The start of our final day in Osaka was actually very boring (especially for Caitlyn), as today was the first day that we actually had substantial back-home-real-life things to do. David spent some time this morning working on finalizing his resume to send to a recruiter who he had been talking with, as well as answering a few emails. This took a bit longer than we had hoped, so we got out to a late start.
We explored more of the streets, taking in all of the wild signs and building fronts, before heading down into the subway to hop on a line down to the Southern area. We weren’t expecting to do anything but browse the interesting products that we don’t have in America, however Caitlyn remembered a highly recommended sunscreen that she learned about doing Japan research, and we found the brand in the mall. We bought a few small airport-safe bottles and started walking towards the train line.
At this point, we realized we were feeling pretty hungry, and decided to have our first conveyer belt sushi meal. We had spotted a place that looked good and was nicely reviewed on Google Maps, so we headed back aboveground to grab a bite. Arriving, we were asked if we preferred counter or table. Obviously, we wanted to be right up near the action and the conveyer belt, and we were promptly seated. Thankfully, this was just before the lunch rush, so we only had 3 other customers to compete with.
Like our wildest fantasy, fresh sushi kept rolling by right in front of our eyes, ours for the taking. From our research, we knew that the plate color determines the pricing at the end of the menu, and with an electronic menu in front of us, we did some digging and figured out the price of each plate so we didn’t receive a surprise restaurant bill that would break our wallet. Through our research as well as talking with a sushi chef at Tamaki Den in Denver, we had learned a bit of how to actually eat sushi in Japan. First, people don’t always eat sushi with chopsticks. Often, it is picked up by hand. Second, instead of dipping the rice in soy sauce, the sushi should be inverted, dipping the topping/meat in the sauce. Third, it should be kept this way on transit into the mouth, allowing the top to hit your mouth first, and later the sushi rice, as to allow the soy sauce and vinegar from the rice to complement eachother and to avoid the soy sauce overwhelming any flavor in the rice. Finally, real nigiri comes with a little bit of wasabi between the fish and the rice. You can add more if you like, but it is not too overwhelming, even for those like David who avoid any Wasabi typically. We had been practicing with other sushi this trip, but now we felt like pros.
We started off safe and simple, grabbing a salmon nigiri (all of the sushi on the belt came with 2 pieces per plate). Dipping it in soy sauce (and Caitlyn adding some additional wasabi), we tried our first bite. Better than almost any sushi we have ever had in America, our eyes lit up. The sushi started out slow, as they had just opened, and as the meal progressed, more and more interesting dishes kept making their way down the belt. We next went with a scallop nigiri, which was so deliciously sweet and incredibly flavorful. Next up was the oburi salmon (lightly torched, and with shaved radish on top) and it was so tender and bursting with flavor. We had to go with the eel nigiri, as this is one of our mutual favorites. Piled with the biggest heaping piece of eel we’ve ever seen on a nigiri, we barely got the whole piece in in one bite.
Next up was the pink shrimp that we have both grown to love since being in Japan. It was deliciously sweet, and unlike shrimp we are able to get in the US. We saw some squid circling around which caught David’s eye, and decided to grab that next. While he thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn’t quite to Caitlyn’s liking because it is a bit chewy. We saw some beautiful tuna nigiri make our way towards us, and had to grab one. It had amazing flavor and felt so clean.
You also had the option to order specific nigiri pieces or rolls off of an iPad, and in checking out their offerings, found a salmon roe and a yellowtail belly which we hadn’t seen circling the belt yet. We placed orders for those, with the yellowtail being a double portion similar to the other plates, while the roe was a single portion. David had the roe, which he said was pretty similar to what we would get in America, but still delicious. Although belly is typically a super tender portion of the fish, this was not the case for the yellowtail. It was a tougher, chewier texture, and we both agreed our least favorite.
By this time we were starting to feel full, but wanted to end our sushi with one of our favorite pieces, and complete it with a piece of tomago nigiri (Japanese omelette), which has a nice sweetness to it. We settled on the scallop, which is a large portion and we both agreed had unbeatable flavor. Last but not least, we grabbed a single portion of the tomago, which was delicious as always. While this felt like a ton of food, we did the math and essentially made our own 10 piece nigiri platters. We grabbed the bill, and being very pleased with how good the taste and the price compared to other sushi, decided that if we got any more here it would be at a conveyer belt restaurant.
Our next stop was Namba Yasaka – the Lion’s Head temple. It was a beautiful temple and shockingly not very crowded for how exciting and visually appealing it is, but this may be because it is a bit out of the way as compared to the more popular areas in Osaka. The enormous, towering lion head instantly caught our eye, complete with a shrine inside the back of the mouth (though not for the general public to enter). The rest of the temple was pretty small as compared to other temple grounds we had covered in Osaka, so this stop did not take too long.
As we made our way to our next destination, we walked by several smaller local shrines and decided to pop in quickly to check them out. It seems like you can find shrines around almost every street corner.
We also came across a Japanese grocery store and decided to take a lap in it to check it out (we all know how much caitlyn loves her grocery stores). As you can see, they are just as decorated with bright neon signs as the Tokyo streets.
We decided to continue on and walked towards some popular market areas near Osaka Tower. While Google Maps was faithful to us, the gigantic tower acted as a beacon towards our destination. Almost to the tower, we began to notice tons of local restaurants and bars pop up, with increasingly more jovial and playful exteriors. We eventually found the Shinsekai Street area, complete with multiple markets and side streets to explore.
As we progressed on beyond the feet of the tower, we entered into a carnival-like area with lots of restaurants, arcade games, and shops.
Being a Monday in the middle of the afternoon, it wasn’t particularly crowded, making it a great time to walk around, until the rain picked up even more. We decided it would be a good time to grab a drink and escape the rain, so we walked around until we heard the words “happy hour” (which seems to be early here…starting around 2:00pm) from a woman outside a restaurant. We were ushered in after being told they had a happy hour with many drink options, and were seated at the counter and given a complementary “salad”. This salad was a sad bowl of plain cabbage, but obviously only the white part that everyone loves. We translated the menu and learned that the happy hour was only for whiskey highballs, which neither of us have enjoyed. We decide to share one small beer as to not be rude, and got out of there to find somewhere else to hang out.
We made our way down the streets, while checking our maps and saw that there was a hole-in-the-wall izakaya not far from us, and we decided to give it a try. A tiny establishment, with only two customers and one man running the place, we were seated in two small seats in the corner of the counter. The owner gives us a menu in Japanese and English with item numbers next to every dish, as well as a small sheet of paper and a pencil, asking us to write down the number of what we wanted to order (great idea to prevent translation issues).
We weren’t planning on eating, but our sushi was hours ago, and as we sat watching him prepare skewers for the couple next to us, we became hungrier and more enticed. We decided that we would forego a formal dinner and maybe grab some bites here, as we could always get a few more bites later elsewhere. This was a kushikatsu izakaya, specializing in breaded and fried vegetables and meats. The menu was loaded with good, cheap options ranging from around 50 cents USD to maybe $2 for the most expensive skewers. Over the course of an hour or two, we each had a beer and ordered a lotus root, shittake mushroom, okra, chicken cutlet, fried gizzards, octopus, squid tentacles, scallop, shrimp, and flounder. While this sounds like a lot, this place only gave one skewer per order, and while we were very satisfied by the end, the Japanese couple next to us had 3x the empty used skewers by the time they were done! Our favorites were probably the flounder for David (such good natural fish flavor and VERY hot flakey fish) and the okra for Caitlyn (perfectly cooked, great seasoning).
The old man pulled each pre-skewer meat out of his tiny refrigerator, battering each skewer just over the countertop and dipping it in the piping hot oil right in front of us. Every skewer he delivered, he would say “sauce!” Or “no sauce!” For the chicken, he even picked up some wasabi in his hand, mushed it over our breaded chicken, and poured some sauce over it, trying to explain the best way to eat it. This was another wonderful, local-feeling encounter that we couldn’t get enough of. He asked where we were from, and when we responded, he looked at the calendar and said “September 11”. While this day is so significant to Americans, it was surprising to hear someone from another country immediately recognize the significance of the day when we said we are from the States. He informed us that he opened this restaurant in 1991 when his son was born. We told him that we thought 1991 was a good year, as it was Caitlyn’s birth year as well!
While we were approaching the point of being full, ever since we saw whale meat as an option in Tokyo, Captain Dave-hab has been looking for his Moby Dick. Luckily for us, there was a great looking spot 200 meters from our location, supposedly offering our white whale. We walked in and David desperately looked through the menu. Finally, a few pages in, the whale was spotted. They offered three choices: whale tail sashimi, whale meat sashimi, and fried whale skewers. We got one of each and also got a piece of the “live prawn” as well as some sake (to celebrate, for David, and to make this concept a little more bearable [whaleable?] for Caitlyn). The whale sashimi and live prawn came out quickly, with two deeply colored pieces of whale, one with fat marbled throughout, and a piece of raw shrimp with a deep fried shrimp head. Caitlyn figured she would wait for the cooked whale, leaving the sashimi to David. The first was the fatty piece, which we were told was the tail. It tasted a lot like beef as far as texture, but with much less flavor. David was surprised that the fattiness didn’t come out more in the flavor. The meat was very similar to the tail, with little distinction between the pieces. Caitlyn was offered bites of both, but continued to decline the offer. Next up was the live prawn. We had looked this up, and it seems as though they take a live prawn, chop off the head, serve the tail immediately, and quickly flash fry the head. The tail does twitch some on its own, and more so with any salt or soy sauce added (almost a trick of the nervous system) and is not still living meat. Nonetheless, we enjoyed watching the tail flicker around the plate before David ate it in one bite. It was delicious, tasting sweet like the pink shrimp we’ve discovered on the trip. The head was next. Braving this, despite having issues with the jumbo shrimp with the shell in Osaka, David took a big bite. This was perfectly cooked. The shell was crispy, but didn’t feel like a shrimp shell. Whatever was inside (we chose not to think about it) was tasty and the texture was very doable. It was actually tasty enough that David ordered one for Caitlyn to try.
At this point, the fried whale skewers (3 of them!!) came out, battered and fried with a sweet ponzu-style sauce drizzled over it. The batter was good, the sauce was very sweet, and the meat inside was good but tough, like slightly overcooked steak. This went well with the batter and sauce, but didn’t blow us away. Caitlyn’s shrimp came out soon after, and she took it like a champ, finding it enjoyable, but the slight twitching of the tale prior to taking a bite made it harder to stomach as compared to the pink shrimp from earlier. David even convinced her to try the head, which she eventually did after removing some the tiny legs. She was very surprised by how much she liked it, and even had a second bite.
We left after this, walking back towards home with a detour to check out a final temple, but choosing a new, more local, scenic route.
A short 20 minute walk later, and we arrived at the temple which had a beautiful graveyard, and found an adorable temple cat. We made this a quick stop, as this was the brief time of day where anywhere with plants or stagnant water will bring hell in the form of mosquitos. Caitlyn was bitten 5 or 6 times, whe David’s delicate flesh was spared and only got 2 bites. We applied some topical benadryl and tried to put mind over matter.
We decided to walk the rest of the way home, enjoying the more local streets. Along the way, we crossed over a pedestrian bridge which offered beautiful views of the Observation deck.
We continued on, making our way back towards central Osaka
Now approaching darkness, and with no plans for the rest of the evening, we headed back towards Dotonbori area to check out a few places. The first place we went to was another small hole-in-the-wall place that we had actually seen the other day, but it was too crowded to enter. This time, when we went in, only one man sat at the counter scrolling on his phone.
Walking in, the man shot up, and ran to the other side of the counter. He asked what we wanted, handing us a menu. We inquired if they had food or just drink, and he said they had very simple food. He brought out a container of what looked like kimchi, carefully making a beautiful bowl for us to share. We each ordered a drink, and started to talk with our bartender. We all mutually discovered that the best way to talk would be via Google translate, each talking and having it produce either English or Japanese text for the other party to read. It turns out that this was the owner of the bar, Nishi, which he said is “Wesley” in English. We talked about our trip, his life, owning a restaurant in Hiroshima, Super Mario Land, and so much more. Facilitated by the magic that is Google Translate, this was such a wonderful and authentic conversation. Aside from having to talk into our phones and double check that it didn’t mishear us, there was almost no sense that we spike different languages. He told us that he has had this bar for a long time, but it is getting expensive to rent in Osaka, and he wants to open up an easier place to own elsewhere for less money so he can start towards retirement. We spent about 40 minutes talking with Nishi before getting our tab so we could explore more. He told us that he likes getting notes from customers he gets to spend time with, and he would love us to write one so that he can hang it up at his next, hopefully larger restaurant. We wrote a message for him, and we took some pictures together before a sad but beautiful goodbye.
Tired and full, we decided to walk back on Dotonbori and make it an early night. We took our time walking and taking in the sights one last time before heading back to our room.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: the hole in the wall shops that we have found in Japan have been by far our favorite. We meet the most genuine people, and create memories that are more lasting as compared to some of the larger places we have visited.
David’s thoughts of the day: It is strange that since coming to Japan, I have had no real longing cravings, but the only things that I have particular desires for that are not Japanese are pineapple juice one day, lemonade twice, and bread once. These are all things that I really do not consume at home, so it was a little strange. I swear I’m not pregnant.
Steps walked: 21,324
Miles walked: 10.17
Total miles walked in Osaka: 27.86
Bluming Travelers 