It was a quick arrangement to see my friend in Kobe — little did I know that in the top of the heatwave in July his students were in classes and exams so he could not get away for a brief lunch meeting somewhere in Osaka or Kyoto.  So he invited me to come down and stay overnight.  It was a fun journey navigating from the main railway station in Osaka to the smaller local line to his university using what little Japanese I could muster.  And I did make it on time.  After spending time with some of Prof. Sato’s students, we went to a nice sake restaurant for a traditional Japanese meal, and some interesting sake — it had been simmer with roasted eel.  In fact, it was quite tasty.