Day 2 - Osaka

By Danae

I was expecting it to be really busy out and about in Osaka, but it really wasn't. Even the trains/subways weren't packed, and unfortunately I didn't experience 'the grope' on the subway (people have warned us that when the trains get really packed, then you end up squeezed next to someone and people freely grope and act as though it's all cool).

First up, we visited the local grocery store for some breaky supplies - sweet buns with various concoctions on them. I'm not too sure about these buns as they taste quite artificial and full of sugar, and I'm never too sure what I'm eating. Chris loves them, on the other hand, especially the 'mystery sausage' ones. I then attempted to buy a hot coffee but ended up with an iced one (no picture menu!) and then we came across a place with English translations so got two hot coffees there. The milk is really weird; it is those little sachet things that I'm pretty sure is non dairy. errrrrgh, non dairy creamer, whose bright idea was that? Must be something to do with a lack of cows here. Oh wait, isn't Japan famous for waygyu beef? so surely they must have cows somewhere. . . perhaps non-milking variety. Anyhoo - as I write this it is now Day 3 and I'm yet to come across a decent coffee with real milk. Oh, and juice. Where the heck is the juice? You can buy sparkling orange drink or orange flavoured water instead.

Fortunately Osaka redeemed itself to me in terms of it's other food that day - the food is sensational and we certainly ate a lot of it! I think as long as you stick to the things Japan does best - fresh food including seafood, sushi, sashimi, deep fried deliciousness - it's all good really. I wasn't really sure what I was eating half the time but it all tasted damn good to me.

We were meeting up with Mika (who is a friend of Sonali's from when she lived in Japan - over 10 years ago now) and had arranged to meet at the Umeda Sky Tower at 12pm. We had the time wrong and thought it was 12pm when it was actually 11am, so killed an hour by going up in the tower - supposedly to see something called 'the floating garden'. We went up to level 35 or thereabouts, a pretty cool experience as you go up in a reallly quick lift with a view out of the city. This level seemed to be somewhat of a hang-out zone for locals, to sit in airconditioned comfort in little 'love seats', whilst looking out on the view. From there you travel up in escalators to the rooftop viewing area, which was not all that pleasant cause it was raining that day and there was no roof, so we quickly scooted around the viewing platform. There seemed to be a distinct lack of tourists in the building, perhaps unsurprising given the rain, and we were the only ones there apart from what seemed to be a few couples hanging out on level 35.

We didn't see any floating garden, or any garden at all. It is possibly something to do with astrology. Or something. It seems the real action of this building happens at night, which we could of course only guess at. There is a mechanical loveseat up on the rooftop area, which apparently the two lovers sit on and it lights up according to their levels of love - a big heart for really in love, non-existent for not in love, etc. Young loves go here for a night outing, and the other thing they do is get a heart-shaped lock engraved with their names. You can even get married in the Sky Chapel. It looks just a little bit tackyorama.

Then off we went to meet Mika, who turned out to be absolutely lovely and it was fantastic to spend the day with her. Mika has been living in Osaka for some years now, she is from Kobe originally but moved to Osaka when she met her husband (Takashi), who we met that night and he is also really nice. We spent the large majority of the day with Mika sampling the food delights of Japan - including soba noodles with egg and pork, udon noodles with tempura vegetables and prawns, takoyaki (which are little balls of deep fried octopus served from street vendors - sooooo good!), and ice-cream (I had the 'greedy cake party', which was a yummy mixture of summer berries, cake and icecream. Kind of like Cold Rock but better. And I've gotta say, with a name like Greedy Cake Party, what's not to love).

That night we met up with Takashi and went for dinner at izakaya, which according to my guidebook, is a traditional Japanese pub. But when I told Mika about this description, she found it very strange and didn't think it was like a pub at all. But I think it's the closest thing Japan has to a pub, really. When we suggested to Mika getting some beers that afternoon, she was quite surprised, as she said that the Japanese don't normally drink unless it's with a meal. Not wanting to seem like complete Australian bogans, we managed to restrain ourselves from drinking until dinner time, but let me tell you, it was really hard. After all, I AM on holidays!

Dinner was tasty and interesting - lots of little dishes of various types of meat and other snack type food. I even ate horse sashimi! The first bit I ate was very chewy, it was quite thick and I had to try not to be sick when I thought about what I was eating, that would have been very embarrassing. Somehow I managed to chew through it and swallow it down. The next bit was much nicer; a thinner bit of meat which tasted a lot like beef. There was deep fried cheese as well (yummm) and gyoza.

Mika and Takashi thought it was very funny when we ordered large bottles of beer each (they would get such a shock if they knew this was barely anything by Australian standards) - the two tallies arrived, and nothing has ever tasted better after a big day of walking around. We cained them in no time at all. We later had sake the 'traditional' way, which involves the waitress pouring it into a shot glass until overflowing into a little saucer. Fortunately nothing is wasted, as it is perfectly acceptable to drink from both the shot glass and saucer. I also really rated the plum wine - delicious.

After dinner, we retired to the games parlour for some communal games of Mario race car driving and some silly game involving bongos. I was terrible at the drumming game, but improved out of sight when Mika told me what the directions were in English. Stilll lost badly though! Surprisingly I came third in the driving game and Chris came last! I actually had fun playing a boy game! The games arcades are huge here. The one we went to was about 5 levels and had all manner of games. The sound of the place is deafening. You would go insane if you worked there. And so many games; they certainly take it seriously here.

Takashi then kindly took us to his office to show us the set-up of a modern house in Japan. Takashi is a real estate agent, and his office is set up in the style of the various features of the houses for sale. It was very cool to be able to see the style of modern Japanese houses. They even have a special panel in the wall especially for earthquakes, which allows the house to move if there is an earthquake. The toilet was also super cool; when you open the door it makes the toilet seat spring up. Plenty of other features on offer too - background sounds, bidet features. Japan has the coolest toilets I have ever been acquainted with. Takashi even gave me a 'goody bag' from his company. His company is sponsored by the 'Miffy' rabbit character, so it was this awesome bag full of cute Miffy products. I was very happy.