This past weekend we went into Osaka to meet up with Yoshi and Mamiko and attend the annual Osaka Craft Beer Festival in Namba. The weather this year was good, not too sunny, with a thin layer of clouds to keep the direct sun off our skin.
We left for Osaka a little early on Saturday and killed time in the new and quite impressive basement restaurant area of Lucua, a big department store that is part of the JR train station in Umeda. The design of the food area is such that you can either buy different foods (from all over the world in addition to locally grown) and take them home or cook them right there and eat them with friends in sort of a picnic style. Usually lunch or dinner in Osaka means a restaurant but this was a somewhat more casual option that gives you a great deal of choice. There are also restaurants nearby – and I saw at least three that I’d like to try in the near future. More culinary options always make me happy.
We met up with Yoshi and Mamiko near the event space, and had a great time drinking through seven beers each. There were some of the usual breweries there, and this time a few new ones. I was especially impressed with Voyager Brewing from Wakayama (Yoshi’s home prefecture). They had a really nice IPA that I was thinking about long after the event ended. We bumped into my coworker, Mr. Tachikawa, who was working as a volunteer at the event, and he stopped by to drink with us for a while. It was a fun afternoon, as usual.
After drinking our fill, we brought Yoshi and Mamiko with us back to Lucua to try out the basement picnic format and we had a carafe of prosecco with a small plate of prosciutto and cheese while watching all the customers buzz around us.
Sunday was more of a relaxation day for us. We did a little bit of shopping, Kuniko did some serious housecleaning and organizing, and sitting out back on the patio snacking on seared bonito, grilled eel, and sautéed ear mushrooms.
We also took in a couple of movies – Three Billboards, and Spectre. Three Billboards turned out to be a bit dramatic and I’m not sure if I liked it or not, but it certainly had a lot of good acting in it.
Dinner was a truffle and cheese grilled cheese sandwich along with a tomato and herb salad that Kuniko whipped up.
It was a great weekend, and I think we are all charged up and ready for the new week.
