Trip report from Nara and Osaka

I see there are some threads that mention Kyoto, but none on Osaka and Nara, so I will add my notes on Kyoto to that thread and post on Nara and Osaka here.

See my post on Hong Kong for why there are no photos. And now in reverse chronological order and multiple posts as I get to them...

We stayed at the Cross Hotel in Osaka, just north of the Namba Station. Nice, somewhat minimalist place (black, dimly lit hallways with negative photos of tree trunks for decoration - lovely really). The rooms have a giant bath and a real Japanese wash up set up (stool, faucet on floor, shower nozzle) that can also be used as a western shower. Since this was at the end of our week in Japan, I had converted to the Japanese bath, so I really appreciated that. But location was the real draw, between the access to the station, connecting to the JR ands most of the subay lines, as well as the OCAT (Osaka City Airport Terminal), but also the Dotonberi and all related malls, department stores and literally hundreds of eating places within three blocks. Highly recommended on Trip Advisor and in my book, too.

My last meal was at one of the noodle street stands around the corner at 8am with the musicians, party girls, pimps and touts as they wrapped up for the evening. Pop your 600 Yen into the machine and hand your ticket to the counter man. He returns a bowl of noodles in rich broth with three thick slices of roast pork and some scallions. For another 100 Yen you can get double pork. Large bowls of kim chi, chiled chopped scallions and crushed garlic are available to lace your soup, and water to drink. A very satisfying breakfast.

The previous night we had dined at Torinchin, a little place about 2 blocks east of the hotel and a short block north of the river. Tiny place - just a counter with about 6 stools in front of the grill, and maybe 4 tables in back. And all they do is chicken - I believe the English translation of the name is chicken 1. We ordered the set menu for 2500 Yen, as shown on the web page.

It started well with lightly poached chicken, pink in the center, and a bowl of grated, snowy radish with some soy to dress it. Then on to a series of small skewers of grilled chicken - first meatballs, then livers, gizzard, skin, breast filet, breast with green onions, thighs and then wings. Finished with an excellent bowl of chicken fried rice. Good big glasses of beer, sake and shochu completed the experience.

The WBC game between Japan and Korea was on the television, so we watched that with the counter man. For Cub fans, yes, Fukudome played and did nothing.

An excellent meal and evening, as well as a good conclusion to the relatively simple and unadorned Japanese approach to food.

More to follow.

For lunch that same day, continuing backwards, we dined in the basement of the Umeda Sky Complex on the north side of Osaka up by the main train station and the various Umeda subway stations.

The main attraction of this place is the Floating Garden Observatory, which is not a Garden at all, and not really floating either. Umeda Sky consists of two 40-story, sort of post modern towers and then a third smaller building, all arranged around a Japanese Garden that is sunken about two stories below ground in the middle. The Floating Garden is an observation deck hanging between the two towers on the 40th floor. Since we had decided that Osaka was more interesting as a city than any sort of cultural or historical sites (the exception being the Sumo Wrestling and Puppet Theater, but we were a week early for the former, and a month early for the latter), going up to the platform was of interest.

You get up to the platform by taking an elevator to the 37th floor and then an escalator suspended between the two buidlings up to the 39th floor. That was fun - think the escalators to DeGaulle Airport in Paris, only suspended 40 stories up in the air.

The Observation platform itself is clearly set up for couples - from the heart shaped locks you can buy and hang outside, to the love seat on a lighted disco floor on the platfrom itself to the other becnhes and love seats down a floor byu the windows and around another light floor that responds to your movements on the cushion. Charmed the Bride and me. The view was not bad either, though nothing special. It was fun.

In the basement of the smaller building, and actually in the lower levels of all the buidlings, there are restaurants (always in Japan, and particularly Osaka). The one section we explored is set up like an old Japanese town, with wooden buildings clustered around a narrow, winding path and little restaurants in each building. Sort of like the Gion neighborhood in Osaka, but actually quite well-done, and the restaurant we chose was really a tiny hole-in-the-wall, serving only Tonkatsu. We shared two orders - one with the brown sauce (more on that in a moment) on a bed of shredded cabbage and rice, and the other with curry sauce. Cheap at 600 Yen each and very good.

I like the brown sauce on Tonkatsu, but I have a hard time with the Okonomiyaki sauce, used on both Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki.

The day before we went to an outpost of the Chibo chain in Dotonberi to partake of Okonomiyaki. I liked everything about it except the sauce (too sweet and not at all to my taste) and the mayonnaise (I will not repeat here my rant about the ubiquity of lousy mayonnaise and the culinary destruction it has wrought) - suffice it to say that I like Mayo more than Okonmiyaki sauce. The Bride had the grilled Soba Noodles with vegetables and shrimp which was pretty good. I would go back to Chibo and just hold the sauce next time, except for the fact that it was not that cheap a meal - 50% more expensive than either the excellent noodles on the street or the Tonkatsu at Umeda.

I found the hot, puffy and creamy aspect of Takoyaki with the hidden squid treasure in the center enjoyable enough (I am bouncing around a bit since I actually had this at the market in Kyoto, but like Okonomiyaki it is also everywhere in Osaka) though my pleasure was dimmed by the Okonomiyaki sauce. Get the white mayo, not the brown sauce. I can't believe I just recommended mayonnaise as a topping.

My favorite street food in Osaka was a rice ball, lightly soyed, wrapped in uncured bacon, broiled, then topped with cheese and sesame seeds. They were out of the brown sauce, so I had the cheese and that was very good indeed. Not sure if the brown sauce would have been the dreaded Okonomiyaki sauce yet again or the better Tonkatsu sauce.

More to come.

To complete the Osaka section of my report, we also dined at outposts of the Gankofoods chain both in Kyoto and Osaka. Reliable, fairly inexpensive, some of the locations, like in Kyoto, are very beautiful, tho the five I saw in Osaka were all pretty utilitarian. They serve almost everything, from sushi to hot pot and many things in between. I am trying to think of an American analogy, and the closest I can get is Appleby's or Olive Garden, except that Ganko sticks to traditional Japanese food and uses decent quality ingredients, while I pretty much loathe the American equivalents.

Does that make me a snob?

I would not search these places out, but if you are looking for a decent place to eat at a fair price, just look for that logo of the guy's head. Open late, they have an English menu, some very well-priced specials at times. Not bad for a chain.

There were some very nice pastry options here and there in Osaka too. Most of the best ones focused on custard or cream in one form or another. We particularly enjoyed some of the custard tarts, and also there is a chain (probably more than one) that sells puff pastry shells and, on order, pumps them full of either plain or strawberry pastry cream. Not as sweet as they would be in America and very, very fresh. Worth checking out if you like that kind of stuff.

Two other points on Osaka, and then on to my posts on Nara.

The Osaka airport, out on a manmade spit in the ocean, is large, new, easy to get through and severely underutilized. When we arrived there from Hong Kong, we were out of the airport and on a train to Kyoto (having collected our luggage and gotten through customs) 30 minutes from when our plane landed. Unheard of. The tradeoff is that there is just about nothing to do at the airport, and the food options are pitiful. Lots of space to relax in peace, though.

In the city, there is place called the OCAT - Osaka City Airport Terminal. Buses leave from there to both airports, and it is attached to a couple of subway stops (good subways). In transiting from the subway to the OCAT mall, one passes through a depressed plaza, open to the sky but actually one floor below ground. In the center is a shiny metal sculpture, like the egg in Grant Park, but less that half the size, with some other sculpture around it and a polished metal plate attached to the wall facing it. All day on Monday this plaza became an informal dance studio. Young Japanese dancers and dance troupes, mostly hip hop and break with a few other styles mixed in, practiced in front of the egg, the wall or just here and there in the plaza. An excellent show, free but fun. They were there from 9am to after 5pm, during misty rain and sun, but not on Sunday or Tuesday.

Delightful.

Now back to Nara.

Nara is a smaller city, about 100,000 people, near Kyoto and Osaka. As it happens, Nara was the capital before Kyoto, which was then replaced by Tokyo after a run of a few hundred years.

We actually went to Nara mostly to enjoy a couple of nights in a Ryokan at something less than the astronomical prices we would have paid in Kyoto, and that worked perfectly.

I can heartily recommend Ryokan Tsubakiso. We did enjoy a Kaiseiki dinner there one night, followed by a bath at the bathhouse a short walk down the street. We also visited with the sacred deer that have the run of the city, checked out all the shrines, attended the fire ceremony that is part of the water ritual, and enjoyed very much a free tour provided by a college student through the tourist office.

Also had a very nice bowl of Unadon at a place just south of downtown - will get the name and add it here.

Otherwise, the food was not that exciting. There is a little place where they make mochi fresh all day and then sell the warm, little balls - quite addictive. And some other good street food, too. We had a truly awful meal after the fire ceremony (looks a lot better on film than in person, btw) near the train station, our worst meal of the trip by far, but I shall not dwell on that. Nara also proudly brags they make the best Sake in Japan, just like every other town, and I must say it was very good. But I tend to believe that was at least partly because our hostess selected the sake for us, and then counseled us on where to acquire more. An expert guide is helpful.

The main attraction in Nara was the opportunity to experience something that felt a lot more like normal Japanese life - not hepped up urban as in Osaka, or global tourist destination like Kyoto, just a regular place, filled with regular folks living their lives. Like the dance show in Osaka, I think the strongest memory I will have is this:

The Ryokan is around the corner from a Girls' School, and I was returning as the school was letting out around 4pm. I fell in behind 5 girls, around 10 or 11 I think, though I am not such a good judge of the age of Japanese people, listening to them chatter, enjoying the sound of the voices and language, when they burst into song and proceeded to deliver beautiful and complex harmonies for the next three blocks, coming in and out of the melody, one or two peeling off to head to their homes, but the song continuing. I followed them two blocks out of my way, listening and then sadly turned to go around the block and back. I would have continued following them and listening if it did not seem a little too much like stalking little girls.

Nara was definitely worth a couple of days. But beware the electric plates at the back of the baths. I had read about the electro-baths (denkiburo), but it was still a shocking experience, truthfully even if the pun is irresistible. I yelped and scurried away from that.

Will post on Hong Kong and Kyoto in respective existing threads.