- Dan

Saturday, December 27, 2008
28.12.08

Nihon III
Mildy picture intensive but nothing like Jems

Finally got the photos back from triple D. Guess i can talk more about my trip
Basically the chronology of my trip was simple
1)I flew into Osaka and spent a few days there
2)After which I took a Shinkansen down to Kyushu
3)Spent the rest of the trip traveling round the island
4)Flew out from hakata airoprt back to singapore

Osaka
This is one City I love.
I love the food,
I love the transportation system,
I love the people,
I basically love the city very much!

Its a busy city (prolly not as crazy as Tokyo) , but i find it exudes a certain charm that I like. Unfortunately, for this trip I was REALLY REALLY tired when i arrived.
The couple of nights before I flew, were very late nights - Birthday parties, catch ups with friends, Suppers, movies.. etc etc... Basically I was really worn out already.
Adding to that, my flight was an overnight one which for some reason I just wasnt able to get any sleep.
When i landed i had to figure my way to the right bus, get off at the right place and then navigate to the hotel.
All this basically took its toll on me so much so that I crashed when I checked into the hotel.
I even fell asleep in the hotel lobby, oh man ... haha...

When I woke up in the evening, I found I had a sore throat.
That was just Great. I was in Japan with a sore throat. The next worse place would be Hong Kong.
What was I to do with all the glorious food awaiting me!??! I couldnt waste my time there right !!?!
HENCE ..... I Ignored the pain and just ATE the food anyway !
Wahaha....which wasnt the smartest thing to do cause it got a lot worse. By day3 i found myself talking to a Japanese doctor.

Heres how a short portion of the conversation went.
Me:せんせい。私ののどがいたい！
Doc:ああ。。。。のどですね。。。blah blah blah。。。。。KAZE。。。。。blah blah blah 。。。
Me:えっと。。。。。かぜは何ですか？
Doc: *Makes cave man like actions with his hands* (ok it was actually sneezing actions)
Me:ああああ。。。。。そですか。わかります。かぜはない。
(I was starting to think he was asking me if i had wind, since i know kaze as the wind)
I cant remember the rest of the things i talked to him about so nevermind haha..But whatever the case, i think it was an enlightening experience.

For those who cant understand Jap heres the sub titles.
Me: Doctor! I have a sore throat.
Doc: Ahh........ ." KAZE"
Me: Er............. whats kaze again?
Doc: grunt grunt .... hoogah hoogah ... grunt............grunt..
*Makes cave man like actions with his hands waving his hand and making werid noises*
Me: Ah..........ok... i dont have any of that stuff.. whatever it is......

Think i already talked about the place i was staying at, Toyoko Inn..
They provide "western breakfast" at this particular one i was staying at.

One of the breakfast provided by the hotel too bad i was tired of it after the 2 day.

Later that week I made a trip to Dotombori, Shinsaibashi, Den Den Town, Kuromon market, Kobe

Dotombori - food street of osaka. Super long and super loads of food here. dont know which to pick even. But naturally you should try eat the takoyaki, yakisoba and okonomiyaki since they are quite "native" to the city.

Shinsaibashi - SUPER long shopping district that is similar to Bugis. Covered on top and a SUPER long stretch of shops all lined up. It actually starts somewhere near my hotel at Namba Station and ends near the main Osaka city. After walking for so long and skimming through a few shops, I was only HALFWAY there and that took the whole afternoon! This is what shinsaibashi looks like..

Den Den Town - The Akihabara of Osaka. Too bad it was so crowded i really wouldnt be able to check out anything i wanted, so I didnt stay there too long. Kuromon market - The wet market of Osaka. Didnt go there very early so i didnt manage catch too much stuff there, but it still had quite a bit of stuff. Loads of CRABS and FUGU (puffer fish).Basically everything looked really good. Damn.. Some sights from the market. You can see the puffer fish there at the extreme right. Kobe - I love this place too!! At least i love their beef! Super OISHII!! My sister recommended a place they went to before. So we bought a set there and they grilled it for us. It also came with melon!! Got more pics later on. Ah ... Also participated in a Crazy one and a half HOUR route march to see some lights. So happen to manage to catch it at the right timing as they have this for 3 days in a year only. Unfortunately for me I ended up taking so long to get to the chirstmas lights that we had to abandon it halfway. I was so tired from just waiting and walking and waiting and walking. I didnt even manage to get right into the main centre of the lights. I made it to the start and out skirts and then left already cause it was already getting late and we hadnt gotten any dinner yet. Super Delicious Chou Cream type desert !!! YUM!!
Endless Row of lights! Entrance to the lights The main centre that i never managed to get into. This is really amazing. Here you can see TONS of cameras whipped out taking pictures.
The amazing thing is they are all not cameras but camera handphones! I was the few there using a camera ! We were cold hungry and tired. So while we were walking back to the hotel, we passed an Udon shop. We went in and just threw everything on the seats and headed off to get food. It didnt look very fantastic at first, but when we were finally eating it, the hot soup and noodles was just GREAT!! It was SUPER tasty! Dont forget this is coming from someone whos not a super big fan of udon like Jem/Charlene.
I dont mind it, but it reminds of me Mee Tai Mak sometimes
( Ive been traumatised by Fried Mee Tai Mak since BMT...
I have not eaten anything else that looked so decent, but tasted so bad before.
It was so bad that when they asked for feedback everyone gave a negative.
That made them pull it off the menu and they gave us back our usual Pau or Lor Mai Kai) The super udon!! Doesnt look much cause I already ate half of it, but the beef was great! Anyhow The next day after Kobe, We headed off down to Kyshu. Will continuse that in another post.

I think Osaka is a food haven! I especially love the GYUDON with RAW EGGS...that may gross some of you out but i learned to eat it on my first trip there and I never looked back !! SUPER yummy !! Pics are in the collage.

I also love the Yakiniku i get there!! Also super oishii!! This was SUPER good. I think ill be trying to replicate it. Too bad i dont have a charcoal Grill.

Kobe BEEF! This was outta the world for me.. The first time im eating the real kobe beef! Oh man i went over the moon with it!! Cost a bomb but was REALLY good! Kobe beef and shrooms!
Caught in the act.
Picture of kobe beef lard -_-"
Nah..couldnt be.... Its some chocolate ichigo mix.
Or is it?

Yakisoba!! Also another fave of mine. Reminds me a bit of Yakitate though!

やきそば！

Udon there was also great and cheap! It cost like only 300 yen for a bowl of beef udon. Get a couple of tempura and you have a great meal.. Yum Yum.. Look above for pics. Im getting lazy.

Onigiri! I enjoyed the fish ones better than the other weird combos. おにぎりの中はさけがあります！

Negi Toro is basically minced raw tuna on rice. Love it too!
Negi Toro! おいしかたね！

Loterria! I really love their ebi burger as well. Was trying to print out their coupons but it didnt seem to work. My mom and dad trying to figure if we should eat there.
Really Nostalgic. Same lotteria I ate in 5 years back. :)

Strawberries, i didnt think they were in season, but we found quite a few places selling them nonetheless. いちご

Ramen!! Also super good!! The only thing was we were so excited to go and eat the ramen that we forgot one important thing. We wore shoes onto the tatami mat seats.

Too much food to put individually. Just collaged them all here

Was watching an episode of gaki no tsu kai! super funny!

Ah.. cocoa that kept me nice and warm.

My dad holding money for the sweet potato. He loves the japanese ones. Too bad this guy didnt cook it too well. The fire was not right to caramelize the sugars in the taters.

Without fail i would Keep thinking about their super nice handphones. Sigh. My current 707SCII is great and i like it alot, but i think it still needs some functions.

Ok i guess this is more of less Osaka for me.
If you read this whole post, I congratulate you and thank you very much for reading it and hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip! Will continue with kyushu and my Film photos later.

Anyway Happy New Year to ONE AND ALL !!!
ITS 2009 ! Almost at least..

6:04 AM

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