Osaka, Japan
Today we arrived in the Kobe port. We have a tour booked with a guide to Osaka. Osaka is west of Kobe and is a city of about 18 million.
We met Tiaga, our guide, at the Kobe terminal. I used Viator to book him. Viator found him through another company called City Unscripted. Communication through all of these levels wasn’t great. Once they chose the guide, I felt much better as I could communicate directly with him.
Tiaga asked what we would like to see and I told him that we would take his recommendations. We hopped in a taxi to the train station. On the way I asked Tiaga where he learned English. “All over the world”, he said. I told him he sounded Australian. He said that he did spend a year and a half out in the bush teaching. He also said that he lived in Cleveland for a few years. He asked about sports. Of course I knew Japan loved baseball. He knew nothing about American football. We talked about golf a bit and he invited us to the Masters next year. We will see if we can make that happen.
We boarded the JR train first. Japan Railway is the large, government owned commuter train. There are a handful of other private trains also. A somewhat confusing system. Tickets are purchased by selecting the stop you will get off. One thing that worried us about travels to Asian countries in the past is the difficulty in deciphering the characters. We were happy that there was a lot of English used to direct people around. On the JR trains, the next 5 stops were announced in Japanese and then English. It seemed that most folks knew at least a few words of English. Probably more than the Japanese we knew. Konnichiwa, ohayou, and arigato were about it for us.
The most fascinating take away about our trip here is our complete ignorance when it comes to Japan. Our first stop is the Osaka Castle. Lots of history to learn. This castle housed the last Shogun in Japan. There area, along with most of Osaka, was burned to the ground in WWII. I have included pictures but the historical context is best researched online.
The castle reminded me of the construction of the pyramids. Huge blocks of different sizes and shapes somehow pieced together and standing here today. It is really quite remarkable. We spent a good amount of time here trying to absorb all of the history. Lots of people here.
Lunch was next. “Eat like a local” was the motto Tiaga followed. We boarded another train. Subways were immaculate.
We left the train and after a few minutes arrived at this arcade.
All kinds of places that locals shopped in. Food, games, one shop was full of men playing Japanese chess and other board games. Archery, arcade games, rifle shooting.
We stopped at this local eatery.
This was a place that served fried food on a stick. You only needed to order the kind of food that you wanted on a stick. Tiaga ordered shrimp, salmon, and some kind of Japanese vegetable. The fried goods were delivered on a tray and a pot of dipping sauce was delivered also. The pot was used amongst many tables over its life so the motto was “only one dip”, “no double dipping”. The food was great. The sauce was a mixture of Worcestershire sauce and vinegar and other goodies. Each establishment had its own sauce.
Billiken is the king of the fried food on a stick. This guy reminds patrons of “no double dipping”.
We finished lunch and walked further through the arcade. When in Japan, why not try archery? We sat and did ten arrows a piece. We didn’t score high enough to have our names carved into the wall but did earn a few beatings of the drum.
Finished with archery, we went to a place that had a very popular local game. Similar to pinball, but the only user controlled portion of the game was launching the ball. No flippers. Once the ball went up, it came down, bounced around and was gone. Get it in one of the holes and more balls came crashing down on the screen. We played for about 40 minutes or so. It was a blast.
Onward we went back out into the neighborhood. “One more local item you have to try”, Tiaga said. Octupus ball. Deep fried octopus. I felt some bubbling in the belly and a small attempt to hurl. I managed to carry on and we did try the octopus. Tiaga first showed us how to eat it. It comes burning hot on a dish, stab it with skewer, put it in the back of your mouth so as not to burn your tongue. Slosh it around while biting it. Keep moving it around. Don’t let any of the legs escape. Chew, then swallow.
Look like a French puffed pastry? Try again. Japanese octopus. Purple on the inside. Mmmmmmmmm.
Back out the street we were amazed by the number of people and thriving businesses. Don’t they have government regulations like we do to deal with here?
One of the places we passed was a restaurant where you fished for your dinner. You had to eat what you caught. No throwing back. You can have the chef prepare it anyway you like.
Glico is a huge multinational food processing company. Pocky? I never heard of it.
Tiaga took us down a narrow street that had walls full of images of how western civilization began to influence Japan.
The most sacred shrine in the city. Survived 2 major burnings of the city.
It was time for dinner and we started to head back to Kobe. Tiaga made reservations for us to have a Kobe beef dinner at a restaurant back in Kobe. It’s not a Kobe beef dinner if it is not prepared and served in Kobe. The beef is very expensive and they are many places that try to serve regular beef at Kobe prices.
I think the only place we have had a Japanese dinner in the states was at Benihana. Is that still around? Here, one orders a meal and then the cut of beef. The chef prepares it on the grill in front of patrons.
Tiaga took us here, made sure we could order what we wanted, wrote down directions for the cab driver to take us to the ship and said goodbye.
We will keep in touch with Tiaga as we did with Morad in Jordan. Nice to have contacts.
We finished dinner and took a cab back to the port. Maybe we could have walked but chose a cab instead. We were tired. No evening entertainment on most port days. This was no exception. Great to be home!