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| Shoutengai |
Osaka, Osaka, Osaka. This previous Olympic city proved to be something very different from Kyoto and Nara. Having been in such idyllic surroundings for 3 days, this bustling city with lively streets and traffic came as somewhat a surprise. If you've ever been to Tokyo, Osaka is much like it - only dirtier, rougher and generally more gangsta. The people are not as polished and it has an atmosphere of a freer - less structuralised if you will - Japanese culture. I'm not entirely sure what I mean by that, but maybe it makes sense. Nevertheless, it had its charm I suppose and we spent a nice day there.
Our main two events were Shinsaibashi shoutengai (shopping street) and Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle). As follows.
More panorama! The famous ad of the running man (who looked a little chubby I must admit - I'm not the only one putting it on it seems!) was at the end of the shopping street. Lots of lights á la typical big city and lots of people despite it being a Sunday evening. Work on Monday morning, people!
The moving crab was not moving. Famous restaurant serving only, yep that's right, crab.
Takoyaki (squid balls). Osaka is famous for food, and especially this one - basically a big piece of squid inside a pastry (?) ball with flour, or something. Served with mayo, fish flakes and some sauce. Obviously nor for me, but Viv and Serr's excitement was entertainment enough.
"Can you see how BIG the squid is? You can HEAR me chew it!"
Osaka Castle. It was built in the 16th century and has played a major part in Japanese history. We went inside to the museum, read a lot about battles, emperors and so on, but I can't seem to remember a thing. Lots of battles though. Lots and lots.
Pretty impressive! Although we agreed it looked more like a wedding cake than castle. Maybe we were just hungry.
Osaka sadly did not offer any tofu ice cream but we were not defeated by that, and instead got green tea and chocolate soft ice creams to continue our tradition. Cheers, Osaka!
After having been lied to by the train station personal about a certain location we ended up in Tennoji and walked around. Soon we realised we were close to the gangster area where our hostel was. After a while we found ourselves on a sort of dodgy shopping street with loads of restaurants. Hungry, we found one...
...and had this! Not sure what it's called, but there's rice, veggies, egg and seaweed base soup. Rice in soup, you ask? Good question, but it was lovely despite the rather strange (at least for me) combination.
Osaka was mostly walking around after that, and we did some shopping while waiting for the bus back to Tokyo. I definitely prefer Kyoto and Nara to Osaka, probably because they're so different from Tokyo. For once it was nice to be able to see the open sky in the city, meet animals (and I'm not talking just tiny dogs), and have a breather from the stress that is the capital. Will be going back in spring for sure.
Jo x
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