Trip to Osaka

On October 16, 17, and 18, I took a trip to Osaka, where I was a keynote speaker at a small conference on learning foreign languages. Today and for the next few days I will be concerned with this trip.

Since the trip takes almost six hours from my home to Osaka station and I had to be there at 6:30 for a pre-conference dinner, I left home just before 10 a.m. I took the subway to Sendai station, where I bought a lunch, called an ekiben (eki means station and ben means lunch), at this shop inside the station. Ekiben are considered to be a treat by many people and there are even TV programs where the cast travel around Japan sampling what is available at each station. I bought one that contained chicken and vegetables. Ekiben always come with disposable chopsticks, a toothpick, and a wet paper towel. Mine was very good.
After buying my ticket and going to Starbucks, where I bought the largest size Americano to drink on the train, I went to the main entrance to the Shinkansen.

They had these things, I do not know what else to call them, hanging from the ceiling in front of the wickets. The sign says "Welcome to Sendai, Miyagi".
At the wickets, I placed my Sendai to Tokyo express ticket and my Sendai to Osaka basic ticket into the slot. They popped up at the other end of the wicket as the doors open. Inside the Shinkansen station there is a large store that sells magazines, drinks, snacks, newspapers, and other stuff that people want for their trip. Since I already had coffee, I did not buy anything, but I did stop to look, just to kill a little time since I was early.