Oooh, ahh, Osaka

We took a day trip to Osaka.

Jay was especially excited because it meant that we'd be travelling on the Shinkansen (bullet train). He was almost as excited as when he bought donuts from his all-time favourite Japanese donut chain, Mister Donuts, but not quite.

Reunited with Mister Donuts after a 10 year hiatus - get in my belly!

The Shinkansen, which can travel up to 320 km/hr, got us from Kyoto to Osaka in....wait for it....15 minutes. That's a distance of 47km. Or roughly from Melbourne to Avalon airport. I won't bother working out the math of that, but suffice to say that's mighty impressive. Especially since earlier that day it had taken us 45 minutes to travel 7 km from our accommodation to Kyoto train station*.

Faster than a speeding bullet....it's the Shinkansen...whoosh

Osaka itself was a buzzing metropolis of a city. Jay had loosely described it as Melbourne-esque in character - trendy and quirky with a bit of an edge. And to some extent it was. Only to me it was less laid back and chilled and more like a hyperactive teenager; loud and eccentric, but only because it's excited about life and is ready to test its limits. There was all sorts of yelling urging people to eat at various restaurants; Osakians, young and old, were wearing the most bizarre combinations of outfits; and giant billboards with novelty sized objects surrounded us. You really felt like your senses were being bombarded. Or perhaps it all seemed more chaotic than what it actually was compared to the relative order and serenity we'd experienced in Kyoto. Regardless, we threw ourselves into the excitement of Osaka, and headed straight for Dotonbori, one of the city's main food strips.

The acclaimed food strip that is Dotonbori.

One of Osaka's claims to fame are tako-yaki, balls of batter filled most commonly with seafood. Being an Osakan specialty, we had to try them.

Tako-yaki in the making

In order for you to gauge how they tasted, I'll provide you with the following description. Imagine a golden-brown, delectable looking ball. It's so delectable looking that you decide to put the whole thing into your mouth in one go. Excited to taste it, you bite into the ball vehemently, forgetting that it's actually steaming hot. A gush of scorching, liquid, fishy-tasting goodness/wickedness explodes into your mouth, burning the inside of your oral cavity in the process. You practice more caution with subsequent bites, which are pretty much a repeat of the previous sensations, only there's less mouth-scalding involved. If that all sounds appetising to you, then you'll be in for a treat with tako-yaki. If not, then perhaps you should skip the experience**.

Me, prior to trying tako-yaki. Unfortunately I wasn't so smiley after tasting them.

But Osaka wasn't all about loud noises and outrageous food. There were more tranquil areas we visited too, including the Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine and Osaka Castle. The significance of this shrine was that its architectural style preceded the influence of Chinese Buddhist styles seen in other parts of the country. The shrine also dates back to the 3rd century. 

The picturesque bridge leading up to the shrine

An example of 3rd century architecture

Osaka Castle in particular was breathtaking. With its surrounding moat, luminescent white colour and gold trimmings, it glowed with extravagance against the wintry grey setting. I felt like I'd stepped onto the set of a fairytale.

Isn't she beautiful?

We finished our day by having dinner with Jay's former host dad, otosan (father). Otosan, wanting to treat us on this special occasion, took us to a restaurant and ordered very generously, including a large assortment of sashimi***. In Japan, sashimi is not a thin piece of fish served on top of a portion of rice. Instead, it is expertly cut slices of raw fish, taken from the best parts of the fish, served to you on a plate, without the rice. The pieces are so delicate that they almost melt in your mouth.

It was a terrific night of catching up on the past ten years and enjoying some great food and drink together. It was really lovely meeting otosan too as I'd heard lots about him and his family from stories Jay told me previously. A fantastic end to our day in Osaka!

Otosan and us at the restaurant

* We now have a bit of a running joke every time something takes a lot longer than expected to happen (i.e. when we are lost and can't find a train station/shop/restaurant). We now say 'We could've been in Osaka by now.' It's quite funny.

** I should reiterate that the tako-yaki we tried were fish ones. Meat ones could be better.

*** Although strict vegetarians at home, in Japan we've been eating fish - it's a surprisingly difficult country to be strictly vegetarian in