Shane Doyle and the Infinite Tiredness . . . And some steak.

The lack of sleep caught up with me today and felled me like a tree. My feet were sore, my back, even the hairs on my chinny-chi-chin were a bit worse for wears. Thank sweet baby Jesus, we found out hostel pretty easily because I think I might have died. We crashed straight down onto the couches in the lobby and the hotel staff, who were really lovely, gave us ice cold water, for which I will eternally love them. Getting on the internet proved from difficult to impossible here, but I did manage to get on Facebook just to let everyone know I hadn’t managed to injure myself over the couple of days.

After we changed and scrubbed slightly we headed into Osaka for a bit, to a Kiddyland, where the process of buying some presents for home began in earnest, not for me though, since I’m still ages from coming home and anything I got would most likely be in pieces by the time I get back to Ireland.

We tried to get into an internet café but it was for Japanese nationals only, and I had to explain to Sinead that that didn’t include her, she’s just a legal alien.

While we were in the hotel, we had asked them about getting some Kobe steak [wiki] somewhere. Kobe steak is that meat from the cows that they feed on beer and massage all day long. When I was in Dubai two years ago my dad had one, and I had a taste, and I’ve regretted not ordering it ever since. One of the goals of this trip was to finally put an end to that regret. We were booked into a restaurant for half 8 and at a quarter to 8 we went walking.

We only just about made it on time. It was so hard to find and no one in the area had ever heard of it . . . and I dunno if I mentioned but I was REALLY FUCKING tired.

But, it was so worth it. I think the girls may possibly have thought I was insane beforehand, but once we got there, things started to look up. Firstly it was a teppen-yaki (I think that’s right?) place, where they cook it in front of you, which Neena wanted to try. So really everyone got what they wanted; I got Kobe, Neena got that thing, and Sinead got food.

And food it was, and worth every last shiny Yen. There were two cooks, a guy and a girl from Kyoto and they may or may not have been going out – we’re still undecided about that. First up, the girl-cook made us scallop things, then some fried chilli and stuff to clear the palate. There were also mushrooms and beansprouts and garlic bread fried. They were all good craic and Sinead’s Japanese really helped because they were able to have a laugh with us. They loved Universal when they were there and told us we’d enjoy it too (which *spoiler alert* we totally did). So the boy-cook took over eventually, and came out with the steak . . .

That’s for the purple? That means it's real. Also the cert in the back!

So he cooked it, and we ate it and it was so so so so awesome. Melt in your mouth stuff. Nicest meat I’ve ever eaten in my life. Tired as I was, I was still so happy to be eating that. And, the girls were too, so finally they understood what I’d been going on about for so long, and why I’d been doing it. I was no longer the crazy steak guy.

After dinner I nearly refused the ice-cream, because I was so stuff, but I got it and ate it in about two seconds, causing Neena to laugh at me for not wanting it. I suppose it’s true – there really is always room for ice cream.

After that we went back to the hotel where I soaked in the bath and they got into bed and went into a deep coma. I reckon if the building had burned down right then, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of that bed, which was more of a futon on the floor than a bed, being honest.

But anyway, there’s another thing checked off the list and thoroughly enjoyed too. And I got a good sleep, leaving me very much primed to enjoy Universal the next day!

Signing off for now, miss you guys,
Shane!