I had planned on packing the night before our morning flight, but I put it off so long that I only got an hour and a half sleep before we left. Lynn was worse off though because she had just gotten off of work.
The selection of flights to Osaka got quite a bit worse since the last time I flew there because now there were only two airlines that flew directly to Osaka from the US. We ended up flying United. They did something new and charged extra for coach seats with three more inches of legroom and called it Economy Plus. I don't like it on principle, but it still sounded like a good idea for a 12 hour flight so "upgraded" our international legs. I also didn't have a choice since they didn't have two regular coach seats sitting together.
I slept most of the flight to San Francisco, but that still only put me at about three hours of sleep. When we got onto our flight to Japan I was severely disappointed to see that United didn't have lcds in the seat backs so everyone had to watch 3 small lcds on the front wall. I would gladly trade the hour less flight time for American Airlines's in-flight entertainment system if American ever flies a direct route to Osaka again. Those extra three inches were nice though.
Airline food is always bad, but United brought it to a new low. I didn't think it was possible to ruin a salad of chopped romaine lettuce, but they pulled it off. The lettuce was so old that the ribs were hollow from dehydration. It was pretty gross. The only meal I enjoyed was the snack because everything was regular prepackaged snacks you'd get from the supermarket.
I started to really hate the flight about 5 hours in once again proving that 12 hours flights are far too long for me. I napped on the flight enough to be rested, but not enough to feel like I had satisfying sleep.
We arrived in Japan Saturday afternoon without incident and Steve picked us up at the airport. The first thing we did was hit the international atm machine in the airport, but neither of our cards seemed to be working. It turns out we were both trying to withdraw above our daily atm withdrawal limit. I swear it's the first time that's happened internationally and I was very unhappy being limited to 40,000 yen (about $400) withdrawals.
I try to only travel with a carry on if I can help it, but Japan's cold weather forced us both to bring a large suitcase. Even if it wasn't cold I'd have to bring an extra suitcase because my two carry on bags were full of camera equipment anyway. This was my first time using my Zero Halliburton polycarbonate spinner and it made getting around with a large suitcase pretty easy.
I love the airport limo bus, but we took the train because Steve's apartment was close to the JR Nishikujou station (one of the main stops on the Osaka Loop Line) which we could get to directly from the airport. The train ride only took an hour, but it was a very long hour after all the traveling we had already done.
When we exited the train station we went to find a taxi since it was easier than walking to Steve's apartment with all four suitcases. On the way to the taxi stand we walked past a bathroom facing the street which didn't have a door on it. It was a bit of a shock to see a guy using one of the urinals where the entire street could see. I guess if you got to go you got to go.
Steve's new apartment wasn't as big as his apartment in Neyagawa, but at least his bathroom wasn't a conversion metal cube. His bathroom sink was like dentist spit basin tiny though. Steve didn't have a refrigerator, but he had something far more important, an electric air conditioner/heater. It was more efficient than the usual propane space heater and quite a bit less stinky.
We got to Steve's place and only had about 15 minutes before Steve had to leave to meet some people in Umeda. Lynn and I were both tired, but we decided to go with Steve anyway. We met up with Roy and a new friend of Steve's and went to a gaijin bar named Canvas to meet with a couple more of Steve's friends. I'd never been to a gaijin bar before and it weirded me out seeing that many foreigners in one place in Japan. Steve didn't care for it either and was ready to leave after one beer.
Not far from Canvas was Tenkaippin, a ramen chain specializing in Kyoto style ramen. Roy, Steve, Lynn, and I found ourselves a seat at the bar and ordered. Tenkaippin only makes two kinds of torigara [chicken bone] ramen and we went for the rich version. The broth was so thick that it was like gravy. Despite the richness it was very comforting with a flavor that wasn't as chickeny as I thought it would be. The toppings, a couple of very thin slices of roast pork, bamboo shoot, and green onion, were all suited to the soup. I got some gyoza, but the filling wasn't very good so I would've been better off ordering extra roast pork.
The ramen at Tenkaippin was among the best I'd ever had. Lynn loved Tenkaippin so much she wanted to return the next day.
I felt incredibly tired after dinner so we returned to Steve's place and played some Wii. After way too many games of Mario Kart and Taiko no Tatsujin [Taiko Master] my eyes wouldn't stop burning so I finally went to sleep.
Lynn and I both came down with a cold about a week before we went to Japan. I hoped we'd be over it by trip time, but when I woke up my head was pounding from congestion so I had to take an Advil.
Steve picked up some tickets for the final day of the Sumo Grand Tournament so we headed to Namba, close to the Osaka Gymnasium, where the tournament was being held. We had a few hours until the top level sumos started wrestling so we had plenty of time for lunch.
Steve and I ate at Okonomiyaki Yukari before and I was impressed with their novel okonomiyaki combinations so I couldn't wait to eat there again. I was happy that our first lunch in Japan worked out to be there.
We sat at a low Japanese style table with cushions on the floor and a griddle in the middle to cook the okonomiyaki. We were only going to get one okonomiyaki each, but there were four that jumped out at us so we got them all. We had the Indian (curry, cabbage, and hot dog), American (bacon, cheese, mushrooms, and corn), kim chi (kim chi, squid, and pork), and sea food (scallop, shrimp, squid, and crab) okonomiyakis. Our waitress brought out four bowls of ingredients (one per okonomiyaki), mixed each of them up, and placed the mixture on the griddle. The wait for them to cook seemed agonizingly slow, but it was worth it because they were all tasty.
I'm not a big fan of traditional okonomiyaki because I don't care for the standard toppings of okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, and cheap katsuoboshi [shaved fish]. Oddly the American was my favorite of the bunch and it tasted best with okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise. The seafood was the blandest and probably the only one I wouldn't order again, but it too was good with mayonnaise. The kim chi was great when you got a lot of kim chi in the bite. The Indian was similarly great when you got some of the hot dog.
I have a terrible memory, but for some reason I can remember almost every arcade in Japan where I've played Gundam games for 50 yen. There was one just up the street from Okonomiyaki Yukari so we stopped there to play a little Gundam. The two Gundam games they had were new to me, but they're always designed with the same controls so the one we played was very similar to the first Gundam game I played six years earlier. The cigarette smoke in the arcade was bothering Lynn so Steve and I cut our game playing short.
We headed to the gymnasium when we ran across a small camera shop. Lynn wanted to find a lens for her old Ricoh slr so we went in. The guy running the place looked like he was in his late 80s and surprised to see customers. It made me wonder how he stayed in business. Lynn got herself a 200mm lens and we were back on our way. Amazingly I didn't buy anything, but I'm pretty happy with my photo equipment right now.
When we got to the gymnasium the matches of the lower ranked sumo were still going on. That was good because I wanted to see the opening ceremonies for the top sumo, which happens after the lower matches are done. Our seats were on the second level with only a few rows in front of us so they were pretty good, but I wished we were right above the tunnel so there wasn't anyone in front of us.
The opening ceremonies finally started and it's like roll call where all the rikishi (except the yokozunas) from the East, and then the West, make an appearance in their decorative mawashis. Then the yokozunas come out individually and do their openings. It was my first time seeing Hakuho, the yokozuna of the West, and I thought his opening was more stylish than Asashoryu's (the yokozuna of the East).
We sat through all the matches, but it seemed to wear on me after a while. I blame the cold. Some of the matches were quite exciting and it was a lot of fun to see the two yokozunas face off. Hakuho won, but there wasn't really any drama to it because he technically won the tournament the day before when Asashoryu lost a match he had to win.
I'd never seen the award ceremony before so I was surprised that the tournament winner was given trophies by ambassadors, companies, and even the mayor of Osaka. I was going to sit through it all, but we were hungry and it seemed never ending.
We couldn't agree on what to eat so we went with burgers. Steve suggested Kua'Aina Sandwich, a Hawaiian burger shop nearby. You could definitely tell they were American because the burgers came in 1/3 and 1/2 pound sizes and they even had large (like 44 oz.) drinks, which is huge for a country that serves water in tiny 6 oz. glasses.
I got a 1/3 pound bacon burger, onion rings, and a large iced tea. The burger looked sharp dressed with thick cut bacon and a slice of grilled onion. The burger was excellent with a flavor that seemed Hawaiian, but it was dry. It seriously could've used some ketchup, but the Heinz on the table tasted overly vinegary so I didn't want to ruin my burger with it. My onion rings were excellent because they were crispy and actually tasted like onion. Lynn's fries were thin and crispy, but would've been better with ketchup.
Lynn was extra tired so we headed home. After we walked her back to Steve's apartment Steve and I went back to the arcade by the train station to play some Gundam. It was fun, but the arcade was too thick with cigarette smoke for me. On the way to and from the arcade I took pictures around the neighborhood. I was happy because I hadn't taken many pictures up to that point.
The coughing from my god damn cold kept waking me up in the middle of the night. When I got up for the day my head was pounding so hard from the congestion I had to take two Advil. It was almost noon by the time we got moving.
I hate soda in Japan because most of it tastes like sugar water so even Coke tastes like Pepsi. C.C. Lemon is my favorite soda in Japan because it's not too sweet and has a tartness appropriate for lemon flavor. The night before I saw a vending machine with large cans of C.C. Lemon for 120 yen so we went looking for it even though it was a little out of our way. Along the way we accidentally ran into a better vending machine with large C.C. Lemons for only 100 yen. I was so happy.
Thirst taken care of we also went to a pharmacy for some cough suppressant and tissues since we were rapidly diminishing Steve's freebie tissue supply.
Afterwards we had lunch at a nearby teshoku [set meal] restaurant Steve likes called Yayoiken. The menu was printed on large sign boards outside the restaurant because there was a vending machine by the entrance that you purchased a ticket for whatever meal you were ordering.
We sat at a Japanese style table with a sunken floor, which was more comfortable than the floor plus pillow variety at Okonomiyaki Yukari. We left our meal tickets on the table and a waitress picked them up. Lynn had the chicken katsu set and I had the mixed katsu (chicken, shrimp, minced pork, and a korokke) set. They both came with tofu, miso soup, and rice. My chicken and shrimp katsu were both good, but the minced pork was fatty and tasted a little strange. For only the second time I had a bad korokke in Japan; the potatoes the korokke was made with tasted like they were instant. The miso soup was salty and good. The tofu was a softer variety and completely bland. To my surprise the rice was really good and an excellent way to get the oil from the katsu out of my mouth.
Steve and I each got a scoop of a brown sugar syrup ice cream for dessert, but the powdery, starchy stuff didn't taste like ice cream. It was a waste of 300 yen.
After lunch we headed to Kyoto prefecture to see Fushimi Inari, the big shrine with lots of tori. It's one of those places that's fun to see for about 15 minutes. We bought some charms and walked around hoping to see something other than tori. I only used one roll of film at Fushimi Inari bringing my total to two rolls, making this my laziest picture taking trip ever. (Normally I average five rolls every two trip days.)
When we were done at the shrine Lynn did a little bit of tourist shopping. Steve and I were getting hungry even though it was early so we started making dinner plans. Hoshi no Mori was out of the way, but they were a lot of fun with excellent food the last two times I ate there so we opted to go there for dinner.
After three train lines and walking through icy winds we finally made it to Hoshi no Mori. We sat at the bar and Steve went about entertaining the family in Japanese (most of which I couldn't understand). We ordered more than a little adventurously this time, which we probably shouldn't have. We started with our favorite nigiri sushi, hamachi for Lynn and unagi for me, and they were excellent. Things got more exotic as I tried anago and abalone for the first time. The anago was chewy and far inferior to its freshwater cousin. The abalone didn't have any flavor and was unexpectedly crunchy. Lynn said it was like eating cartilage, which was accurate. I also had the abalone liver, which the dad said was a real delicacy. It was an unappealing shade of mottled green so I was hesitant to eat it, but there was so much wasabi with it that I couldn't taste it. I think the dad probably did me a favor.
They asked if we wanted firefly squid. Steve and I both knew we didn't like them, but Lynn never had them before and was feeling brave. They gave her a bowl of about ten of them with some white miso to dip them in. Steve and I both tried one to confirm we still didn't like them. Lynn tried a few, but disliked them for the same reason we did; firefly squid are so small that they're served whole, but they aren't so small that you can't taste their guts.
Lynn got a bamboo shoot salad she didn't really care for. The dad tempura fried some tiny freshwater fish for us. Dipped in black sesame and salt they were excellent. I got Lynn to try tai nigiri sushi and while she thought it good it was chewier than she likes. Steve got karei age, which he thought would be karaage [fried chicken] with curry, but this karei was the word for flounder. The fried fish was good but meager. It came with a mess of bone crackers that weren't good, unlike the last time we were there. There was also an omelet with dashi that was pretty good.
We weren't full and we weren't satisfied when we were done. Like I said, too much experimenting. We did, however, have a fun time with the family.
We headed home and stopped at a 7-11 so I could buy their exclusive instant ramen based on famous ramen chains for myself and Murray. Lynn also picked one up because she was still hungry. We returned home and Lynn and I got really sleepy around 11 (unusually early for both of us). Lynn tried the Ippudou instant ramen and really enjoyed it. I was surprised because Lynn doesn't like tonkotsu [pork bone] broth. I also thought it was weird that the ramen was supposed to like their akamaru, but the sauce on top of the ramen was a black garlic sauce instead of a spicy red pork broth.
My cough woke me up again a few times. It seemed like the cough suppressant wasn't doing anything.
Steve had left the night before to meet one of his chicks so I had some free time before he'd show up so I took some pictures around his neighborhood. Steve's neighborhood was older and had a lot of personality with its combination of commercial and residential. I could've spent a couple of days shooting around there. I also fruitlessly searched for my 100 yen C.C. Lemon vending machine.
Steve eventually showed up with his chick around noon. It was very late considering we were supposed to be going to Nara.
We ate lunch at Alsace, a French bakery with a small upstairs cafe that Steve really dug. They offered a lunch set including bread, pasta, dessert, and a drink (coffee or tea) for a very reasonable price. The bread was light and buttery with an extremely thin, crispy crust. In a word, awesome. My pasta was the scallops in a mentaiko [preserved fish roe] cream sauce with potatoes and cabbage. When they brought the dish I didn't recognize the scallops at first because they didn't clean them so they still had their fringe on them and looked like ambitious clams. Ultimately they tasted like clams too. The dish tasted familiar which I realized was because it tasted like clam chowder. The scallops and pasta were tasty, but the potato and cabbage were out of place.
They brought out the drinks with dessert. My iced tea was over steeped so I had to use the sugar syrup to make it palatable. Dessert was a small piece of plain cake, a piece of green tea and chocolate mousse, and white chocolate and lemon ice cream. The cake and mousse were ok, but the ice cream was outstanding. Who would've guessed that white chocolate and lemon make such a good combination?
After lunch it was off to Nara. The train ride was long and there was almost nothing but boring rural landscape to look at the whole time. The JR station was further away from Todaiji than the Kintetsu station so we had a lot of walking to do. It was kind of cool because we saw two guys pounding mochi [pounded rice] with large wooden mallets at one of the shops along the way.
We reached one of the shrines before Nara Koen and there were deer running around. They were selling shika sembei [deer crackers] so we fed the deer. The deer that walked up to me decided I wasn't quick enough with the sembei so it grabbed my shirt with its mouth. I was half amused and half wanted to kick its ass.
By the time we got to Todaiji we only had 45 minutes before they started closing up. That was ok because once you see the giant temple and Daibutsu [big Buddha] what's really left to see? Oh yeah, there's that hole in one of the temple's pillars that grants nirvana. Both Lynn and Steve wanted to go through it, but we had to wait for some little girl who kept posing for pictures for her dad. We were all getting impatient with the scene because you're supposed to go through the hole, not sit there while you're oblivious dad takes 50 redundant shots. Eventually they moved on, but not before Lynn asked Steve to tell the guy in Japanese to hurry the fuck up. Lynn and Steve both made it through. I also watched some teenager who didn't look like he should've been able to fit squeeze through. Since he was about my build it gave me hope that I could do it too, but I didn't want to look as silly as he did pushing through head first like the pillar was giving birth to him.
We went through Todaiji quick enough that we could walk around and see some of the other buildings. We didn't see much, but there was a group of old guys with their cameras set up on tripods to take pictures of some deer walking down a path. We probably ruined their shot when the deer decided to walk behind us.
Getting hungry we looked around Nara a bit then headed to Kyoubashi for some yakiniku. We were there specifically for Meigetsukan Kyoubashiten and their shio ton toro [pork belly with salt]. We were seated at a sunken floor Japanese style table on the second floor. We were trying to decide between the regular meat set and the deluxe meat set, but since I know which meat I like upgraded we went with a regular meat set (roast, kalbi, brisket, and shio tongue) plus zo harami [upgraded skirt steak] and shio ton toro. The set also came with kim chi and a salad. I remembered the other kim chis being especially good so we also got a kim chi combination.
They brought everything out and the regular meats looked surprisingly good. I was very happy with our choices after seeing that. The tongue was chewy and despite looking very good reminded me why I don't like beef tongue. The brisket, a new item on their menu, was sliced paper thin and had a very good flavor. My favorite beef, the harami, had just the right combination of beefy flavor and fattiness unlike the roast, which was too fatty for my tastes. The kalbi was pretty good, but it was right on the edge of too fatty. Of course my all time favorite, the shio ton toro, was great with a squirt of lemon. It was worth going out of our way for.
The kim chis tasted like they were marinated in napalm! I like them spicy, but these were ridiculously hot. The salad was a simple combination of butter lettuce and cucumber with a sesame oil and vinegar dressing. I absolutely loved it.
The food was excellent and even though we didn't order enough for me to be terribly full the fattiness of the meat more than made up for it.
The combination of grill smoke and cigarette smoke caused Lynn to cough most of the time we were in the restaurant. It exhausted her so she wanted to go home. Kyoubashi is one of my favorite places in Osaka because it's got an old school seediness to it that makes it interesting so I wanted to take pictures around there at night so I was very disappointed.
By the time we got home I was very tired, but Steve and I played First Step to Wii [Wii Play] for far too long. Find Mii and the tank game were simple, but pretty addictive.
Steve and I woke up early, but played so much Wii we didn't get out of the apartment until 11. There was rain forecast for the afternoon so the plan was to see the hanami festivities at Osakajo [Osaka Castle] and then to hit Shinsaibashi.
It was already dark when we got to Osakajo and inexplicably there were hundreds of ugly teenage girls milling about. It was an eery scene. Steve eventually figured out that some boy band was performing at Osakajo Hall that night. After only about five minutes it started raining. I didn't want to leave before seeing Osakajo so we walked there in the rain. We saw the castle from a distance and decided to move on to Shinsaibashi. Even if it wasn't raining it wouldn't have been very cool because the cherry trees were only half blooming.
We took the subway to Shinsaibashi and ate lunch at Ippudou. The first time we hit an Ippudou I found the hipness of the place disconcerting, but now the idea of a hip ramen place wasn't so strange anymore. They still had about eight different condiments at the counter and offered tea instead of water. Steve thought the tea was weaker than their Namba location.
Lynn had their lunch special with the akamaru and fried rice. I couldn't bring myself to order the same thing so I tried their karakamen (at the ichi kara [one] heat level) for the first time. The karakamen had tonkotsu broth topped with a red pork broth with ground pork in it and a slice of roast pork, half a soft boiled egg, a piece of nori, and some rice on the side. The pork broth on top of the soup was porky and spicy. The porkiness was a shock at first, but I quickly got used to it and really enjoyed it. Normally I hate soft boiled eggs, but the soft boiled egg was fantastic with the broth. The roast pork wasn't as highly spiced as last time, but it was tender and tasty. The rice seemed to be drizzled in spiced pork fat, which made it significantly better than plain white rice. I was very happy with my ramen and wondered if the ni kara would be too hot for me.
I looked at Lynn's akamaru and knew they changed the recipe; the ramen had a black garlic sauce on top of it just like the instant version. I was instantly disappointed because I thought the original spicy red pork sauce was great. When I tried Lynn's "akamaru" I wasn't impressed at all. It may have been because of my inclination to hate it or that the powerful karakamen ruined my tastebuds, but most likely it was just that they changed the akamaru for the worse. Lynn really liked it though. She also liked her fried rice, but I thought it needed some soy sauce. Steve let me try one of his gyoza and it was only ok. I don't think I'm ever going to find gyoza good eating.
After lunch we headed to Amerika Mura [America Town], which I'd never been to before. It was loud and obnoxious so I wondered just which part of America it was supposed to resemble. I hated the place so visiting it only once would be enough for me. Next we headed to Shinsaibashi and I finally got some picture taking in so I was happy.
Then we headed down Dotonbori, which was also worth taking pictures of. We looked for Hozenji, a small street next to Dotonbori, because I had read there was a cool shrine with a moss covered Buddha. After completely walking the wrong way we found it. The Mizukake Fudo Myoo [mossy Buddha] really was cool; there was a bucket of water with a ladle in front of the statue used to pour water on the Buddha. It was much more interactive and felt more personal than the usual shrine.
We walked to Den Den Town and hit an arcade and a capsule toy shop. The real point of the visit was Osaka Gundam's, unfortunately their selection of Gundam toys was surprisingly bad for a store that sells nothing but Gundam related products.
We spent a lot of time trying to figure out where to eat because I was finally sick of Japanese food. A friend of Steve's met us in Umeda and we decided on Bistrot Amistad, a French restaurant.
I wanted grilled fish or lamb, but the closest I could get was either boiled lamb with curry or flounder meuniere. I went with the flounder. It was a set menu which didn't offer any other choices. They brought out an amuse with an onion cream and a bean soup in a martini glass that was mild and enjoyable. The first course was firefly squid, the only appetizer on the menu I didn't want. So much for being a French restaurant. I thought because the squid were garnished with more than just white miso they would be better, but there's no covering up guts. I only ate one and Steve's friend finished off the other two.
The next course was a bowl of cream of potato soup. It was a very good mild soup, but the cream wasn't doing our colds any favors. For some reason throughout the entire meal Lynn and I couldn't stop coughing. It was very irritating.
My flounder came and they served a filet and the collar. The filet was tasty, but they left the skin on the collar so it tasted fishy. The meuniere sauce worked very well with the fish, but was too salty for the lettuce garnish.
Dessert came with mine and Steve's friend's meal, but not with Steve's or Lynn's. Dessert was a slice of poached apple, vanilla ice cream, and custard. The apple was still quite crisp, but not being a fan of poached apples I didn't like it. The ice cream and the custard, on the other hand, were both very good.
The coughing was exhausting and I was already sore and tired from hauling around my 30 pound camera bag so we headed straight home and fell asleep not too long after.
I woke up around 8, but we still didn't leave until 11. The plan was to visit Toei Movie Land in Kyoto. I thought it'd be worth bringing the video camera, but Lynn forgot to pack any mini dvds so we stopped at the Yodobashi Camera in Umeda since it was on our way. That mission accomplished I checked their toy section for Gundam toys. Somehow they only had the same four Zeonography toys that Osaka Gundam's had; really disappointing.
We were starving so we stopped at Vie de France Cafe for a snack. I got Steve's favorite baked item, a meron pan [melon bread]. It was a light, slightly sweet bread with something crispy on top. I told Steve it didn't taste a thing like melon. That's when he informed me that the bread is named after its resemblance to a melon, not its flavor. Duh! I should've remembered my favorite pineapple buns at dim sum.
We arrived at the JR Kyoto Station and were ready to eat. Most of the restaurants on the 11th floor had a wait so we ducked down to the 10th floor to Ramen Alley (the name of their collection of ramen restaurants). I was specifically looking for a restaurant that offered shio [salt broth] ramen, but most of them were either tonkotsu or a tonkotsu hybrid. I wasn't in the mood for either because we ate at Ippudou the day before.
I was very surprised that we ran into an exceptional looking burger restaurant in Ramen Alley, but I couldn't resist getting a hamburger with bacon, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, and ketchup with a 44 ounce drink. The burger was surprisingly large and the buns were toasted (nice touch). The flavor was a little heavy on the black pepper, but it worked well with the beef, bacon, and fried egg. Lynn got the garlic fries which were actually chips that weren't terribly garlicky and only ok. Steve got chili fries which turned out to be seasoned fries and were much better.
Lynn was disappointed that we didn't eat ramen, but at least Log Kit was uniquely Japanese (you'd never mistake it for an American hamburger).
We were going to take a bus to Toei Movie Land, but I didn't like the idea of waiting 20 minutes for a bus to only having two hours in the park. Instead we walked to Shijo, but took a round about way so we could see a couple of the temples and neighborhoods. The temples weren't that interesting, but the residential neighborhoods were.
When we finally got to Shijo I found our way to Nishiki, an alley mostly dedicated to selling food ingredients. I was happy because I got to take pictures of the market (although they were probably some of the worst pictures I've ever taken because I was hardly trying). Lynn was happy because she got more souvenir shopping done and Steve was happy because he'd never been to Nishiki before.
Nishiki terminates at two shopping streets so we went up Shinkyogoku and down Teramachi. Lynn got something cute for Morgan, I looked at a toy shop, and Steve kept scanning UFO catchers for something interesting. I found a UFO catcher with a Halloween themed Gloomy Bear wearing a skeleton costume that I wanted. Since Steve is the UFO Catcher Master Lynn gave him 500 yen to try to win it for me. Unsuccessful he started putting his own money in. He knew that if he bothered one of the guys who worked there enough about resetting the bear's position the ufo catcher guy would eventually give it to us. The first couple of times the ufo catcher guy just put the bear right back in its original position, but then he'd put it in a new position and tell Steve how to do it. I think his early advice was of dubious quality because it never resulted in us getting the bear, just feeling like we were nearer to getting the bear. After about 2,000 yen the bear was finally put in easy reach and was mine.
Done with that area we walked to Gion where there were a ton of tourists that night. The poor maiko/geisha would get a face full of camera flashes when they walked on the street. We soon got bored with that and walked around Pontocho looking for some Japanese food. Nothing sounded good so we took a taxi back to Kyoto Station for dinner.
Kyohakusai looked good to us at lunch, but we didn't want to wait 20 minutes so we went back there for dinner instead. Lynn and I both got a meal set with four appetizers, two kinds of sashimi, two kinds of pickles, rice, soup, and four slices of beef loin with our own mini sterno powered grill. It was our own personal yakiniku. The beef was excellent with a little salt and lemon. The rest of the meal not so much. The sashimi was squid and tuna. I've never been a big fan of squid and it turned out I was mildly allergic to this one. The tuna didn't taste like the best quality tuna either. The four appetizers were presented like kim chi at a Korean restaurant, but none of the four were really worth eating. Of the pickles, one was pretty good. The soup was plain in a way I'm being to classify as Kyoto Style.
Unfortunately the food at Kyohakusai looked much better than it tasted.
After Lynn and I couldn't stop coughing in the restaurant I noticed that we only really had problems with trains, restaurants, and Steve's apartment. It seemed enclosed spaces aggravated our coughing, which was too bad because they were unavoidable.
We got home and I wanted to go to sleep, but had to do my laundry. Thankfully the coin laundry was only two blocks away and the dryer actually did its job in only two cycles.
I woke up even earlier than normal, but I was still not feeling any better. When Lynn woke up she told me she felt so bad that she didn't want to do anything "difficult". After my shower she decided not to go out at all. I sympathized because the same thought had crossed my mind the night before.
I tried to think of what I wanted to do without Lynn, but it was easier to play the tank game in First Step to Wii with Steve. We finally stopped at 11.
I wasn't in the mood to deal with the coughing fit I'd have while riding a train so Steve suggested we walk to the neighborhood Yamada Denki so I could check out their Gundam toy selection. Steve said it was a 30 minute walk, but we took the scenic route so I could take pictures so it took a lot longer.
Along the way we stopped at a Lawson so I could restock my tissue supply. We noticed a couple of the hot chicks on the dirty magazines and wanted to compare favorites when we found out they had the magazines taped shut. I was thinking about buying one of the magazines, but refused on principle. After we walked away I noticed some guy trying to look at the magazine down the top. Why didn't I think of that?
When we finally got to the Yamada Denki it was the smallest one I'd ever seen, but it did have the best Gundam toy selection of any of the places we'd been this trip. Unfortunately they didn't have any new Gundam toys either. I began to wonder if the lack of new Gundam toys was a sign of the Japanese recession.
After Yamada Denki I hit a 7-11 to see if I could find the one instant ramen the other 7-11 had sold out of. They had it so I was a happy camper. We walked to Jusco for lunch at Tonkatsu Inaba Wako. I got a combination set with tonkatsu, ebi fry, chicken cheese katsu, soup, rice, and shredded cabbage. The tonkatsu and ebi fry were good, but I didn't care for the tasteless cheese filling in the chicken cheese katsu. Steve was surprised because he loves the stuff.
After lunch we played some Mario Kart at the arcade in the Jusco. Steve won more times than I did. We took a different route back to Steve's place so I'd have even more to take pictures of. It was very productive.
We stopped at the arcade by the train station to play some Gundam. Lynn woke up and messaged Steve about dinner so we had to cut our plan of playing until we ran out of money short (pretty difficult when you're decent at the game and get two plays for 100 yen).
The day had absolutely zero tourist value, but I found it highly satisfying. I guess it's just further proof that I'm a geeky photographer.
It was almost seven when we got back to Steve's place which meant we had been out for eight hours! I was surprised because it didn't feel very long. I was running a mild fever so I went to sleep. While I was asleep Steve ordered a pepperoni pizza from Domino's for dinner. I woke up long enough to eat a couple of slices and then went back to sleep. The funny thing was the pepperoni pizza tasted almost exactly like the American version of Domino's.
My fever broke in the middle of the night and I was feeling better when I woke up. Too bad it promised to be a dreary rainy day. It was, however, our last full day in Japan so we went to Arashiyama anyway.
We took the Hankyu line to Kyoto and Arashiyama. From the moment the train pulled into the Arashiyama station I was in love with the place because something about it exuded peacefulness.
We left the station and took a short walk to was Nakanoshima Koen, a large park filled with cherry trees. Unlike the trees in Osaka these trees were in full bloom. Too bad it was cold and rainy. Despite the weather there were still tons of people around.
There were all sorts of yatai [food stalls] too, but they were all the usual stuff like ika yaki [grilled squid] and baby castellas [small cakes]. I tried the most original one I'd ever seen, grilled salted fish. It was good if a little salty, but I wouldn't think that for long; they didn't gut the fish before grilling it. They only placed one side of the fish over the fire so one side was safe, but the other side stewed in the fish guts. I, of course, didn't know that until I took a bite from the "bad side" and found my mouth with filled with the flavor of hot putrid fish guts. I couldn't spit it out quick enough. Lynn and Steve had better luck with some yakitori.
I wanted to eat lunch at a sit down restaurant because I was tired of being cold and wet, but none of the restaurants we looked at looked good to me because they all served the same Japanese food. I finally settled on Obu Cafe because it had food that Lynn and Steve could eat, curry rice, and had caramel waffles for me.
We had to wait for a table, but it was only about 10 or 15 minutes. They had an interesting selection of tea based drinks so I tried a yuzu green tea. I thought it would be green tea with some yuzu juice in it, but it looked like it had a whole yuzu blended into it. The yuzu complimented the green tea nicely, and the yuzu pulp wasn't bad, but the yuzu zest was overpowering. Luckily the zest was easy to avoid.
My waffles came out and they were more tough than crispy. Not only were they not a healthy lunch, but they were unsatisfying too. At least the ice cream that came with them was good. Lynn and Steve both got curry rice. It was sweet and didn't have any meat in it so it wasn't my thing.
Somewhat fed we explored more of Arashiyama. We saw Tenryuji, a bamboo forest, a couple of cemeteries, and a scenic overlook of a beautiful mountain valley. Arashiyama was impressive with its natural beauty.
We headed down to the river and noticed people taking boat tours. It looked fun so even though Steve wasn't enthusiastic we took a 30 minute ride. The tour boat people did a good job making the ride comfortable despite the crappy weather: the passenger section was covered and there were tatami mats on the floor. There were even blankets if we felt cold, which we did once we stopped walking. Some old guy poled the boat through the shallow river. My favorite part of the ride was when another boat pulled up selling food and drinks (including hot coffee and tea). I got ika yaki geso because it smelled great, but when I tried the tentacles they tasted like the bottom of an aquarium. I didn't even swallow my first bite. It was my first time having ika yaki and it didn't exactly encourage me to try it again. The boat ride was a touristy thing to do, but it was fun.
After the boat ride we were ready leave. We took a bus to Kyoto Station instead of a train and it seemed to take forever. Steve and I even fell asleep along the way.
I was looking forward to some beignets and hot chocolate from the Cafe du Monde in Kyoto Station, but that location didn't make beignets! It never occurred to me that there could be a Cafe du Monde that didn't make beignets. Crushed I got a hot chocolate and desperate for something sweet picked up a chocolate donut and a honey dip from the Mr. Donut next door. The hot chocolate was especially excellent and made me miss the beignets even more. The chocolate donut wasn't bad and almost made me forget why I hate Mr. Donut, but the honey dip reminded me. Its flavor was a foul combination of powdered milk, honey, and burnt rubber. I didn't think they could make anything worse than the pon de ring, but at least the pon de ring only tasted like burnt rubber.
Afterwards Lynn finally listened to me and looked around the basement of The Cube and found some souvenirs. We were hungry and the entire floor of restaurants on the 11th floor was too convenient to resist. While we were waiting for an elevator up I noticed that one of the girls standing in line for one of the food stands was staring at me. I looked her straight in the eye and she didn't turn away or look the least bit embarrassed. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it because she didn't smile either. She was very cute and kept looking at me the entire time we waited for the elevator so I'll assume it was a good thing.
When we got to the 11th floor I tried to figure out what I was in the mood for. Ante Caffe had lamb chops in their directory picture and that sounded perfect. There was a long line when we got there so Steve was worried that we'd have to wait forever for a table. Normally I hate waiting to get into a restaurant, but I really wanted lamb chops. Thirty minutes later we were seated.
I scoured the menu and didn't find lamb chops. No other entrees looked especially good so I hoped my appetizers would make up for it. I got a tomato salad, sausage appetizer, and sauteed hamburger. Lynn and I both ordered three courses, but all of our food came out at the same time. Steve ordered the special course menu and his courses actually came out in courses.
The tomato salad was a big surprise because I expected the tomatoes chopped up, but it was a peeled whole tomato on top of some sliced onions with two creamy dressings. It was different, but pretty good. The sausage appetizer consisted of a veal sausage, a black peppered veal sausage, and a spicy sausage on top of cabbage sauteed with bacon. It was very German. The two veal sausages weren't bad, but I've never really liked veal sausage. The spicy sausage tasted sort of like chorizo and was pretty good. The stand out of the dish was actually the cabbage, which was great with the bacon.
My sauteed hamburger had a hamburger patty and vegetables swimming in a tomato sauce. The sauteed hamburger tasted a little strange and it was too fatty. To make matters worse the tomato sauce was sweet. The potatoes were the only vegetable that interested me, but they were undercooked. It was a terrible entree.
Dessert sounded good, especially when we saw that they had affogato. I don't drink coffee so espresso has never been my thing, but mixed with vanilla gelato it's a great combination.
It was 9 when we were finished with dinner and Kiyomizudera stopped letting people in at 9:30, but we still wanted to see Kiyomizudera lit up at night so we took a cab there from Kyoto Station. It was quick and only cost about 1,000 yen so it was completely worth it.
Kiyomizuzaka, the touristy lane leading to Kiyomizudera, was really hopping so I would've loved to take pictures, but we had to get into Kiyomizudera before it closed. The pagoda and the other buildings were all lit up so it was quite a scene. Going through the complex there was a building that charged 100 or so yen to walk around in the dark. It wasn't worth it. There was also a temple that charged like 300 yen to see a statue that they will only show again in 24 years or something. I think it was the Buddha with the rope draping off its hands because that one seemed to be a big deal. The rope was strung to out so people could touch it and according to some sign touching the rope put you in direct contact with this particular Buddha. It was cool, but I'm sure it'd be a lot more significant if I was Buddhist.
We left not long before they started kicking everyone out.
Everything on Kiyomizuzaka was closed up when we left the temple so no pictures for me. It was late so it was time to head home anyway. Steve wanted to show me "brothel town", but by the time we got back to Osaka we were getting dangerously close to the last train. Turns out we actually caught the last train to Nishikujou because the trains used to run until 12:30, but JR had just changed it to just after midnight like the week before.
When we got home we played Wii games until the wee hours of the morning because we were all too caffeinated.
I had hoped to see Osakajo one last time, but we spent the morning packing instead.
Packing took longer than I expected so we ate lunch at Yayoiken again because they were fast and near the train station. I had the mixed grill this time with chicken, sausage, and hamburger. Naturally it came with rice, soup, and a shredded cabbage salad. The chicken was good and the sausage was decent, but I don't know what or how the hell they made the hamburger patty, but it tasted wrong. It doesn't appear I'll ever enjoy plain Japanese hamburger patties.
We walked to the train station and picked up a cab so we could drive the bags to the station instead of trying to walk with them. The cab fare was really reasonable, probably because we didn't have to pay for wait time. I had heard cabs in Japan are expensive, but when we took them they weren't that bad and it always beat walking.
We took the long train ride back to Kansai Airport and I enjoyed watching the landscape of "things I didn't see" roll by: the farmland, the school yards surrounded by cherry trees, the faceless business dorms, and the industrial yards. I wished I had video taped the whole thing.
We checked in and Steve left. I wandered around Kansai Airport trying to spend my last 3,000 yen, which is how I like my cash situation to work out; basically just enough cash that I don't have to change any foreign currency back to US dollars.
I slept most of the flight from Osaka to San Francisco so I was a lot happier this flight, but United still had terrible food. When we arrived in San Francisco I was a little pissed with United's boarding process because we were still in the third seating group in San Francisco even though we technically checked in before most other people could. I'll be avoiding United in the future if I can help it. I don't have any frequent flier miles with United and they aren't based out of Phoenix so it should be easier avoiding them than US Air (which I think I've pledged to avoid like six times now).
The point of this trip was to introduce Lynn to Japan. That was accomplished and she wants to return, which makes this trip quite a success. Unfortunately she wasn't completely happy with the trip because she didn't get to eat as much Japanese food as she wanted to. She should be thankful we didn't spend more time in arcades.
Sometime during this trip I realized I loved Osaka. The place doesn't have much obvious tourist appeal, but its attraction for me lies in its neighborhoods. I wish I could spend nine months in Osaka systematically exploring the city and taking pictures.
I hope I never have a cold while on vacation again. It wasn't bad enough to keep me from doing anything, but it affected me in ways that kept me from doing certain things. For example, there was a guy who sold ramen from a cart he pushed around Steve's neighborhood late at night. Steve didn't think eating ramen from him would be safe from a sanitary point of view, but one night we passed him and the cart looked clean and his noodles looked homemade. He was an old guy and the cart looked heavy so later I got to wondering why he did it because it didn't seem like he could earn much doing it. I wanted to try his ramen and interview him on camera to find out more about him, but I was always too tired to follow through. I'll be heartbroken over that for a while.
