Tripping Far Side

Dante and Yumiko are here! This morning, rather than eating at the hotel breakfast buffet, we tried Cafe de Clever in the JR Umeda Station near the Central Gate. Busy, but damn their Japanese toast is awesome. I've never had bad Japanese toast: about an inch thick, crispy on the outside, and softly moist on the inside. My toast was topped with some kind of wasabi mayonnaise, ham, and eggs. They have optimized toast in Japan to perfection! Never knew I could be so excited by toast.

After work, Yumiko and I went to check out the basement of the Hanshin Department Store south of JR Umeda Station. In Japan, there's always awesome choices of eats in the basements of department stores. A grocery store, or places to take out food of all kinds, or a food court. Different than the states, but always worth checking out. The bottom of Hanshin is huuuuuge. Their dessert section is a sight to behold, and I quickly got really hungry. Yumiko found the "Food-teria" in the B2 level.

We found this place called Ishiyaki Bibinba, that served Korean bibimbap in a stone pot. If you don't know what bibimbap is, it's rice topped with various ingredients (like spinach, bean sprouts, kimchi, beef, and egg) that should be mixed with a healthy serving of Korean sweet and spicy pepper paste. You blend it all together while the hot stone pot cooks the rice crisp. Prices were around 600 to 900 yen, depending on the main topping (Yumiko got mentai fish eggs and I got kalbi), and the beers are a very reasonable 325 yen or so.

It might be weird to eat at train stations and department stores, but today's meals "hit the spot", as Yumiko says.