Another start to the day, another unorthodox toyoko inn breakfast. Today's offering was tiny sausages (only a few centimeters in length), cold pasta salad, croissants, bread rolls and salad. Another very quiet day today, with not much planned.

All in all, Osaka isn't a great place to spend much time on a Japanese holiday. I'd recommend seeing Dotombori at night like we did last night. And do so on a Friday or a Saturday night when it is at its most crowded and insane, to experience the true energy of the place. Other than that, Universal Studios is great, and the harbour district is worth a visit, but other than that I wouldn't make it a priority to spend much time here.

After breakfast, we were undecided as to what to do. The original trip plan was to see Osaka Castle and the surrounding park, but considering it was in the opposite direction to our next hotel, we decided to go to the next hotel, drop the bags off and visit the Tempozan ferris wheel and marketplace, which is a large shopping and entertainment district at the mouth of Osaka Bay.

Setting off from our hotel after checking out this morning, we went to the station where we thought we were going to be catching the train to our next destination. We were very wrong. After asking some helpful conductors and guides, we were directed to an underground tunnel. Which went on for a few hundred metres. Then turned. Then went on for a few hundred metres. Then went down some stairs. Then went on for a few hundred metres. Then went up some stairs. etc. After 15 minutes of walking underground and wondering whether we were being misled for their own amusement, we eventually found the platform where we needed to be. At a completely different station than the one we'd started in.

No matter. We found our destination without too much trouble, and set off looking for the hotel. Wishing I'd printed directions, and unable to find any wifi hotspots that worked in the most technologically advanced country in the world, we tried asking several people, before we were eventually guided in the right direction.

Its great to see that Toyoko Inn haven't beefed up their baggage security at all. Their entire fortress of luggage security consists of a big net. With bells. Secure in the knowledge that no criminal, no matter how devious and resourceful, could defeat this complex and foolproof security protocol we headed off towards the Tempozan harbour area.

After several stops, and our first stupidly crowded trains of the trip, we arrived, and walked towards the harbour. For such a beautiful day, and a Saturday, I was very surprised that the crowds were not bigger. But not complaining we went inside the Tempozan shopping complex in search of some lunch.

All in all lunch was a little disappointing. The girls had KFC chicken fillets, because nothing else took their interest, and Veronica and I had curry. Ordinary, ordinary curry. Veronica has curry ome rice, which is basically (as the name suggests) curry with omelet and rice. I had a variety of parallel stuff on a plate with rice and extra hot curry. Extra hot it wasn't.

The girls wanted to go on the ferris wheel, so after a quick browse through the shops we went and bought tickets, and within minutes we were aboard. The last time we rode this ferris wheel, Angela got on for free as she hadn't yet turned 3!

Not much has changed since last time we went on this wheel. The view was still very pretty. Everything in Osaka is still where it was 3 years ago, and Veronica again spent most of her time on the ride with her eyes shut.

After looking through a few more shops, 3 tired girls were convinced that it was time to go back to the hotel for a rest, so we performed the steps of the previous journey in reverse, and ended up back at the hotel.

On the way back to the hotel, coming through Shin-Osaka station my curiosity got the better of me. There was always one takeaway shop selling dumplings or something similar, and it always had a long queue each time we passed the store. That is a sure sign that whatever the hell was in these dumpling looking things has got to be spectacular, right? That's what I thought too. Nope. The dumplings were chewwy steamed dough flavoured leather, and inside each chewwy ball of mediocrity was a pocket of onion flavoured meat, possibly pork, or chicken, or something else. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. It wasn't worth paying for, let alone lining up for. Their customers are idiots, or paid actors put there to make the line look long. Or both.

Tonight's hotel room is much, much bigger than the previous hotel room. Exactly double the size in fact. It is a few dollars dearer per night, but still at only ~ AU$110 per night, it is still a bargain. After resting, we decided to go down to Shin-Osaka station for dinner. There were no less than 50 excellent looking restaurants, and with everyone so tired, and so spoilt for choice, nobody could decide what to have to eat. Some quick meals for the kids, then leaving the station to head home to bed. Or that was the plan...

All in all, the day up to this point was fairly quiet and routine. That all changed when heading back to the room for the final time.

Veronica has been fighting a headache all day, and after walking around the crowds in the station trying to decide on what to eat, the headache began winning. Due to a lack of coffee shops in the station (which is very strange) on the way back to the hotel I volunteered to get Veronica a coffee from a "Coffee and Restaurant" shop on the street outside of the station which looked quite nice. I sincerely regret volunteering.

My Japanese language skills blur the line between very poor and non-existent. Still, ever the loving husband I entered the shop with Charlotte, while Veronica and Angela walked ahead to the hotel.

My first clue to cut my losses, turn and run should have been the people sitting cross legged on the floor. Nope, I missed that. My next clue should have been the lack of anything resembling a coffee machine, but that didn't set off any mental alarm bells either. Doing my best impersonation of an Australian trying to speak Japanese, I asked if they could do take away coffee. The girl behind the counter put her head to the side, said something, and stared at me.

So far, coffee ordering has not gone well.

So then I made it worse. Trying my best in the international language of hand signals and waving my arms around, I tried to explain "takeaway cup". Making a cup with my hands, and pretending to throw it towards the door obviously didn't get the message across, so I conceded defeat, and bid farewell and headed towards the door. The girl at the counter vanished out the back, and came back with someone I can only imagine was the owner of the store. He seemed genuinely intent on helping me, and seemed to understand as much English as I do Japanese, so I was able to get across to him that I wanted a takeaway coffee for my wife, who was back at the hotel. Very apologetically and with a worried expression he exclaimed "ohhh. no cup". OK, great. He doesn't have takeaway cups. No big deal. Time to go...... But no.

The guy instructed the girl to start a coffee. So she got out an ancient looking metal cauldron, and lit the fire. It took me to this point to realise that this was some ceremonial/traditional coffee house, not some Americanised grab-and-run coffee hut. I am an idiot. So I wondered how he was going to give me coffee to take away without a cup, until he got a ceramic cup and saucer ready. He explained in very broken English that I could take the ceramic cup, then return it to the doorstep of the shop, and he would get it back on Monday morning. Seriously. I didn't really feel like walking 5 blocks back to the hotel with a coffee in a cup and saucer, so I had to decline. Or at least try to.

This guy felt so bad about not being able to give me a coffee for my wife, that we was prepared to send me away with a very expensive looking cup and saucer set. After I spent the next few minutes trying to talk him out of it with emphatic arm waving, head shaking, bowing and Japanese sounding noises, he started turning his shop upside-down looking for another vessel for me to transport this coffee to Veronica. A bowl? No, same problem. A saucer? Insufficient coffee volume. A plastic Evian water bottle? No good for transporting boiling hot coffee either. Defeated, the poor guy gave up. Apologising many many times, he asked us a few questions about where we were from and where we were headed in Japan. Before leaving he handed Charlotte a few handmade apology cakes for free, and headed back inside. I honestly felt bad that I couldn't take his coffee.

Its funny how you can spend a whole day traveling around looking at tourist attractions and hot-spots, and something as simple as ordering a coffee provides the most memorable experience of the day.