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Fergie pinged me two days ago, telling me there's been a change in his travel plans. Would I be able to join him for a short visit to
Daimon Brewery (大門酒造) today? Well, I did have plans to meet up with Rikachu for lunch today, but I realized this visit was probably more important... So I apologized to my friends for bailing on them and made my travel arrangements.
After shoving some contraband into my check-in luggage, Fergie and I made our way to
The Bridge. I haven't been here since this lounge re-opened, and I quickly got myself some breakfast.
I had seen friends post about the new
biangbiang noodle (𰻞𰻞麵) offered at the lounge, which was in addition to the usual
dandan noogle (擔擔麵). I figured I needed to check it out, and while some of the noodles stuck together as expected, the minced pork sauce was nice and spicy with the fragrance from Sichuan peppercorns.
The next three hours on the flight were relatively uneventful. Once the pilot announced we were descending into Kansai International Airport and it was '30 minutes to landing', Fergie and I realized we needed to get rid of the contraband he had brought onboard. No, you idiot... you cannot bring fresh fruits into Japan... and the 15 pounds of lychees (荔枝) from Guangdong will not pass through customs. So the two of us tried to eat up about a pound and a half during our descent...
After leaving some lychee on our seats and dumping the rest in the garbage bin right next to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries quarantine inspection counter, I exited customs and proceeded to find ourselves some lunch. I was frantically looking for the FamilyMart at Terminal 1.
The only FamilyMart outlet I could find at Terminal 1 that wasn't inside the secured area seemed to be the one at Kaisai Airport Station. And as incredible as it may sound, THEY DO NOT SELL FAMICHIKI AT THIS OUTLET!!! I would be denied my tradition of having Famichiki (ファミチキ) as my first bite in Japan after landing.
Dejected, I grabbed a bagful of sandwiches and
onigiri to share with the group during our long taxi ride to the brewery. Initially thinking it impolite to eat in a taxi, I quickly wolfed down an egg and ham sandwich. After receiving permission from the driver to eat inside his taxi, I proceeded to have the second part of my lunch -
SPAM musubi with taco meat (タコスミートSPAMむすび). This was OK.
After roughly an hour in the taxi, we arrived at
Daimon Brewery (大門酒造). The historic brewery is due to celebrate their 200th anniversary next year, and I was pretty happy to have made the trip and check out the grounds.
We were given a tour of the facilities before a tasting session of the range led by the 6th generation
kuramoto (蔵元) and
toji (杜氏) Daimon Yasutaka (大門康剛). Tasting notes are
here.
After the tasting, we moved down the road to
Chidoriya (馳どり屋), an
izakaya just next to the JR Kawachi-Iwafune Station (河内磐船駅). It's a real scorcher today and we all needed a cold drink. Someone needed something with alcohol so I decided that I would not let that person drink alone. I started with a
red wine highball (赤ハイ).
Fried chicken mountain (とり唐マウンテン) - when you have a name like "chicken mountain", I would expect more than 6 pieces... And this was why we ended up with 3 plates of these. Having said that, the chicken tasted pretty decent.
Cucumber (キュウリ) - very refreshing on a hot day like this.
Shredded vegetable tempura (野菜かき揚げ) - I could never resist
kakiage (かき揚げ) and I just have to order it up whenever I see it on the menu. OK lah...
We caught the train back to Osaka Station and checked into the
Hotel Hankyu RESPIRE Osaka just next door. Unbelievable as it may sound, I haven't stepped foot in Osaka City proper since 1998... Anyway, I'm stinky and sweaty by now, so I took a quick shower and tried to relax for a few minutes in my very cozy hotel room above city center. It won't be long before we have to head out for our late dinner.
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