Osaka Adventure

Today was fabulous!

I started the day out with a quick Skype conversation with a bunch of people I kind of like a lot. It was good to hear from everyone!

Then I quickly got ready and headed out to my Japanese lesson. Long story short: I have a lot of studying to do before my test next week. Yikes!

After the lesson, my teacher invited me to go with her to Osaka to spend the day with a friend who was in the area for an IELTs exam (a standardized test of English). We all met up in Osaka in the afternoon and spent the day together. Here are a few highlights:

Takoyaki!

I have mentioned Takoyaki before several times. It is a grilled savory pancake-like ball with octopus in the middle. I sometimes refer to them as octopus balls. These are common street food at festivals and in tourist districts. We have a takoyaki stand just as we leave the train station on the way home. Takoyaki is very tasty, but it is often slathered in the local sauce - a sort of barbecue sauce, but not as sweet. With sauce and mayonnaise on top it can be a bit too rich for me at times - though eating one or two balls is delicious.

Today, my teacher, Keiko took her friend and I to a takoyaki place she likes. The cool thing, though, was that unlike the street stands, this was a sit down restaurant where you make your own takoyaki. The waitstaff prepares the half circle griddles in the middle of the table, places a pice of octopus in each half circle indentation and then pours the batter over the top. They put a generous serving of green onion on top and then the rest is up to the customer. We had a variety of other toppings, including the equivalent of rice crispies and chopped pickled ginger. After the bottom started to be cooked, we cut the even surface into squares above each half circle and then started prodding the ingredients into piles over each half circle. When the bottom was a bit more done, we used our skewers to rotate the ball around so the ingredients piled on top could grill. Once we could flip the ball all around and it seem evenly browned, we were ready to eat. We put the local sauce on top, some mayonaise and some seaweed powder and then dug in. The best part was that the takoyaki was made with good ingredients, was cooked as much as we wanted and we could control what toppings we put on in the end. It was delicious! Definitely the best takoyaki I have yet had. I was able to eat 6-8. A new personal record.

Osaka Castle!

After the takoyaki, we went to Osaka castle. Russell and I had never made it to the castle, so I was excited to go. I had heard that it was not as impressive as Himeji castle (which we visited shortly after arriving in Kobe) but that was largely based on the fact that the castle is basically completely rebuilt in modern times and is designed to be a museum on the inside. While it is impressive and beautiful on the outside, it is basically a modern building on the inside. I believe the outside is authentic in appearance, but for a history enthusiast, the experience probably leaves something to be desired. The original castle was burnt down during the Meiji Restoration, rebuilt, and then partially bombed during World War II. It now has two elevators in the middle, electricity, bathrooms and other amenities.

I have to say, though, it is still worth a visit for the average tourist. The grounds around the castle are beautiful (especially heading into fall) and the castle itself is gorgeous. The view of Osaka from the top floor was also outstanding. The castle may not be as authentic as Himeji, but it is definitely impressive and worth a visit. I was happy to finally see it. Apparently there is a chrysanthemum festival starting up at the castle this next month, so maybe Russell and I will head back in the near future.

Keiko's Cafe!

Okay, the cafe doesn't belong to my Japanese teacher, but she did play a big roll in the style of it. She did all of the photography, designed the menu, take-out boxes and cups and all the dishes and seems to have her hands in pretty much all the coolness that is this cafe. We walked by after visiting the Osaka castle, but Keiko didn't want to go in just yet because she was pretty sure her boss would be humming around checking on the business. She was spotted as soon as she turned the corner. Her boss, a loud American, came over, introduced himself and launched into all the things he is thinking about changing, fixing, etc. She politely excused herself and we went to dinner first.

We had a lovely dinner at the fanciest kaiten sushi place I have ever been to. Kaiten sushi is "carousel" sushi or "sushi boat" sushi. It consists of various color coded plates that move around a circular conveyor belt with a variety of sushi on them. The different colors stand for different set prices. You can grab any plate of the conveyor belt. At the end of your meal, the waitress counts up your plates and you pay at the register. This place had a wide variety of grilled fish sushi - something I hadn't seen as much in Japan. Everything was delicious. At the end, the waitress hovered her wand-contraption over the stack of plates and it automatically tallied the bill. There must have been chips in the plates that the wand was reading. We got a token from the waitress programmed with our bill and we payed at the register. Super slick.

After dinner we decided to brave the cafe again. We headed back - were spotted again long before we arrived - but forged on anyway. All of the furniture in the cafe is built out of interlocking white blocks. You can see them a bit in one of the pictures I have posted. Each table had a black tatami mat on top (perfect for absorbing any water rings) and each table also had a set of mini-blocks that we could play with while we waited for our order. We perused Keiko's super tasty menu, ooed over all of her awesome food photography and then made our orders. I had the "Monburan" which is actually a Montblanc in french pronunciation, and a cup of coffee. I am not at all sure what the contents of a Monburan are - even after eating one. The one I tried today had a chocolate cookie base, and piped hazelnut paste (I think - though chestnut paste would be more traditional) on the outside. Inside were two more layers of something very sweet and delicious, but which I cannot identify. They were different flavors and different textures from each other. Both were creamy and delicious. All together it was a decadent and definitely worthy of a repeat dessert. I may have been spoiled, though. Apparently the Monburan is the most complicated dessert their pastry chef makes and he is using a $50,000 dollar oven to make them. I suspect the average 7-11 monburan is not going to stand up in a taste-test. I guess I will have to spend more time at Keiko's cafe...

As you know if you have been following my posts, Keiko has taken me to a wide variety of cafes. I have to say, among the trendy cafes, this one is definitely my favorite so far. There was one other cafe early on that had more hearty cakes and a more casual atmosphere that may still be my very favorite, but this one is excellent. In a place where trendy cafes are the rage, they should do very well. I look forward to going back. If you are interested in the website of the cafe, it is: http://www.shakers.jp/ I think Keiko did the website, too - and most of the photography on it.