4/7 Osaka, in the rain

Darn it, it is raining again today. We have 2 days here, and today we have booked a tour with Zo to go to Kobe (an hour away on the train) and visit the gardens and most everything that is outside. The bonus is that we also have Zo booked for a food tour here in Osaka when we return on the Quest, so we are hoping we can just switch up the tours and do food today. We shall see.

We hit our first little (well, not so little) glitch when Zo calls a little before our 9am scheduled meeting time and tells us he is at the port and can’t see us. We tell him where we are, but sadly, he is at the Kobe port and not Osaka. Darn it! When we booked this we thought for certain we indicated we’d be here, but maybe not. And then when I was WhatsApp’ing with him, I never confirmed this port. So my bad. He’s a little non-plussed and says it will take him over an hour to come get us. We’re here overnight, so we don’t really care, and there are benches under the cover of a portico, so we can sit here and not get wet waiting.

We use our time to go to the FamilyMart and check out supplies for later, and figure out where the Aquarium is – right around the corner. We’re sitting under the Ferris wheel, so we’ve got that located – not that we care, we’re not riding it! The hour goes by pretty quickly and Zo is finally walking down the street to meet us. I feel so bad! But Zo takes it all in stride, and when we suggest we switch the tours and stay in Osaka today, he agrees wholeheartedly. He lives in Kobe and says it is the most beautiful place with so much nature and today it would be wasted. So perfect. When we come back, we’ll do the Kobe tour. Maybe we’ll even be docked in Kobe? Who knows!

Off we go to the train station and since it is too early to start eating, Zo decides we should go to the Umeda Sky building, that iconic building with the two 40 story towers connected with bridges and an escalator that goes across the center area in between at the 30^th floor or something like that! Great. This was on our list! It takes us almost an hour to get here on a series of different trains, and a 10 minute walk out of the station. All along the way Zo gives us an overview of the city and interesting information about the trains system, the people, etc. Nice way to spend an hour of travel. Then again these trains and transportation system are so good and easy to use. Everything here at least is in English as well as Japanese, which makes it much nicer for us. And you can get literally anywhere on these trains, seamlessly, especially with our Suica card.

Arriving at the Sky building, we buy our tickets (for all 3 of us – one thing about this tour is that we pay for Zo as well) and ride the elevator up to the 35^th floor where we get the escalator. Sweet Zo is really, really quiet on the elevator ride up. Once we are there, he admits to having a fear of heights. Aw. How nice is it that he is taking us here even though he is afraid! I try to make him feel a little better telling him I’m the same, but also claustrophobic, and relate our Eiffel tower elevator story when I shoved Ed out the door to get out of that little suffocating car! For some reason, he’s much better on the escalator, which is totally cool! It is really steep and you get the best views and the weirdest sensation of sort of teleporting through the sky. We feel like the Jetsons!

Up on the observation floor, we walk all the way around the viewing platform, looking out over the Osaka skyline. It isn’t too bad up here, even if we are outside, walking along the perimeter. It’s not raining as hard, and we aren’t really getting too drenched. At one side of the roof there are 2 whole big long walls filled with colored locks you can buy to place up here.

There is also a great little museum type area with detailed drawings about the tower, and a great video on how it was made. They actually raised each level up on huge elevators to place them. Totally amazing.

On the way down, we’re still completely enthralled with these escalators, as you can see here on the video. But how cool is that? It is just too fun. And then in the elevator they have a little animated display that shows where you are in the process of descending with a light that indicates our position. While this ride isn’t quite as cool as the escalators, it is still fun to watch the city buildings get bigger and bigger as we descend, passing the bridge that spans the two towers and then on down into the lobby. Fun.

Walking back to the station, we pass this adorable bear statue, spouting water into the fountain, then head inside to the crazy, tri-level mall to cut through to the next metro station, passing this great water mural that welcomes us to the Osaka Train Station – but I got tired of video taping the whole thing and cut it off before the Osaka part came up. Sigh.

Back on the train, we head toward Shinsekai and Tsutenkaku tower, a more locally Japanese area where there are tons and tons and tons of little restaurants – think Midnight Diner!) all behind sliding doors with those curtains hanging down, and the Billiken statues everywhere. Billiken is the mascot of Tsutenkaku – originally from the US, he was brought over here and placed in an amusement park in 1912. He was lost after the park closed, but mysteriously reappeared here in 1979. Ever since, he has been there.

This place is just a cornucopia of lights and bright colored signs and food and, just an overload to the senses! Even in the rain! And then there is the tower, on my list to visit, that sits at towering over us at the end of the street. Zo doesn’t think it is worth visiting though, even with the observation platform upstairs, dismissing it as more of an amusement park. He’s the local, he knows best (even if he doesn’t want to go up high again!), so we ditch that idea and continue to wander, in awe at all the buildings and the advertising and decorations. We pass a fish restaurant where you can literally fish for your lunch. Seriously!

Back to Shinsekai and the dryness of the arcade, we pass more restaurants, before popping back out into the rain into Dotonbori, heading toward one of Zo’s favorite spots Kukuru, for Takoyaki – fried octopus balls. Oh yeah!

There is a line, but Zo says it isn’t all that bad, so we hop in the queue, and inch our way forward. As we turn the last corner we are right in front of the grill, which gives us a great opportunity to watch the master Takoyaki griller at work (while I also get into trouble for dripping water on the grill with my umbrella – that Zo then takes from me). How they flip those things over with those little skewer-like utensils. It’s amazing and so fun to watch! Zo orders for us, and we carry our little octopus balls upstairs to a little sitting area on the wall and dig in. These things are delicious! There are Bonito flakes on the top that look like they are alive as the heat escapes the Takoyaki, and when you break the little fried balls open, there is this creamy gooey center filled with octopus pieces. Oh. We are in heaven!

Finishing up, we head back out onto the street, find Zo and continue our wandering through Dotonbori, over to the Kuromon fish market where now there stall after stall of every seafood you can ever imagine. Massive clams, huge oysters, pickled vegetables, shrimp, fish, and puffer fish sashimi! No way – no how. We’re sure it is fine, but we’re not taking that chance!

We stop at this cute little noodle shop where Zo has a discussion with the owner who is getting ready to close, but he says they are his friends, and they graciously allow us to come in and eat after Zo tells them we came all the way from America to eat here! Too funny. Inside is tiny, 6 tables for 4 each and a little kitchen in the back. There are 2 other tables finishing up, and we don’t want to be rude and order a bunch of stuff since they are closing, so we get a soba noodle bowl with shrimp tempura and another bowl with pork and egg. Both are so, so good! The broth is rich and warm, the noodles are some of my favorite now – and we’re wondering if we’ll be able to find them at home! The shrimp tempura is excellent, and still quite crispy, and the egg and pork is like a rich egg drop soup with soba noodles and pork. Yummy. We don’t even order anything to drink because we know they want to close – and as we leave, they start taking down all the signs and closing the doors for their break. We were so lucky!

Next we come to the Okonomiyaki place. This is where I become totally addicted to a dish. Okonomiyaki is a pancake like food made with a batter that has crisp cabbage in it and then anything you want to add. Seafood, bacon, pork – anything can go in it – and we’ve been dying to try it. Here again, they are cooking it on the flat top right outside in the arcade. We decide on a mixed seafood Okonomiyaki, but because we only want one, we can’t go inside and sit to eat it. The place is too small and if we want to sit, we need to order one each. No way we can do that, we’re already getting stuffed – and this thing is going to be rich beyond belief. So, once it is cooked to perfection and drizzled with 3 different types of sauces we take our Okonomiyaki to go, finding a little stall that isn’t occupied and munching down there. OMG. This is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! Crunchy and rich, the texture is amazing. The sauces (which Zo says are the most important thing here in Japan, they make the dish) just complement the whole thing – one is sort of a BBQ type, another mayonnaise like and the 3^rd, I’m clueless about. But all together it is so, so good. Absolute Yum! And absolutely the right decision on only getting 1. We can barely finish this!

Walking through the arcade on the way back to the train, Zo finds a 100 yen store, which he calls the 1 coin store – Daiso – and takes us in to shop. This place is crazy huge, on 3 floors, with everything you could ever imagine for only 100 yen which is about 76 cents USD. We don’t want to go too crazy, because we know we’ll be back, but end up buying rain ponchos and masks and those little tablet towels that you immerse in water to make grow to carry with us in our bag. Then as we are heading to check out Zo does insist we buy snacks, these little cheese tube things that he adores. They come in all different flavors, so he helps pick out a bunch for us – 10 for 100 yen. They turn out to be like Cheese Puffs on steroids. Oh – not good! You know we going to be back and get more!

We’re totally stuffed by now and it is getting late, so we call an end to the tour, hitting the metro, laughing at the translation of signs (mildly air conditioned!) and seamlessly make it back to the Osakako MRT, bidding Zo a fond farewell, knowing we’ll see him again in a couple of weeks. Fun!

Back on board, we have dessert in the form of a hat bread. Oh, that is really good – sweet and crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Glad we only have 3! LOL. Then, as we are still so stuffed, we just go to the buffet and have salad for dinner. No sense piling on.

Hanging out on the balcony after dinner, we watch the Ferris wheel change colors as it turns, reminding us of fireworks, then, because it looks like it has stopped raining we decide to go outside for a bit and walk around the Tempozan wharf area to explore. We pass the giant Legoland Giraffe which I sort of want to take home with us. Ha! Then wander over to the Kaiyukan Aquarium, which is all lit up and gorgeous with lighted penguins, what looks like a Christmas tree, fish swimming across the walls and lots of tower type lights across the courtyard. So pretty.

Heading back toward the ship, we detour through the mall, finding another little 100 yen store and some other shops, but also a large food court. Hmmmm….potential for tomorrow maybe? Then we take a couple of last shots of the prettily lit ferris wheel in front of the burbling fountains and call it a night, hanging out the rest of the evening on the balcony because they are showing Memoirs of a Geisha in the showroom, but we’d rather watch that at home on Netflix.