whilst watching the highlights of Giro D'Italia. Manuel is technically incapable of eating, he gets unwell every time he tries so he skipped dinner (he really needs to check what's going on!). That means me and Jorge had a date night.

We went out looking for food and found a steakhouse. Why not? Let's see how Japanese do steak!
We can confirm Japanese can handle any type of food and are able to transform anything into a gastronomic orgasm.