Friday, 18 April 2008
When I awoke just after 7:30 without any daylight seeping into the room it took a few moments to register that we were well into our last day of the overseas portion of the trip.
Not that this had anything to do with the events of the previous evening, you understand...
Actually, the absence of daylight when I woke up was something I’d noticed in every hotel we’d stayed in, with each establishment’s curtain or shutter arrangement guaranteeing unless you set an alarm you’re not going to be aroused before you’re well and truly ready.
We had intended to head downtown for breakfast (a free shuttle bus encourages things like that) but a glance out of the window prompted a revision to the planned activities for the day.
It was raining steadily, and while we could probably have stayed dry if we stuck to Plan A, we decided to opt for a leisurely morning, a late checkout, lunch and a spot of shopping before we headed out to Myodani to pack and await the shuttle service which would ferry us to the airport.
Poking my nose out the door, I discovered that the morning English language paper had arrived, and I settled down for a chance to catch up on events in the world at large. We’d managed to almost totally avoid news bulletins for the last two weeks, and anything that we had heard was in Japanese (which meant, of course, that it was Greek to me . Thank-you William Shakespeare).
Of course you wouldn't expect anything much in the way of coverage of Australian news in the International Herald Tribune, in association with the Asahi Shimbun, but there was a front-page article with the headline Australian drought dooms rice farms dealing with the international ramifications of the collapse of Australia’s rice production. After I’d taken my time over the paper there was time for a long soaking bath while Madam took a phone call from The Sister before we packed and checked out just after eleven, allowing us to take the 11:15 shuttle to Sannomiya, where an early lunch seemed to be a good idea.
‘Er Indoors had spotted references to a couple of possible options, including an Indian curry house somewhere nearby, and we’d initially planned to head in that direction, but she also mentioned a nice bread place as an alternative before making a major strategic mistake.
I’d completely forgotten the existence of a Kobe equivalent of the Gumbo & Oyster Bar where we’d had lunch in Kanazawa, but when she pointed out that it not only existed but happened to be located right in the very building we were standing in front of the decision was easy.