I know I have posted about this before, but honestly a trip to Osaka is not complete without trying at least once to prefect the art of kuidaore – roughly translated as eating and drinking yourself into some kind of near death coma. Osaka is so full of places to eat and drink that they had to come up with a phrase that perfectly describes that state of oblivion that can be reached by spending the whole day moving from restaurant to bar to izakaiya and grabbing some delicious street food and a beer in between each stop.
My efforts started well but I didn’t really have any comrades in this venture so despite my best attempts I can’t say I have achieved the Nirvana that is Kuidaore. It was certainly a fun day though with plenty of sights and sounds and tastes of Osaka. Our adventure really began at lunch time with a trip to Doutonbori – an area of Osaka along a river canal famous for its massive shopping market streets that stretch for blocks on either side of the river. Massive giant statues of crabs, puffer fish, and even a cow, adorn the facades of the eateries along the food streets, and the while area is full of thousands of mostly young people wearing the latest in crazy Japanese fashions (we have some photos on the high res camera but the upload doesn’t seem to be working yet) and young gangster looking kids touting for customers to come and have a look in their shop or restaurant. The Japanese among us felt the area was a bit on the wild side, but the middle of the day in this place doesn’t even compare to the kind of trouble you’d find in a playground in Newtown before school! It was fun to watch the people watching us as we wandered through though!
After a stuffing and delicious lunch of okonomiyaki (savoury thick pancakes filled with cabbage, prawns, octopus, pork, fried noodles and covered in Japanese bbq sauce, mayonnaise, and seaweed powder) we found a small shrine round on the back streets and gave a little donation before splashing some water on a moss covered statue and making our wishes. After that it was time to eat again, this time some tacoyaki (pan fried balls of dough filled with octopus chunks) which are an Osaka street food must-do! Delicious but extremely hot in the middle, pig out with caution.
Next up was a trip up the river in a small tour barge with some plastic chairs on the deck. An interesting view of what was probably at one stage Osaka’s main mode of transport but was now just a tourist attraction. In fact for most of the way we were sailing underneath a massive raised multi-lane freeway, making what must have once been a very popular river side housing into ghetto looking places that don’t get any sun, look out either into the side of a freeway or under the freeway into the murky waters of the river. It was an interesting insight into what will happen around Wellington’s Basin Reserve if the overpass is allowed to go ahead!
At the end of our river journey we had arrived at a park in front of the ground leading to Osaka Castle. The walk took about twenty minutes and went past an event centre / convert venue that was preparing for an invasion of junior satanist fan-girls and boys. Some feminine looking male singer named Acid Black Cherry will be putting on a show tonight for his little cultist’s in training, all of them decked out in the latest of Acid Black Cherry merchandise including what are probably trademarked devil horns! It was a fascinating contrast, the madness that is modern Japanese teenage fandom just outside of the castle that has stood for over 400 years, and before that a castle had stood for hundreds of years until the being torn down and replaced after a war in the summer of 1615 that the local lord lost to the army of the clan who would become Shogun. The cattle was an impressive structure, surrounded by moats, and sitting atop massive stone walls, where the single biggest see weighed an astounding 110 tones or more. The inside of the castle has been fully renovated to now house 8 floors of a museum of history and war with stories and artifacts from hundreds of years of the castles history.
After working our way from the top to the bottom we then jumped on a bus back in the direction of our hotel for dinner in a rooftop beer garden. Once again it was all you could drink but this time it was also all you could eat! It was mostly raw meat and veges that you bbq on the gas burner set into the table in front of you but there were some pre-cooked Chinese dishes. The best part apt dinner was the company. Naoko’s dad was our tor guide for the day and he organised for us to meet a few of his local friends for dinner, and our friend Eri joined us once again too! The local friends were a great bunch of characters that seemed like they were straight out of some crazy movie. I can’t do justice in words to the personalities we met tonight but it was great fun, and from what I understand very typical for people from Osaka in comparison to their more serious and sensible counterparts in Tokyo.
We ate and drank our fill and are now back in the hotel and ready to sleep before another big day tomorrow – next stop, Kyoto!
Be sure to tune in tomorrow for more fun and feasting!