Osaka
Yakiniku Steakhouse
As soon as we arrived in Osaka, we walked to Dotonbori to meet my friend, Victor, for dinner at the Yakiniku steakhouse. Well...we tried. There are several of these steakhouses in Dotonbori and we first ended up at the one at which we did not have a reservation. But we made it to the right one eventually! We removed our shoes and sat in a shallow pitted area with a table with a grill in the middle. Yakiniku, or Japanese BBQ, refers to the cooking of bite-sized pieces of beef and vegetables on a griddle over wood charcoals. In Japan, it's common for the retaurant patron to cook their own beef this way. The steakhouse menu offered many options that were all well-illustrated. You could choose between different cuts of meat and different sizes. To make things easy, we chose one of their packages: the special course, which included four cuts of medium lean meat, as well as a selection of appetizers. It came with salad, kimchi, cooked beef in sauce, thin appetizer beef, beef sushi, rice, and lemon sorbet. We ordered the sake flight to go with it. It was very fun to catch up with Victor, and even better that we got to do it over such a satisfying meal.
Dotonbori
After dinner, Victor gave us a tour of Dotonbori, which has a big night life scene. It's also known for
its takoyaki (fried doughy balls with octopus), so many of the buildings had statues of octopi and other
sea creatures attacking them. We made sure to get a glimpse of the famed Glico Man sign before we called it a night.
A few days later, we explored Dotonbori in the daytime. Our first stop: A takoyaki stand. These are everywhere, we
just picked the one with our favorite sign. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes, but it wasn't too bad: preparation
of takoyaki is facinating to watch (see the video below) and the stand played their advertisement on repeat
to help us pass the time. Their
theme song is forever etched in my brain. Takoyaki is very good, but I'm convinced that it would be just as good
with mushrooms or maybe fish replacing the octopus - something to try at home.
After lunch, we decided to experience some of the less touristy activities that Dotonbori offers: shopping and
eye exams. This might sound boring, but Kevin's glasses had broken on the flight, and Victor had recommended that
we return to Jins, where they had already temporarily fixed Kevin's
glasses for free. We walked into the store, and within an hour, Kevin had gotten a full eye exam and purchased
glasses for $50 USD. In another 30 minutes, the glasses were ready for pick up. If
you're in Japan, you should go get glasses.
The Osaka Aquarium
One of the main tourist attractions in Osaka is the aquarium. We took the subway to the water, where the amazing eight-story Osaka Aquarium (the largest aquarium in the world) is located. The structure of the aquarium is such that you can't make many choices about your visit: You start on the top floor and slowly make your way down a descending spiral ramp. In the middle of the spiral is a giant glass tube of water filled with all sorts of ocean wildlife. We saw whale sharks, hammerheads, sting rays, guitar fish, giant grouper, and huge schools of smaller fish. I felt like I was scuba diving on land. You can occasionally veer off this path to see other exhibits, including jellyfish, tiny fish, and seals. I would recommend taking the time to see all of these. There were jellyfish of all shapes and sizes. The tiny fish were the brightest colors. The seal exhibit had an underground portion where the seals swim above you and can view you through a glass dome in the ceiling. This was a awesome experience, and apparently everyone agrees - it gets crowded, go early.
Osaka Castle
After the aquarium, we took the subway to Osaka Castle, which is surrounded by a double moat and an enormous park. Pieces of the castle have been destroyed and rebuilt so many times, it's hard to keep track of which parts are the originals. The castle was first built in 1538, but was detroyed by enemy troops in 1616. It was rebuilt in the 1620s, but its main tower was destroyed by lightning 1665. This was not rebuilt until 1937, and was repaired in 1997 to give it modern luxuries, like elevators. We didn't go inside, but instead walked around the park and through the plum gardens. It was very peaceful and large enough that you could forget that there were crowds of tourists elsewhere on the castle grounds.
bird/56
We had some time to kill and Victor suggested that we check out bird/56, a jazz bar that had recently been
reviewed in the New York Times. This was our first experience with a Japanese bar. Many are not on the
first floor, which means you can't casually glance in to see if it's somewhere you want to go. You can
only make that descision after walking up several flights of a rickety metal staircase, and by that time,
you've put in enough effort that you might as well stay. One perk to this system is that we were often the
only patrons in the establishment, which meant we could chat with the owner or bartender more.
This was the case with bird/56. We walked up the long metal staircase and were the only customers in the dark,
smoke-filled bar. Thousands of albums lined the walls as Nina Simone played over the speakers.
The owner, born in 1948, was a huge jazz fan. When he found out that we were from Chicago, he pulled out a
t-shirt from the Jazz Showcase, signed by Joe Segal, the owner. He also showed us an album whose cover
was Chicago in the 1960s or so, and I showed him the Board of Trade building on it, where I worked. It was a
very fun experience. Before leaving, we wrote our names on the wall, adding to the dozens of others thanking the owner
from all over the world.
Hacoya
For dinner, we met Victor and his friend Kyle at a restaurant called Hacoya, which serves kushikatsu: fried items on skewers. We had fried salmon, beef, pork, beef tongue, cheese, quail egg, asparagus, ginkgo nuts, and more. You ordered as you got hungry and the dishes came out as they were ready. It was nearly impossible to tell which dish was which, so it was a fun guessing game.
Super Jap
Super Jap was one of my favorite parts of this trip. After dinner, Victor and Kyle brought us to a local bar called Super Jap, run by three actors who had recently opened it after participating in a successful film. We walked into the shop, and the three owners, who were dressed in various levels of drag, were bartending and enthusiastically chatting with patrons. One of the owners turned to us, instructed us to "call me beautiful mama", and went back to her pouring. That was the only English spoken, so thank goodness that Kyle (who is American, but has lived in Japan for over a decade) is fluent in Japanese. He got us drinks and small dishes of tofu, and translated everything that was happening. One patron was making origami and handing them out. Another was arguing with his friends about whether his head was big, since holding a water bottle next to it made the water bottle look small. A third was planning a trip to the US and wanted to know about where we were from and what we would recommend. It was a bizarre, unique, and very fun experience.