This time a friend and I rented a car and took a trip to the Kansai region. It was a journey of about 800 km. Taking the Shinkansen is far easier and cheaper, but every now and then you just want to drive on and on. Call it the kind of trip only middle-aged guys can pull off.

Sendai gyutan

Before the long drive we fueled up on Sendai gyutan near Shiodome. What you see in the photo cost about 20,000 won, and I nearly burst. Next time I should order a smaller portion..

Moe characters spotted at a highway rest stop

Nobunaga-chan curry, of all things.. There were plenty of other fun products too, but I didn’t buy any this time. Even if I did, there’s nowhere to put them at home, and they’re a bit odd as gifts.. Things like Tobita-kun were really cute though, so next time I’ll definitely pick one up.

And at the Ashigara service area I had takoyaki from Dotonbori Kukuru, which was really delicious. A new discovery..

Today’s beer

We reached Gifu, our first stop, and stayed at a small hotel, but there were no restaurants nearby, so we did a bit of convenience-store shopping. The beer wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, though. Some days are like that.

Gyorai’s Inaniwa chuka soba

It’s a convenience-store cup noodle supervised by Gyorai, a ramen shop I visited before, and the quality was excellent.

Roughly like this

Convenience-store food these days is so good that I worry whether ordinary restaurants can stay in business. I wanted to buy another one to take back to Korea if I got the chance, but in the end I had too much other luggage and couldn’t. Such a shame..

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