Yours for just 5.6 million yen (about 4000 pounds) at K's Denki (ケーズデンキ). I love the way they put a bench in front of it so people can just space out and watch film trailers (and probably commercials).

It was my first time to see a wooden-cased air conditioner this afternoon while we were clearing up my other half's grandfather's apartment. As you can see in the photos it's a Mitsubishi unit, and according to a PDF I found online (you can see a segment of it as the last photo) it was made in 1982. I love the wired "micro computer" remote control.

A favourite of Esdras and mine, Cafe Montmartre (カフェ・モンマルトル), was today's lunch destination. It's a great place decorated in a nostalgic American/European style (and playing Tom and Jerry on their many small TV screens!) with a Nepalese chef who always does such tasty cheese naans.

Esdras and I went for the cheese naan and a variety of curries. The deal is basically as much naan and curry as you like for 840 yen (about 5 pounds) in a lunch set which includes a salad and a drink. Once you've finished you can ask for more of both the curry and the naan.

They have six curry options on offer including mutton, vegetable, seafood and chicken, from which one can choose two. For the naan one can choose from about four varieties including plain and of course cheese. Yuzo, not being a fan of curry, went for the beef stroganoff, but it was a bit too sweet(!) for my taste.

A great quote from Shunryu Suzuki, a Japanese Zen master, from his book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind:

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress.

It is like studying a foreign language; you cannot do it all of a sudden, but by repeating it over and over you will master it.

Thanks to BurritoLingus for blogging it, and Steve Kaufmann for bringing it to my attention.

Yesterday morning my other half forgot her mobile phone in our hotel in Kobe. After realising the loss when we were near Osaka airport, she called the hotel (from my mobile) and informed them. They found it and called us right back to ask for our address, so they could send it back to us 着払い (cash on delivery).

Amazingly it arrived today at 15:41 this afternoon, before we ourselves arrived home. We got back to find a delivery slip, and after calling the driver directly on the mobile phone number given, he drove straight round and delivered it. The cost? Just 840 yen (about £5.50). Truly something else. I'm really going to miss the Japanese service while we're in the UK!

On the 487.5km journey home from Osaka today, my other half remembered that Ippudo (一風堂), the ramen restaurant we ate at the other day in Kyoto, have recently opened a branch in Suwa (諏訪). So we left the motorway so we could try it out for our (late) lunch.

I chose the spicy miso option (一風堂からか麺 - photo one) and opted for the 'normal' spiciness level, and she went for the tonkotsu soup with added flavour (赤丸かさね味 - photo two). Along with my ramen came a bowl with half an egg, some pork meat and some rice flavoured with a similar taste to my soup.

After we had finished our noodles, we both asked for more noodles (替え玉), at which point we swapped soups so we could try each others'. I actually really liked both, although the winner for me was the ramen with separate noodles (つけ麺) I ate the last time, but unfortunately it seems like that choice is only available in the Kyoto branch.

The final photo is of the outside of the shop, painted bright red with small slices of windows. Very easy to spot!

Despite feeling rather worse for wear with a cold, I dosed myself up and we went out in Osaka for a few hours this evening. Earlier in the day we'd dropped my brother at Osaka Itami airport for his internal flight up to Tokyo, ready for his flight home tomorrow morning, and we'd arranged to meet Han-san. Han-san was another student in my class at my Japanese language school, and since graduating alongside me in March he moved to Osaka to continue his education. He's Korean, but moved with his mum to Nagano a couple of years back, and his Japanese is great. Especially now, since he has part-time jobs in a couple of hotels in Osaka - hence our good room rates for staying.

Our first stop was Ichiran, his favourite ramen restaurant. It's a chain restaurant, and its ramen was very tasty. However due to my cold unfortunately my taste buds weren't in optimum condition, so I will have to have another visit to confirm this verdict 100%. (Oh what a hardship.) It somehow felt like it had been a while (久し振り) since I had eaten a ramen, and indeed it had - five days since the last one. Ha!

Upon entering the restaurant (we had to queue outside for 10 minutes) there was a machine with just a single button labelled ラーメン (ramen) which made me laugh. Underneath that were more buttons for extras like an egg (which I chose) and beer (which of course I also chose). We inserted our money and it spat out our meal tickets. The seats inside were arranged in a single line, and on the wall of the waiting area was a panel with flashing LEDs showing the empty seats. When a row of three became empty we were told to file in and find our seats. Once sat down we were greeted with effectively a questionnaire of how we wanted our ramen to taste. The questions/options were:

- soup flavour strength (味の濃さ)
- soup thickness/oiliness (こってり度)
- amount of garlic (にんにく)
- onions (ねぎ) - either white (normal) or green
- noodle hardness (面のかたさ)
- spiciness / mystery sauce (秘伝のたれ)

I went for normal (基本) for everything except for noodle hardness, as I like my noodles slightly harder than normal. For spiciness I opted for 1/2 - the recommendation for newbies - whereas Han-san chose 2x, and you could soon tell as the sweat started pouring off his face!

I'll definitely be back to try their ramen again, probably next month at one of their many branches in Tokyo.

Yes, you read that right. Wouldn't you love to bury your head in this cushion? Stimulating (according to the label) and yours for just 998 yen (about £6.50). Just one of the many thousands of (seeminly random) products for sale in Don Quijote (ドンキホーテ) stores across the country. We were in the centre of Kobe at the time.

On our way out of the hotel this morning I took this photo, so you can see exactly what my brother and I were sitting with our feet in yesterday. As you can see they provide the towels too. A great form of relaxation after a day's walking!

As part of the reduced-food course we had booked at the ryokan in Kotohira, we were only expecting something like a single croissant and coffee for breakfast this morning. Instead we were presented with this - a tray including some orange segments, a salad, juice and two warm croissants. Butter and jam were also provided of course. Lovely!

I don't have anything but good things to say about this ryokan. We'd definitely love to go back at some point, and also take the opportunity of having more free time in which to climb the 1,368 steps up to Kompira shrine.

My brother didn't want to leave the breakfast table without leaving behind a present, and in his inimitable style this was an origami chicken made from his napkin. I'm sure the waiter appreciated it and had a laugh (assuming he could figure out what it was).