The festival of the morning took up much of the day so I am a little short on pictures. We went out to eat for dinner at the biggest dive in all of Japan. The restaurant was 150 feet long and 7 feet wide. Customers sat at a counter and food was prepared in front of us. It was so run down and dirty it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in 50 years. The food was good and the glass of beer were enormous. A small dish and two beers in this dilapidated restaurant cost eighteen dollars, well worth the price but I hope this gives some insight into how expensive things are here.
I leave you today with two cultural artifacts. The first is a new type of vending machine. This one sells beer and is usually located in front of a package store. Imagine something like that in the US!
The second artifact is a "pouch drink". These come refrigerated in convenience stores and are filled with a jello like jelly. They taste great and are fun to suck down.
I will be going to Tokyo tomorrow on the bullet train and I don't know how this will impact my ability to post web pages. Worst case scenario is that I won't be able to put another one up until Friday when I get back to Osaka.