just about done in Japan

Well tonight is my last night here.  This trip has had some interesting weather, but, it's been fun.

yesterday rained a bit in the morning, but stopped pretty quickly.  The rest of the day was just windy.  Like, really windy.  And all the snow was gone.  Yesterday I did some more shoping in Osu and Sakai.  Had some pretty good curry for lunch.  I managed to find a really good arcade in Osu in the same building as Dennys.  Most arcades these days a re lame and only have crane games and (to me) incomprehensible card games.  But this place I found was a proper man's arcade.  I say a man's arcade due to the fact that the place was nothing but old school shooting games and fighting games and reeked of cigarettes.  There was also a sign in front that said nobody under 16 was permitted.  Today i found out that was only part of the arcade and there was actually even more, though it was large linked games like Border Break, music and rhythm games, and the funky mmo looking things that tend to have dudes spending hours at a time at them.

after dinner (authentic Chinese), my brother and I set out to find this working class izakaya bar we'd found last summer.  Surprisingly, we actuallu found it!  The place is totally no frills, but I love it.  There is a very down to earth atmosphere there.  The food we got with our beers was really good, too.  Pictures to come eventually.

Today was an adventure.  We tried to get breakfast at a family restaurant called Gusto, but we were 5 minutes too late and they wouldn't serve breakfast anymore.  So, we wound up with more of a brunch.  I ended up having a "Cheese in Hamburg".  It wasn't bad.  Hamburg tends to taste like meatloaf, and this one was no exception. I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to get a traditional Japanese breakfast with a whole grilled fish.  That stuff is amazingly good.

After that, we had no real plans, so my brother (half jokingly, I think) suggested going back to Osu by bike.  However, I took him up on his offer.  So, we biked from his apartment all the way to Osu where I played the newest Gundam Vs game.  I got , my assroyally handed to me by someone using the Gundam Epyon.  I did some real quick last minute shopping as well.  Then we biked from Osu all the way to Nagoya Station where we met my brother's wife and daughter for dinner.  We ate some really good ramen.  Then we had the pleasure of biking all the way back to the apartment from Nagoya Station.

It has been a looooooooong time since I rode a bicycle, and even then, I wouldn't ride the thing long distances.  So, I had a ligtle bit of a rough time, but I did pretty good, I'd say.  My legs and butt are really sore though.

I'll be getting up early tomorrow.  I've got a long and uncomfortable flight ahead of me.