Very Rich.

Monday 22nd October. Day 88. Warm and Humid, Heavy rain later.

Colin had a shower, and I had a shower, too, but I got in the hot tub as well. It was cool at the bottom: I discovered the heat didn't come on until 4-00 pm.
Any way, after bathing we had breakfast with Mr. Higuchi in his dining room. This morning there was omelette with vegetables and bacon, tomato sauce, two sorts of pickles, coffee, milk, toast and jams. Mr. Higuchi sat with us and talked while we ate. Actually we talked a bit, too.

Then we set off for Nishi Umeda by train from Deyashiki Station. Our return tickets cost 230 yen each.
After stopping at the nine or so stations we should have stopped at on Saturday but didn't, we began hunting around on Nishi Umeda/Osaka Station for the Visa Card Office. We had heard, I forget where, that cash could be withdrawn there. Finding the office in the maze of shops was very challenging.
Finally though, we found an English language Tourist Information Office and the office lady gave us a map and directions to the Visa Card Office. After a few more arguments and dead-ends, we found the office.
The Visa Card girls were very polite, but they couldn't speak English; so Colin had to explain in Japanese that we wanted fifteen thousand yen, each. We figured this would be plenty to cover our taxi, bus, departure tax, and acommodation expenses.
Presently a smiling assistant returned from the safe and surprised us by counting out one hundred and fifty thousand yen, each. This was more money than was in our credit cards.
Explanation. The Japanese numbering system includes a word for ten thousand ("man"), and Colin soon realised he had asked for "juu go man en", (i.e. fifteen ten thousand yen, which is quite succinct and easy to say), when he should have asked for "ichi man go sen en" (i.e. one ten thousand and five thousand yen, which was not quite so succinct, but involved a lot less money). Colin says after counting the money, he was tempted to say, "thank you and goodbye," but a vision of us all going to the bottom of Osaka Harbour with engine blocks tied to our feet, made his Japanese speaking ability rise to its finest hour.
The three hundred thousand yen went away, and after a long wait forty thousand yen returned in the form of four ten thousand yen notes. After a little more struggling with one another's languages, we realised that we couldn't have fifteen thousand yen, each; because the Visa Card Office only dealt in ten thousand yen notes.

Relatively rich once again, we went back to the Information Office and were directed to a nearby camera shop to buy a present.
Next, we telephoned to Japan Airlines to confirm our flight. and then went to an internet cafe.
It offered half an hour for two hundred and fifty yen, but we couldn't see the clock and ended up using an hour, so there was the first thousand gone.
However, hurray, there was a "Pronto Cafe" next door to the internet. It was very cheap. Isn't deflation wonderful? This meal could easily have cost us ten pounds in London. Here, a sandwich cost us two hundred and eighty yen. One half was chicken, the other half was crab, so we ate half each. Coffee was one hundred and eighty yen per cup and water was free.
Well fed now, as well as rich, we caught the train back to Deyashiki and had a tour of the markets to buy presents for Kyoko and Kumiko. It was raining hard now so we got wet going home. At home we had a coffee and another shower, a formal one this time.
This night we walked to Kumiko's house and ate dinner there. They called it "hot-pot", but it was what we know as "shabu-shabu".
The meal began with individual dishes of garnished cooked yams in sauce. Then, in a pot of stock on a gas hot plate in the middle of the table, we cooked hakusai (or pak choi), another green vegetable, two sorts of mushrooms (enoki and a larger brown nameless sort), tubular fish cake and another sort, pieces of chicken, and finely sliced pieces of pork. We each had a dipping sauce of sour soya (which can be made by adding lemon juice to ordinary soya sauce), and sesame oil (more like thin tahini paste than the frying oil we are used to).
After the meal Kumiko performed tea ceremony and showed me how to make tea, how to drink it, and how to clean up afterwards.
Although all this led to another late night, it was all most enjoyable.
The next day was our departure and return_to_Australia, but since our flight didn't leave until late in the evening, we had almost the entire day to devote to sight-seeing.