Final tales of Osaka

Hi kids,

This post will wrap up all the loose ends of my trip through Osaka and one day in Kobe. You'll find the weired, strange and my attempts at trying to be photographic genius!

So on our first day after visiting the Aquarium in Osaka, we wondered through the nearby shopping complex. While wondering through the complex, we saw this store that had two people dressed as ninja's in front. I wasn't sure whether this was a ninja themed restaurant or whether it was a shop talking about ninja related things.

Unfortunately I didn't get to go in so I had to kick this ninja's ass instead!

On our second day in Osaka, we decided to visit Universal Studios. Universal Studios (or USJ as the Japanese call it) is one of the major attractions in Osaka and the venue of many school trips. Since it was the holiday period in Japan, USJ was absolutely packed with people. Both kids and adults. I should mention now that the Japanese seem to love lines and lining up. So we had to line up to get our tickets (40mins), then line up to get through the gates (20mins) ... and then the lines for the rides ... oh man!!! the lines!!! Some lines were rediculous, the ET line was 90mins wait and never got shorter than that.

Fortunately, they did sell express tickets for 4 rides for $30 (gate tickets were already about $50). The express tickets allowed you to skip the long lines and join a shorter line ... again, it seems the rich win ... but in reality, the poor wouldn't be in the theme park anyway. USJ seemed to be modelled on different cities in the US, like San Francisco, Old Chicago, etc. They also had rides like Spider-man, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Back Draft. There's also theatre shows like Muppets and Shrek 4D.

This was the entrance, still fully decorated in their Christmas theme

This is the famous Universal Studio ball. Had to wait til Australia came around.

Recognise this little machine, c'mon ... here's a hint ... its a De Lorean

Just off the train station to USJ, there's a shopping mall eqipped with the Takoyaki museum. Unfortunately, the museum was just a few pictures of old school takoyaki making along a wall and most people were buying takoyaki on the other side. This little takoyaki didn't want to be cooperative and come with me.

One of the specially painted trains for USJ

The Namba district which contained Dotonbori was quite interesting to explore. Here were some cool statue heads outside a building.

This was a cool restaurant front, didn't get to eat in here though.

This was a cool building and looked fairly new. Most of the floors were pachinko parlours, but that big double ended spoon in the middle of the building is actually a ride, that takes you to the top and lets you free fall down. We obviously had to have a go. The rush was pretty cool, and there were plenty of wobbly legs set in straight after.

A certain area of Osaka city had these really cool street lamps. The head is the light and there's even security camera's out of its butt.

The area were we stayed was pretty slummy ... there were piles of rubbish left on the streets, homeless people on street corners, and a really raggity church that played this biblical show in spanish. Anyway, braving all this I decided to explore around one morning. While walking around and dicovering that this was the area where all the Kushi-katsu skewer restaurants were. I had also seen these posters of the ugliest women I've seen in Japan, upon closer inspection, I found that it was actually a man dressed as a women. I also discovered this theatre, where these men-women were performing ... hmmm ... pass, I think

Advertisement to the Bunny Club, looks really interesting, doesn't it ... fellas????

This particular shop, decorated itself according to the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. Fanatical!

Believe it or not, this was outside a wrestling shop in Namba. Inside, they sold wrestling gear including masks, belts, tights, memorabilia. They also had a big ring inside for wrestling matches. Japanese love their wrestling.

This is Namba Parks Shopping precint. Its had interesting archatecture. Its sort of like Melbourne Central, only alot more classier, bigger and cooler actually ... so maybe nothing like it!

Another shot of Namba Parks. (One of my so called attempts at being artistic)

This giant ceramic vase looking thing was found near a Shrine. Initially, it reminded me of the healthy food pyramid, beacuse of the pictures of food and animals, but after looking closer found that there were scenes of different people around the world eating. Including one of the last supper.

Osaka is also home to Spa World, a multi-level bathhouse for all. I didn't thnk much of it initially but after spending a few hours there, it completely changed my mind. Spa World aims to re-created bath houses from two continents that enjoy their baths, Asia and Europe. So aptly named the European zone and the Asian zone. As the bath houses are complete nudity, men and women are separated and designated a different zones, and this alternates each month. I got the Euro zone this particular month. The European zone has about 5 different types of hot baths ... one where you sit in the trevi fountain with neptunes horses rising at you. Another was a recreation of a grotto (cave type hot bath), also a scandanavian recreation, where you alternate between a hot sauna and then freezing ice like bath (not cool). There was also a roman baths recreation including a few bath with different types of herbs. Finally there was a bath that sat on top of a fish tank. I'm not to sure of the asian zone baths, but heard that they had a bali setting, oriental garden ... can't give much more on that. One floor was were males and females could mix. It was basically a leisure swimming pool, equipped with waterslides. Spa world was really a world on its own as you could practically spend a whole day there. If you were board of baths, then there were floors full of restaurants and there were amusements for the kids. You also wore their costumes while wondering around as to make it easier for you to get back into the baths. Men got these funky blue baggy pants and shirt, where the women got pink gowns. For obvious reasons, camera's were not allowed, but the unforms were a hoot. Definitely a must if you ever visit Osaka.

This was a special promotion for Spa World during December. The sign translate to Chocolate Spa. Unfortunately, we didn't go during December.

We explored nearby Kobe city during our trip in Osaka. Kobe is one of Japan's port cities that allowed foreign trade and therefore is marked as a place that foreigners and foreign culture first came to Japan. As Kobe had many foreign investors coming in, many of them decided to build their own western style houses to live in during their stay in Kobe. This is one such house, it belonged to some dutch dude, I think. This whole area is called the Ijinkan and contains many western styled houses, some dating back to 1868.

Japan doesn't not have boxing day, and therefore NO boxing day sales. Although, they do have sales. There big sale day is on the 2nd of January. As, let me tell you ... its packed everywhere, even with all the shopping centres they have.

An interesting sale concept that the Japanese put together for the sales is to pack items into a box (like the ones these people are holding) and sell them for about anywhere between $20-$100. Most are around the $50 mark, but they idea is to give you value for your money by giving you more than what you pay for. The thing is that your not sure whats in some of these packages ... so it would be a total surprise. Some stores would tell you what you get in them though. Such packages include, nike, addidas, jap clothing stores but also Mister Doughnut and even Haagen Daas.

These look like fake Sushi food, but look closer and you actually see that their USB keys!

Daimaru lives in Japan! Well atleast in the Kansai region

One cool thing about Departments stores in Japan, and should be introduced everywhere in the world, is their awesome food court ... its really really cool and you'll find them in every single department store in Japan. All the food courts are found on the basement levels of the stores and sell almost any food item you could want. They have a fresh meat, fish, vegies and japanese goodies section. Section with cooked food to buy, sections with Bento boxes to take away and ofcourse the Dessert and sweets section ... its heaven for foodies. Have a look yourself.

Kobe was rocked by an earthquake on January 17th 1995, measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale. It killed 6,433 people, made 300,000 of its citizens homeless and destroyed large sections of the port. They re-bulit everything, but left this section as a memorial to the earthquake. This is a picture of some of the more famous sights in Kobe including the Earthquake memorial, the Maritime Museum and Kobe Tower.

These are the steps that lead to Hozan-ji Temple on Mount Ikoma to the West of Nara.

Hozan-ji Temple is situated up high on Mount Ikoma and is a fair walk from the ground, but fortunately there was a cable car to take you half way (Although we did walk down). The temple was really cool, cuz it looked like it was built into the side of the mountain.

The other unique thing about this temple was that it contained 100 statues of buddah, and legend has it that if you walk around them one hundred times, then you would have good luck. Eh, too much for me, I did stroll through them once.

Yep, the crazy Japanese women did try to get up some of these rickity steps in heels. This lady though, was seriously packing some high heels. No wonder the women here walk funny. Check it out next time your in Japan!

Another artsie attempt!

As well as playing with a new colour function on my camera, this was quite an interesting picture. While walking to Osaka Jo (Osaka Castle), we saw some girls (about 15 or 16 years old, even older maybe) playing with some dolls. They were dressing up the dolls and then placing them on the flower beds to photograph ... yeah, I hear ya ... CRAZY!!! You can see the dolls in the picture.

More colour adjustment with my camera. This was a cool little Bonzai garden arrangement

Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle) is one of Japan's more famous Castles, even though the building itself is not the oldest. Osaka-jo was first built in 1598 and over the years, wars and fires have led to its many restorations. The final restoration was completed in 1997. Speaking to the Japanese, they are not too impressed as its not really old anymore. It was cool inside though, and from the top, you could observe all of Osaka city. Take a look below.

Me and Osaka-jo

Hope that was enjoyable for all, til we meet again

Oyasumi Nasai

It doesn't snow in Ashikaga!

Hi again,

Diverting from re-living Osaka again, last week in Ashikaga an unexpected event occurred. Before I had come to Ashikaga, I was told that it would get pretty cold here but it doesn't normally snow. I have also been wanting to go to the snow and see how it is in Japan.

However, last Wednesday, the snow came to Ashikaga ... it wasn't all that unexpected as the weather forecast was predicting it (i don't really watch news mainly cuz I have no idea whats going on).

While in one of my ichi nen sei classes (first graders) the snow started falling outside and I rudely interrupted my teacher who was trying to teach at the time (I'll never be a teacher) and diverted all the kids attention as well.

It was quite cool actually, I don't think I've ever experienced proper snow fall. I've experienced blizzard type conditions but not this. So instead of going to the snow, the snow came to me.

This was a clip of the initial snow falling, the quality is sort of crap, so apologies, but you can make out the snow falling.

This was after about 2hrs of snowing. Its the same view as taken with the video. It looks blanketed at this point.

This is looking over my school to the tennis courts and field.

This is looking into the mountains

The snow was cool, but then riding home was torturous. Not only did I have to combat against the freezing temperatures but also avoid being smacked in the face but chunks of ice at this time. I just made it home alive!!!

Later kids

The Joys of Osakan Food

Happy Australia Day to all those back home,

Hope your in the midst of enjoying your long weekend, either lounging around or out and about.

Well a continuation of my excellent adventures in Osaka has come to my favourite topic ... FOOD. I LOVE IT, and Osaka is a food lovers paradise ... as I mentioned before, they have a great giant touristy street just full of food.

Now we all know the typical Japanese foods that you can get at any restaurant in Melb. Things like sushi (did you know that they don't actually have many of the fillings we have back and home - I love chicken teriyaki too ... but they have a lot more raw stuff and not only fish), sashimi (lots of raw seafood without the rice), tempura (they have some great mushrooms that they do tempura style ... and this little chilli looking thing), yakitori (although its not just the chicken breast/thigh bits they grill here, its also thing delectible chicken areas such as the crunchy tendon bits, chicken skin, chicken liver, intestines ... uuuhhh - they all look the same smeared in the teriyaki sauce too - you can also have them sweet - teriyaki, or salty), Gyoza (which is not originally Japanese but really Chinese like chaahan - fried rice and ramen - noodles).

So I'll try to indulge you with some Japanese cuisine that you may have not seen too often. Our first real Osakan dish was first invented in Osaka ... and is copied all over Japan. Its called Takoyaki - fried octopus balls. As the name suggests, their little balls about the size of a golf ball, and generally contain a batter that is made, cabbage, some sort of seasoning and a piece of octopus. It requires a special pan with round moulds. Once finish, you whack some mayo, a brown sweet sauce (generally used on okonomiyaki - the pancake things) and fish shavings known as katsuobushi. I'm not a great big fan ... don't get me wrong, its not that it taste bad or anything, I just don't find anything special about it, but the Japanese go crazy for it.



In Osaka you can try different types and not just the normal Takoyaki. We had three types on this occasion. The yellow looking is actually made from egg for the outer case. You then dip the whole thing into the soup and down she goes - I loved this one the most. The boat shaped container next door is the actual original Takoyaki.

Our next stop was another Osakan delight known as Kushi-katsu (incidentally katsu just basically means deep fried cutlets of meat in Japanese - so there will be dishes you've heard like katsu don or katsu curry - I always thought it only meant deep fried pork!). But basically these are small establishment with the goodies waiting to be fried within eyes view and a bowl of batter and deep fryer next to the cook. You can get a range of things deep fried like, prawns, asparagus, mushrooms, eggs, strips of beef, pork or chicken, cheese, peppers, squid, octopus. I guess because Japan doesn't have a brunswick St to get all the greasy food after a late night of drinking - kushi katsu is a fair replacement.

Here's a plate of our fried delights - Mmm Oishi desu ne!

On our travels we also found strange flavours of our favourite foods like Popcorn. One such place looked like an American set-up but have suck dericious flavours such as wasabi, fish, plum, etc - can't really remember many. Thankfully they did have some normal flavours like caramel.

How did I know the popcorn place was an American franchise - Mmmm - not sure really



Now, theme parks and fairs are notorious for having bad and expensive food - universal studios was not exception. So you'd normally expect things like hot dogs, hamburgers, hot chips, dimmis (i miss my dimmis), but we're in Japan. Above is a Katsu dog (remember I told you what katsu meant). So a Japanese variation of a hot dog - its a crumb piece of pork in a roll - gotta say it wasn't too bad - but I was also really hungry at this point.



More Universal studio food, this place showed pictures of massive great whopping burgers. Little did I know that you had to actually create it yourself. So after you order, they give you your bun with the meat inside and you then put whatever you want inside at a salad bar. There was curry mash - that yellow stuff.



This was my giant coke to go with my burger ... it was like 1.5litres. I felt some diabetes coming on after i finished it. Although, they did half fill it with ice.


One thing that Matt heard was very good and needed to try was called Kitsune udon. Udon as most of you would know is a thick wheat noodle. So we went to this restaurant that was famous for it and waited in line for about 20mins. The wait did not disappoint. Kitsune udon or fox udon (no idea) is udon sitting in a soup with pieces of sweet deep fried tofu called aburaage. It was dericious!

My kitsune Udon - great on a cold cold

We also had to embark on the popular Okonomiyaki - commonly referred to as Japanese pancake. Interesting fact - okonomi means "what you like" and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" so okonomiyaki means "cook what you like, the way you like". Hiroshima is actually the famous region for this dish but Osaka's style is the most common method found throughout Japan and other countries. So going on the meaning of Okonomiyaki - in Osaka, they have okonomiyaki restaurants where you make your own, you basically order what filling you want, like pork, beef, seafood, etc and they bring out the batter for you ready to cook.

Here's the menu at this particular Japan okonomiyaki restaurant.

Here we are in the action of cooking okonomiyaki. Believe it or not, I had never eaten okonomiyaki before I came to Japan. The fact that it never had meat and was a big chunk of cabbage was never appealing to me. But they contain meat in Japan ... love it!


Below is a clip of us finishing off the making of the okonomiyaki.

Osaka also has its own unique type of sushi called Oshizushi. It uses cooked cooked fish, seasoned and pressed firmed into rice to make little boxes. You can see a selection of these above, quite interesting and something different.



I know these aren't Japanese, but these egg tarts were awesome! They were hot, the pastry was flaky and crisp and the custard was sweet ... heaven! It was the first time that Holly and Matt has ever had one like this and they are eternally grateful to me. Needless to say we visited this establishment a number of times ... its on Dotonbori for reference.



This place was called the Shochu (distilled alcoholic beverage) Authority, it claims to contain shochu from all regions in Japan. They had some pretty cool looking bottles too. There are many different types of shochu including rice, barley, brown sugar, etc.



These were little Doraemon pastry type things, sorta taste like a waffle. You usually finds street vendors selling these at festivals and they come in all sorts of designs, I even saw a pikachu one.



On my journeys one day I discovered a tank full of turtles, unfortunately they were right outside a restaurant. This pic shows about 5 turtles, later in the day I returned and there was only one lonesome turtle left. Hmm, they like turtles in Osaka!


On our trip to Kobe, we could leave with having some sort of beef from there. Kobe used to be the biggest port city in Japan, until is was rocked by a big earthquake in 1995. Kobe is famous for Kobe beef. Kobe beef is from the breed of wagyu cattle, raised according to strict tradition. These practices may include a diet of beer and sake, and daily massages to relieve muscle stiffness, so that it results in more tender meat. Wagyu doesn't actually mean the type of beef but really "Japanese cattle". This cattle is apparently bred so that their meat is especially marbled and fatty, creating a more tender beef. Kobe beef was a little too expensive (about 10,000 Yen or $100 a piece) so we had yaki niku (grilled meat) which is still beef from Kobe and still tasted fantastic. The smells are awesome from these places.



We started off with some salad and grilled tongue ... I know, I know ... I though eeewww at the start too, but it wasn't too bad. just grilled it and whack on some lemon, tastes good.


This is the marbled beef I'm talking about. The meat was dericiously tender and juicy. Ooohhh, how I love meat!


Our final meal on our trip was Nabe (basically japanese steamboat). We had a seafood one and boy, did they give is alot.

This was after we had devoured most of it. Look how big those scallops are!

This was the nabe cooking.

This is a tank full of all sorts of sea living goodies, you'll notice the common crayfish, flounder, a moray eel and the famous Fugu ... the poisoness fish. I didn't get to try it but in Osaka, but I will, before I leave. Its meant to be expensive and not taste that great but its something you gotta try. Hopefully, I'll live to tell the tale afterwards.

Hope all are well back home.