Osaka Prefecture* 16th – 19th November

We arrived here on our first Shinkansen Bullet Train, as I said in our last blog. What i didn’t tell you about was our lunch as we watched other bullet trains coming and going before ours arrived.

I looked at the sandwiches they had in the shop. They all looked a bit thin and sad but there was a big thick Broccoli sandwich! I wondered where all the veg was in Tokyo and there it was in a sandwich on a train station platform.

Having chosen a container of rice balls and chicken on a stick, I think I may have inadvertently tried chicken feet! There were two small circles of what I assumed was soft processed minced chicken but no, they were…… how do I describe it? …..sort of crunchy! I’ve never experienced anything like the texture before! (Actually it was similar to Cuttlefish) ….. I gave them to Glen and he ate them, mind you he will try anything lol!

Talking of train station platforms, they have smoking rooms (glass boxes) the signs say “ADULT SMOKERS ONLY” Glen said “where do the children smokers go!?” In one hotel they directed smokers to the subway station down the road! You couldn’t even smoke on the street outside or in the open air corridors. 

Warning to our diver friends and general fish and sea creature lovers! We are about to show you our photographs from our walk through the Kuromon Ichiba market.  

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These are baby octopus on a sticks! : (

People were sat in this little cafe type area within the market (with Noren hanging down) eating ‘meat’ from the urchins, prepared by this chef, for the equivalent of £42 per serving!

Eating fresh large oysters straight from the fishmonger’s stall.

We made our way along the crowded market trying to look casual and unbothered about what we saw. I felt sick the end of it. They kill and eat Puffer fish (something we’ve loved to see when diving) There are a lot parts of the fish that are highly poisonous so Chefs must undergo rigorous training, then take an in-depth exam to be legally allowed to prepare the poisonous Puffer fish. Some American guy queuing up to buy a very small plate of the fish, which is called called Fugu, at an extortionate cost I must add, said “there are only about three deaths a year in Japan from eating Puffer fish. These people here are trained how to kill them and extract the edible part!” “Most deaths are from people trying to do it themselves at home” Anyway what a waste, of Puffer fish I mean! The same goes for the shark fin soup! If you feel the need to kill creatures for food then eat it all, like they did in China. Of course they also kill animals for medicine, which I didn’t talk about in my previous China blogs and I won’t now!

They don’t hide from their children exactly what they are eating here. Maybe that’s how it should be but it was difficult to see a young child sat eating a whole baby Octopus on a stick like a sweet lolly!

On a lighter note, we saw a man eating a toasted sandwich from a clear plastic container. (Some sort of meat not Broccoli!) It had been cut in to thin strips and laid sideways…. even something as simple as a sliced white bread sandwich is different here.

The leaves on the trees are turning red, yellow and orange but the weather is lovely and warm. It’s like having summer and autumn at the same time. It’s perfect.

We decided to walk to Dotonbori one evening. We read….. “It is Osaka’s most touristic neighbourhood located in Minami area. Famous shop displays (such as Glico Running Man and the moving gigantic crab) and flashy neon lights at night attract millions of visitors. It’s also the best area to dine out as numerous restaurants are located in Dotonbori area. Shopping, food, entertainments… you will never be bored of this vibrant and energetic neighbourhood!!”

Well they were right, we weren’t bored! But one visit was enough. Although we had a lovely meal there over looking the stream (total surprise as we were ushered upstairs to the back of the restaurant) We could see across to the top floor of the building opposite where we watched a group of young musicians animatedly and enthusiastically jumping and dancing around playing violins and singing, seemingly without anyone noticing on the street below. When they finally finished a screen came down over the large glass window and that was that. Maybe I imagined it amongst the flashing neon signs and giant moving crabs etc lol! 

We walked home from the “vibrant and energetic” area of Dotonbori beside the autumn leaves of the ginkgo trees along Midōsuji Boulevard, the Main Street in central Osaka.  The trees were full of twinkle lights, which always remind us of Courtney and the tree trunks had huge burgundy ‘ribbon’ tied around them. Burgundy always reminds us of Lauren (probably because she painted the walls of her bedroom burgundy as a teenager!) It was all very pretty…. the boulevard not Lauren’s bedroom Lol! The shops along the boulevard were very posh! 

Wikipedia says that ‘Midōsuji is an ultra high-class shopping street (that’s a better description that my ‘posh’), housing clothing stores by such brands as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and major hotels…..

We were more taken with the McClaren and Bentley showrooms. You could taste the wealth in the evening air! Well I could, I think Glen could probably still taste the Takoyaki octopus balls repeating on him that he had tried earlier lol!

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“Osaka Castle is a symbol of Osaka and one of the greatest castles in Japan. It is an important historic monument that represents the great history of Azuchi-Momoyama period during the sixteenth century. It was built in 1583 by the order of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the one of the most famous unifying warlords.” And it has THE biggest stones in its outer walls!

As we wondered how the hec they cut and then moved these gigantic stones into place in the past without today’s technology, Glen said that he had read that in China they filled large troughs of water, waited for them to freeze, and then slid the stones along. We then went on to discuss the likes of Stone Henge and the Pyramids. It’s not all chit chat about which type of noodles we fancy for lunch. lol!

Along the river through the park we saw lots of people with Rabbits in pushchairs and on leads! The sort with the huge floppy ears (if you are interested lol!) There were also lots of dogs in clothes and in pushchairs! Yes, pushchairs!!! Four or five in together some times. (The photo didn’t come out very well so not included it) Why don’t they let the dogs walk! I tried to ask one lady with a dog in a cheeky baseball cap, but she couldn’t speak English, neither could the dog. 

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I’ve thought about you a lot here Mum as I saw little Sham everywhere 😊. There are lots of white poodles here and brown poodles too. (They look like poodles anyway)

We’ve not seen any old folk singing, dancing, exercising or playing cards in the park here. Although I fell in love with the park keeper, or the person whose job it was to sweep up the leaves…..

Incase you can’t see, it spells out ‘Welcome to Osaka’

There were people stood near by with birds of prey on their arm too. What is it with people showing off their ‘animals’ here in Osaka. There was some sort of event going on at one end of the park, the sun was out and there was a good buzz.  I think it was some sort of Student event. We queued up with the locals in the sunshine to buy some noodles but when we got to the front of the queue we realised you had to have sort of ‘voucher’ and no one could speak English and we couldn’t understand Japanese, no matter how much they talked and smiled at us, so we went to eat elsewhere.

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While Glen was taking photos of the guys practicing / learning some sort of flag twirling thing and a group of people performing some sort of, what I assumed was a martial art, I had spotted the two old ladies I had tried to talk to earlier that day. They were adorable. I had watched them walking around the castle together, helping each other down the steps and laughing as they went. They couldn’t understand a word of English or mime so I left them giggling. However, when our eyes met across the park later I waved at them and they waved back…. we were officially friends! So I walked over and once again asked (by mime) for a photo, pointing to Glen (who had the camera) We walked over and one of them said “Dad?” (Smug face) and I pointed to my wedding ring and said “husband” but they didn’t seem to understand. Anyway they stood with me to have their photo taken and then walked off laughing, bless them. 

There were lots of ‘pairs’ of dear old ladies walking around together In those cute little hats that day, and ever since. All wearing helping each other along. So sweet. As I look at this photo i think this may have been Mother and Daughter but most of them were both old and looked like the best of friends.

I said there hasn’t been music or singing in the parks here, like there was in China, but there was a young guy playing saxophone in the park one day, we thought of you Courtney. There was also a band playing in the street one night with a guy tap dancing. 

Have I said how there is a lot of Jazz played over here? We thought it was just a one off when we walked past a bar and heard it but it’s everywhere we now realise. We thought of you Karen. Not quite Ronnie Scotts, but still.

Glen wanted to try Sushi, well you have to here right? So for research purposes only, I agreed to try the Sake! (Wink) 

Glen said the best place to try Sushi would be in the fish market. It was guaranteed to be as fresh as possible. So Glen chose ‘fatty tuna’ grade ’A’ at £12.85 – I tried some and it was surprisingly ‘un-fishy’ and melt in the mouth tender. It wouldn’t be something I would choose to have though…luckily i prefer inexpensive noodles!

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The Sake is (used to be?) stored in straw ‘caskets’ like the ones above left. These were in the grounds of a shrine.

As happy as we are to be in Japan, we’ve been here 16 days as I type this, I am a tad concerned that we might get scurvy! We are now eating plenty of meat (compared to what we ate in China) but they don’t seem to serve veg unless it’s covered in tempura batter. Fruit seems very expensive too. Surely these can’t be grapes at the equivalent of £28 for this bunch! Surely it was £28 per kilo!? The grapes are huge! The Strawberries are expense too, as are their white Strawberries.

This apple costs £2.14!

Fruit and veg is expensive here apparently because the Japanese will only buy perfectly shaped and pristine product. They tend to give fruit as a gift and so that’s another reason it needs to be perfect.

“Shinsekai or “New World” is a district in Osaka that was constructed in 1912. It was meant to be the neighborhood of the future, but due to World War II it was neglected for decades.” 

The only real thing of interest to us there was the restaurant serving ridiculous ‘Sumo’ size meals! The potion size of what they eat was the closest we came to a Sumo wrestler! Lol! Just as well maybe. I looked up tickets for a Sumo Tournament and this is what I read……”Ringside seats, located closest to the ring, are the most expensive. Ticket holders sit on cushions on the floor and are exposed to the risk of injury due to wrestlers flying into the spectators.”   

I also read that the mawashi (loincloths) that sumo wrestlers wear are never washed. Instead, they are usually just hung up to dry, for two reasons. One is for good luck, and the other is because washing weakens the fabric. If a mawashi were to come apart during a bout, it would result in disqualification. I don’t want my knickers to fray and fall down but come on! I still wash them!

Also, we really shouldn’t encourage them as the negative health effects of the sumo lifestyle can become apparent later in life. Sumo wrestlers have a life expectancy between 60 and 65, more than 10 years shorter than the average Japanese male, as the diet and sport take a toll on the wrestler’s body.

Prefecture* 

We’d never heard of a Prefecture before, it was when we were talking to a Japanese girl who told us she had studied in Cardiff and Sheffield and had gone on the discuss different areas of Japan as being in such and such Prefecture. So we looked it up.

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, forming the first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They consist of 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one “circuit” or “territory” and one “metropolis”. I guess it’s like our Counties?