March 18, 2006
Tamago?
A 10 hour flight is not fun. But it gets much worse when you have three other flights in two days. Still when I landed in Osaka i was overjoyed. Everything was interesting. Roaming lost in the airport was amazingly fun because everyone was speaking Japanese and running around. The stores were very different. Already i saw food everywhere i wanted to try. In the airport there was a food court that was rather large. Newark airport in New Jersey where i left has a few places near each terminal but nothing like this. But I was still a little disoriented and wanted to find my hotel before setting into my first meal.
About an hour later of trudging around in the cold and rain in Osaka I was more then disoriented. Once I finally found my hotel I decided to wait till the next day to try some of Osaka's fine food.
Things look much better in the morning.
I was so hungry - I went to the closest mall area. A grouping of restaurants and stores is basically a mall - not the same as a mall in America. First place that looked good I went in.
I see a few people eating various bowls of noodles and rice. Three guys are sitting and drinking a bottle of whisky and smoking. It is 8:30 am - welcome to Osaka. I say hello to the waitress - most of the menu is in japanese characters that i can't read - so i smile and say tamago (egg) ?. And this is all I needed to say. A few minutes later an amazing breakfast set is brought to me.
It made me so happy. Tasty rolled omelete with grated daikon + fluffy white rice + miso soup + boiled potatoes and konnyaku in sesame oil. I ate pretty fast as i was real hungry. What did this little feast cost - 500 yen ( around $4.50)! And all it took was one word (and a few "please and thank yous".)