Yesterday, I boarded a plane with Dave and his family. We spent the entire day traveling. Most of it was on Korean Air, which is a pretty good airline. The best part was the awesome entertainment systems, which also had USB chargers. Also there were cupholders. Why don’t all planes have cupholders?

We’re staying at the City Plaza Osaka Hotel. That night, we ate at the fancy Japanese restaurant with sweeping views of the city. I had some soba egg soup. Today, we  had breakfast at the hotel buffet, which had some American food, but was largely Japanese. It was awesome.

Then we took a walk to the Osaka Castle, in the dripping humidity that none of us were used to.

We found a really interesting shrine there, and bought some fortunes.

Then, we got lost trying to find the giant crabs on Dotonbori, and couldn’t find the amazing ramen place I went to last time I was here. But we ended up at a place that had absolutely fantastic sushi.

For dessert, we had Beard Papa. We split a pie flavored cream puff, which is a zillion times better than any cream puff I’ve seen in LA.

After that, we walked back to the hotel. One of the weirdest things we saw was a 30min line for a newly opened Krispy Kreme.

We found a Kit Kat store, which had aloe yogurt kit-kats. Amazingly, it was really good.

We also saw a random shrine set between a few apartment buildings.

Dave’s dad got me a badge for the International Puzzle Party, and then we chilled in the room. A phone call scared us cuz Dave’s mom let us know the hotel had a 1a curfew. We sent Dave’s brother Matthew downstairs, and he found out that it just meant that the hotel closes, but you can get back in through a door that works with your key. We were worried, because we’re planning on going out at 3a to watch the World Cup.

Uploading this post on our super slow internets; hope it works! More to come.