We were on our way into the pure levels of the station complex when I spotted that little gem, and the spotting may or may not have influenced a smart move of steering me into a book shop on the seventh floor of a department store complex towards a small, but rather wide ranging selection of English titles.
Surveying the selection produced a couple of titles I might actually have looked at buying if I hadn't sworn off further hard copies, but there were a couple I'll be chasing up in the digital realm. They're the sort of thing that should be useful for my Interesting Times project when I return to it.
From there it was time for lunch, and, with the luggage sitting back at the hotel, it seemed logical to eat at the little trattoria a couple of doors down, and the logic of the logistics forms a fair part of what follows.
Lunch was pasta and salad, a tomato based fish sauce for me and a fish and Japanese basil sauce the other way. Mine wasn't quite authentic, with an odd flavour element that was noticeable but didn't intrude. Based on the logical possibility that I might be enlisted to help Madam finish hers I had a taste, and it was immediately obvious that she was on her own in that department.
After lunch, having reclaimed The Red Suitcase and The Red Travelling Bag we headed back to Sannomiya and boarded a local JR express to Osaka, changing trains at ShinOsaka and arriving at the overnight stop, three stations along the line, just before two.
If you were to locate Kishibe and Station Hotel, you might find the decision to stay here strange, but there are a couple of things that kick in here.
For a start, with tomorrow being the first Travel Day, you want to be up and away reasonably early, and you don't want to miss that first train where there are connections involved.