We set our alarms to be up at a decent time today, as we had a few last things we wanted to hit while in Kyoto. Thought we ventured to the Gion region on two separate occasions, we didn’t actually make it to the Kiyomizu-dera temple, which was at the top of Caitlyn’s hit list. We got up around 8:30, and spent the morning getting ready for the day and packing up our bags to make the journey later to Osaka (we are getting closer and closer to perfecting the packing process every move). We took our time, and were able to get out around 10:15. We stored our luggage at the hotel, and set off again for the 40 minute walk to Southern Higashiyama.
We passed familiar sites along the way, and took in the historic scenery of Kyoto for a final time. Along the way, Caitlyn found a vending machine that stocked a pineapple-ginger soda that David purchased and loved a few days prior, and we had been having a difficult time finding it since. We of course had to purchase two, one for now and one for later.
We continued on our way, up the progressively steeper uphill grade street towards Gion. It was EXTRAORDINARILY hot this morning, especially as we were already feeling the sunburns from the day prior settling in. 30 hot and sweaty minutes later, we made it to the start of the pedestrian region. This is where hell sank in. We realized quickly that it was a Saturday, and that the crowds were out of control. You couldn’t walk more than a couple feet without having a dress-up geisha cut you off while clogging her way across the street, or a family with a stroller stopping suddenly to admire some treats from afar. This is where “pedestrian road rage Caitlyn” turned on, and started barreling her way through the crowds to make it to the top. We probably shaved off a good 5 minutes from google’s predicted time, as she took no prisoners in her attempt to make it to the temple. Finally, we arrived! Caitlyn feeling accomplished, and David feeling dehydrated and sweaty. The temple was beautiful, as it sat atop a steep hill and overlooked all of Kyoto. We spent our morning taking in the views and beauty of Kiyomizu-dera.
As we exhausted the free area, we decided to make our way back down towards central Kyoto. Caitlyn had been wanting to hit a popular Instagram restaurant, Kichi Kichi Omurice, which is known for its unique characteristic chef, which Caitlyn compared to a Japanese version of Willy Wonka (funny hat and all).
We walked the 30 minutes to the restaurant, arriving early at 11:50 for its 12:00 opening. What we didn’t realize is that people line up hours prior to put their name on a list for seating times. The hostess semi-laughed at us as we asked for a seat at noon, stating that they were booked up for the day. Oh well! We decided the the Nishiki Market would we the perfect last lunch meal in Kyoto before making the hour rail ride to Osaka. We had timed out our day to arrive in Osaka at 3pm, which is when our hotel check in time began, and to avoid having to store our luggage. Making our way to Nishiki market, we passed through some of the shopping streets we loved visiting. David was unfortunately feeling the effects of the heat, and needed both water and food. We bought a couple waters, which he quickly downed, and now it was time to find some food. Caitlyn had loved the squid on a stick that we tried previously, so we made our way back towards that vendor. While she ordered that, David settled on Unagi on a stick, which seemed to have a decent price tag. We stood at the communal eating area, and enjoyed both treats.
After we walked the rest of Nishiki market and grabbed a minced duck skewer, we settled on one final snack of a tempura minced octopus on a stick with scallions. This was unanimously our favorite of the meals on a stick for today.
We walked the remaining portion of the market, before heading back to our hotel around 1 to grab our bags and make our way to Osaka. We donned our large backpacks and gear, and set off for the rail.
There is a quick 15 minute bullet train from Kyoto to Osaka, but for $20 USD less, we could take the regular train, adding less than 30 minutes in transit. We opted for this in lieu of the bullet train, and hopped on the local commuter rail to Osaka. We were lucky to grab seats next to each other, and continued our work on the blog. Before we knew it, the ~45 minute train ride was over. We navigated the station, a little confused (as is tradition in a new city). Thankfully, Caitlyn asked two elderly Japanese ladies for directions to our next station, and they wholeheartedly dragged us behind them, going out of their way and with big smiles on their faces, taking us all the way to the Osaka subway (NOT train), and giving us a big “goodbye!” Before turning around to go to their destination. We were so touched by their kindness in helping us navigate a confusing new transportation line. Getting off the subway at our destination station, we immediately felt like we were back in Tokyo. We were met with giant underground malls, fashion-forward young people, and bustling crowds. Eventually we found our stair access to the aboveground and felt even more like we were in Tokyo. Our first sight of Osaka included bright lights and billboards, skyscrapers, and really city traffic.
While we missed Kyoto already, it was a fun sight to see. We took a short walk to our hotel, noting that it keeps getting easier and easier to lug our ~35lb bags around each city-hop, despite the pervasive heatwave. We get to our hotel at 2:35 and drop our bags in the lobby, nursing our aching shoulders and backs. Caitlyn watches the bags while David walks up to check-in with Passports in hand (another APA hotel as in Tokyo, so we were familiar with their process). Unfortunately, they said they couldn’t check us in until 3:00pm on the dot. We sat on the floor of the lobby for 20 minutes until check-in, and headed up to our room. Opening the door, we were elated to see all of the APA comforts: a large desk to put stuff on (this is relation to Japanese standards; in the US it would be considered compact NYC loft-style) easy A/C and light access via a panel on the headboard, and the complementary bathroom supplies that we have grown to appreciate (and maybe hoard??? A fold-up brush? Packaged Q-tips? Disposable hand towels? Yes please, all back-packer’s essentials!).
Additionally, we opened our curtains to see a fantastic view for the first time in Asia! It overlooked the Tombori River, and the start of the popular Dotonbori street of Osaka.
Very tired from transit, we hung out, charging our devices for an hour or so before starting day 1 of exploring Osaka. We divided Osaka into north, central, and south regions for our three days here. As it was a relatively late start and we were staying near the central region, we decided to explore around this area. We checked Google Maps and found that everything in the central area was remarkably close, only being a few minutes from one destination to the next. We headed down to the river walk next to our hotel to the first destination: the Glico Running Man billboard. I won’t pretend to understand the significance, but this is the first attraction listed on almost every website regarding Osaka. We took some fun pictures and kept on walking.
It was around now we really realized that Osaka seemed to be much younger and bigger on partying. Granted, it was a Saturday, but there were tons of rowdy groups of young 15-25 year old everywhere – walking and joking, sitting stooped on benches, drinking, and taking so many “candid” photos. We kept on walking and discovered why Osaka is the food capital of Japan. Street after street were lined with restaurants, with the smell permeating the dense city streets. Dozens of 3D signs and statues of crabs, takoyaki, steaks, and other foods hung above loads of restaurants. Employees stood in front of restaurants joking with potential customers and trying to usher people inside.
People walked around, drinks in hand, laughing and enjoying their Saturday. We felt a bit overwhelmed and decided to head off the main streets towards a shrine highly suggested in Osaka. The Hozenji temple, otherwise known as “The Moss Shrine”, is a tiny Buddhist temple just off of a main road, with a beautiful stone statue covered in moss from millions of visitors rituistically pouring water over top it. We watched people pray and pay respects to the shrine, and headed off to explore the Dotonbori region.
After walking around taking in some of the sights, and as 5pm hit, we decided to pop into an Izakaya for a beer and two skewers each (similar to Tokyo, many of the restaurants have either a seating charge or a minimum food order per person). David opted for the fried quail egg and Caitlyn opted for the fried onion, while mutually deciding on the shiitake and “big” shrimp. The food came out, and to our surprise, we realized that big shrimp meant a whole fried shrimp- head, legs, shell in all. David took the first bite, as the site of two eyes lightly fried was a bit of a turn-off for Caitlyn’s appetite. He convinced her to try the second bite, which she quickly regretted, as this bite had many of the legs/arms with a lot of shell that was difficult to get down. Once we were able to get to the meaty mid body region, we found the shrimp tasty and well cooked, however, it was challenging to get to that point. The quail egg was tasty, not super memorable, but something we would order again. The onion was like a better onion ring, without all the heavy greasiness and with a greater onion to breading ratio. The shiitake was great, with savory umami flavor, and our agreed favorite of the dishes. The mushroom, onion and shiitake skewers were a good price at ~$1 each, and the beers at $3
We went on our way to explore more of the side streets, and wandered past another baseball bar. Could this one live up to our beloved Kyoto eatery? We wandered up the stairs to see. We stepped into a small bar, with one communal table and 6 high tops at the counter. There was a game playing (Buffaloes vs. the Mariners) and 3 locals watching the game. It was clear that we stepped into a local watering hole, as they were all very curious to see us here, and the owner apologetically told us he had no English menus. No problem! We ordered a draft beer, and in checking out the google translate of the posted signage- we found pork belly to be on the menu. We asked about it, and we were told it was “Oden” which is a pot of mixed stew with fish, tofu, pork belly and more. He fished out a piece of pork belly the size of a saltine cracker and put it in a bowl for us with a small dollop of spicy mustard. Additionally, he pulled out a bowl of edamame, tossed some salt on it, and placed it in front of us. We sipped out beer, ate the pork belly and edamame (belly was tender with good flavor, although somewhat mild, but adding the mustard was too aggressive of a flavor) and tried to at least politely pretend to watch the game. More locals poured into the bar, giving us a double take each time. We finished our drinks, thanked the bar owner, and went on our way.
A few more streets explored, and we decided to end our night at a final Izakaya for a couple skewers. We found a highly rated modern Izakaya with decent prices, and stopped in. After a bit of back and forth with some broken English and google translate help, we were told that we could be seated now (8pm) but that they close at 9:30. No problem! We were seated upstairs and quickly greeted with a small assortment of appetizer samplers, including miso soup, a chilled chicken, and some milk tofu. The milk tofu was surprisingly delicious and had such a soft and creamy texture.
We perused the menu, and had a few skewers that jumped out at us, including the chicken neck, chicken buttocks, and chicken heart (we have really loved the various types of hearts we have been trying). The skewers came out quickly, and we dug in. The neck had amazing flavor, with lots of charcoal smokiness and less fairness. The buttocks was amazing, being crispy on the outside and with more fattiness on the inside without a heavy greasy feeling. We compared it to the wagyu of chicken. Lastly, the heart, which as usual was fantastic with a juiciness and slightly salty flavor.
As each skewer is 2 normal bites or 4 small bites, we flipped through the menu to see what other options they had. We found that they had several elevated skewer options that we decided to try, including a shrimp toast, a uni butter salmon, a soy beef, and duck with mustard. The waitress advised that she would also recommend the trio of vegetable stuffed pork, which was per the chef’s choice. The shrimp toast was absolutely fantastic, with what tasted like a Mae-ploy style sauce. The Duck was tasty, but our least memorable. The beef was tender with a savory glaze. And the salmon was perfectly cooked with a great sea urchin miso sauce. The pork rolls came with ginger, green onion, and garlic. The ginger was a bit too powerful, although the meat was perfectly seasoned. The green onion was amazing with a very mild onion flavor. Caitlyn loved the garlic while David felt that it was good but not his favorite.
We finally found one! A toilet that uses the CLEAN water that re-fills the toilet bowl as the water for the sink. Very interesting experience, but one we had read a lot about!
We payed our bill, and made our way out to the Osaka streets.
Osaka reminds us so much of Tokyo, but with the lights and buildings being more food-related than anything. Some of our favorite restaurant and building decor:
This feels like the kind of city where you could be up all night finding different places to pop into while having no concept of time. We, however, being in our 30’s were hitting a wall at 10pm, and made the colorful walk back to our hotel.
Stunning night views from our hotel room!
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: unfiltered sake does not appear to be a thing in Japan. We love it at home, but whenever we ask if a restaurant or shop has any, we get confused looks.
David’s thoughts of the day: Osaka really is like a little Tokyo…but almost on steroids. The fashion is big like in Tokyo. The streets are bustling even more with more concentrated restaurants, and everything from the advertising to neon signs to architecture is done BIG.
Steps walked: 19,492
Miles walked: 9.29
Bluming Travelers 