Days 7 and 8-Food tour and Osaka travels
Hello all, writing again from Osaka! It’s crazy to think that I have already been in this country for 8 days, and only have 6 days left! As sad as I am starting to feel about leaving Japan, I am also a sucker for my creature comforts, like my bed, car, dog, boyfriend…y’know, the simple things!
I left off just about to do another food tour in Kyoto and this one was the best yet! It was booked on AirBnb, but the company’s name is Ninja Food Tours (https://www.ninjafoodtours.com) and it was such a great value for your money! We met in one central spot near my accommodations, had ourselves a sake (that didn’t taste horrendous to me!), and we were off!
Our tour guide, Moe (pronounced like Moët & Chandon) was very informative and carefully selected three restaurants and two food stalls to go to on this tour, and I felt like it represented Kyoto so perfectly. The two food stalls (that I forgot to take pictures at…sorry…) had a special type of eel that was deep fried and ended up having more of a texture like cod rather than the slimy eel you get at a sushi restaurant, and the other stall had soy milk ice cream that was so much more smooth than any alternative milk ice cream I’ve ever had in the US! Once we hit those two spots, we walked over to our first location-Japanese BBQ!
This restaurant serves wagyu beef (for a lot less than in the US) and it was DIVINE. Melt in your mouth, wonderful flavoring, all the things you look for in great beef! We got a few different cuts (that I couldn’t name off to you) as well as some offal (liver, 1st and 2nd stomach, some of the small intestines) that I did not go for, because 1. I was actually starting to get full by that point, and 2. I see that in surgery so frequently that it makes me a little queasy. Regardless, the meal was fantastic and accompanied with some rice and three different dipping sauces-BBQ, Lemon (my favorite), and a Ponzu sauce.
After sufficiently stuffing all of our faces with beef, we walked over to a restaurant that specializes in fish, particularly snapper and mackerel. We had both on offer (snapper cooked in a soy-based sauce and mackerel marinated in vinegar and placed on a ball of rice) as well as fish fin jerky (that was really tasty) and some sweet and savory mochi. This restaurant was tasty, but I could only eat a couple bites of everything because I was so full, and the meat sweats had started coming on. If you know, you know.
We then walked (thankfully) for 20 minutes through the beautiful edge of the Gion district to our next restaurant. Just look at that scenery! I’m sure it is even more beautiful during the cherry blossom season, but very busy with people coming to see it. I think this’ll do for me.
We then arrived to our last location-a tempura restaurant!
This restaurant specialized in all things battered and fried. Moe explained that this restaurant is famous because they use rice oil to fry their tempura and their batter is thin, giving you an opportunity to taste the ingredient being battered. We tried tempura cheese balls, chicken thighs, king oyster mushrooms, and shrimp before having a ball of fried vanilla ice cream. The perfect way to end the food tour!
The next day, I checked out of my AirBnb in Kyoto and (slowly) made my way to Osaka via the metro system. Kyoto and Osaka are very close together, so the metro system is connected between the two cities, making it an easy transport day. I arrived in Osaka around 1:30pm and I was hungry. I didn’t have breakfast in the morning and I was feeling a bowl of cold soba noodles. Luckily, there was a spot in the metro station that was open and able to serve me, as well as have an English menu.
This bowl of soba noodles were cooked to perfection. They had a nice chew to them, and the accompanying broth to dip them in was also refreshing and tasty. The best part? The lunch, including a coke, came out to about $6.50. Unheard of in the US!
I was able to check in early to my next AirBnb (right off the road from Dotonbori) and decided to relax for a couple hours. The heat and humidity in this country are slowly getting to me, but today has been more reasonable with temperatures in the mid-70’s and lower humidity (about 50%, if my memory serves me) which gives me hope for the remainder of my trip.
While relaxing, I looked up things to do in Osaka and came across the Umeda Sky Tower. It is this large tower on the north end of the city that you can go up to the top and have a 360 degree view of the city, including Kobe to the southwest if it is clear. I also read that the best time to visit was around sunset, so off I went!
The walk and metro ride over was really smooth. I have never felt more safe traveling alone in another country than I do here. Everyone keeps to themselves and I have not encountered a pickpocket in any of the cities I’ve visited (knock on wood)!
Once I arrive, I am taken to the 40th floor, where I got to see some spectacular views of the city. I even got to see Kobe in the distance! It was absolutely breathtaking!
I also convinced a guy from Israel to take a picture of me during sunset. It may not be high quality, but I will cherish this memory forever.
After watching the sunset, I wandered around the observation deck for a little bit, then decided to make my way back to my AirBnb. I think I have a knack for choosing places near markets, because this one is right next to Namba Market and a street over from Dotonbori, one of the most electric streetscapes I’ve ever seen. More pictures to come from that in the next blog post.
Today, I got up and decided to go out to Nara to feed the deer and visit Todai-ji Temple. The metro to this city took about 45 minutes and was quick and efficient (much like everything in Japan). I walked about 5 minutes up the road before I ran into the park, and it was so cute!
I will also say, some of these deer have zero chill when it comes to hounding people for deer crackers-I saw an older buck run across the street to get to someone who just barely opened their pack of crackers!
After feeding the deer, I walked over to Todai-ji Temple and wandered around the grounds.
I know, I know. I didn’t take any pictures here either. This is one that I wanted to savor for myself. This is one of the oldest temples in the world (built in 752 AD) and just as impressive as its age. Maybe the next time I come back I’ll take pictures, but I wanted to have one memory that was mysterious to the rest of the world.
After walking around all morning, I stopped by a Tonkotsu place for some lunch. I got a pork and shrimp plate and I devoured the whole thing. It was so good!
As I was leaving to go to the train, I found another vending machine. This time, it was for macarons! As a sweets lover, you know I had to try these out.
In all honesty, they were not half bad! The package came out cold (the machine was under refrigeration) and came in a multitude of flavors. I chose dark chocolate and vanilla, and both had great flavor! My only complaint was that the shell had a bit more crunch to it than I would’ve liked, but hey, you can’t win everything!
I am now in my AirBnb getting ready for a food tour along Dotonbori and will report back on how it is!
Until next time!
