Surprised by Osaka – #squadSQ Journal Part 2

This entry begins in the Changi Airport Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Lounge and I’m not going to lie, this might be a recurring theme through these journals. If you get the chance to experience one, get to the airport as early as possible like I did so you have enough time to relax in a comfortable lounge, get some food, pour yourself a glass of wine and/or cognac (yep!), and pick out which newspapers and magazines you want to take on the flight.

It had been a huge start to the #squadSQ tour in Singapore already so the lounge was a great spot to switch off for a couple of hours and put my feet up. I was also able to put my feet all the way up and my head all the way down on the plane thanks to a cheeky upgrade from economy to business class from Singapore Airlines. My only problem with it was that the flight from Singapore to Japan was only 6 hours, not nearly long enough to enjoy their new Boeing 787! Just lok at how much space I have.

The flight left at 2 pm, but soon turned dark, so for the most part, so the view out my window was largely uninteresting. The comfort more than made up for that, however. The flight got into Japan at around 10:30 pm local time but by the time I got through security, found the right train, walked the 15 minutes to my hotel, and bought a beer at a convenience store (naturally), it was after midnight.

[Sidebar: craft beer tinnies in convenience stores for under $2, what sort of heaven have I just walked into? I never want to leave.]

Through the night, for some reason, I felt really sick and hardly slept. Rather than wake up early and head out to Minoo Park, I slept in until 9 and hardly had any breakfast.

Osaka-Jo (Osaka Castle)

I made a plan and headed to Osaka Castle, which was incredibly beautiful and very Japanese on the outside, housing a history museum on the inside. I approached from the south and had to cross two moat bridges to reach it. Much easier than in the 16th Century when I’d need multiple ladders and probably shields to defend against flying arrows.

Umeda Sky Building Floating Garden

After I’d finished at the castle I headed east to the Umeda Sky Building, which has an observation deck on the 40th floor. I approached from Umeda station and it was about a 10-minute walk, which probably turned into 20 with the wrong turns I made.

Anyway, once I got to the building the challenges really began again. I could see Floating Garden, but I couldn’t work out how to get there. I even went up one lift to the 36th floor, only to realise I had to go back down because I was just in offices. I must have spent 15 minutes walking aimlessly between buildings trying to work out how to get up. For reference, here is what I should have done.

• Enter through the East tower
• Escalator to the 3rd floor
• Then walk around back to the west tower
• Take the elevator to the 35th floor where you’ll pay an entrance fee
• Take another escalator to the 39th floor
• Take a lift or stairs to the sky garden

Piece of cake!

Once I finally got up it was great. I mean, I needed a rest, but I thoroughly enjoyed the view and the engineering of the building is genius. So you’ve got the two buildings, east and west, then they are connected at the top by a 3 storey platform, in the middle of which is like a large circular, funnel, so you literally can’t walk from one side to the other through the centre, but you can see through the window to the other side. It’s weird but very cool.

Hozenji Temple

On the way back (sort of) I picked up my bullet train Rail Pass from Shin-Osaka Station so having completed my one chore for the day I caught the train back to Namba Station and walked back to the hotel and had a nap for an hour. However, even on the way back, I continued to be productive as I happened to walk down Hozenji Lane and past Hozenji Temple, which were both on my list. Hozenji Temple is a small temple with a moss-covered shrine that people were splashing with water, presumably for good luck (everything seems to be for good luck).

Amerika Mura neighbourhood

I’m generally violently opposed to naps while on holiday because it’s burning daylight, but this hour-long nap was absolutely essential. My #squadSQ teammates would actually be shocked to know that I actually stopped to sleep I’m sure. So after my batteries were adequately recharged I headed out to explore the local area on foot. I headed in the vague direction of Amerika Mura. The backstreets of the Minami area are all strangely beautiful. They are more like large alleys than small streets. They are all one way, mostly clogged with exposed electric wires overhead in a mess like you’d expect to see in India. For all the order and engineering that Japan is known for, this was a surprise.

I stopped at a random coffee house for some afternoon breakfast and lunch (at 5 pm). The lady spoke very little English and so I thought this will be perfect. In my travels, I rarely end up anywhere where English is little spoken and it’s an experience that seems to be dying out. So, weird as it may seem, I actually seek out these opportunities. It turns out she did speak a little English, enough to run through the menu that was entirely in Japanese. I ordered a strawberry smoothie since there was a picture of it on the menu and I pointed to that. She obviously used real strawberries in it and it was just delicious and exactly what I needed.

The place was so tiny, and the tables were so low I had to fold my legs underneath. It was the cutest little place with only 3 tables of 4 seats each plus 3 at the bar. And when the lady was behind the bar to serve the food she had to walk down the stairs behind her out a door and she would reappear like Tony Wonder from the other end.

I continued to walk the lanes, going down any street that looked interesting, getting completely lost in the process. But how can you be lost if you’re not trying to get anywhere?

I sat down at another place that was barbecuing out the front. They also had pictures on their menu with some low number of yen so I sat down. I ordered some yuzu pon, which seemed like some kind of fish or octopus, fried and with some words cold dipping sauce. Was pretty good but I have no idea what I was eating.

Dotonbori Street

At 7, I met up with a local influencer/Instagrammer, Yuji and his mate, Yosuke, who took me eating down Dotonbori Street.

A fair bit was lost in translation but it was fun trying to communicate when it was clear there were words in my sentence that he didn’t know (and vice versa). They asked what type of food I wanted and I said let’s start with some sushi.

We found a good place and had a few pieces with salmon, eel, and tuna. It was actually so good. Once you get past the weirdness of it actually being raw fish, add a little soy sauce, and pretend like you know how to use chopsticks like a pro, it tasted amazing. And I learnt that this is (obviously) sushi in the truest sense. What we call sushi (or sushi rolls) back home, or at least what I’ve always referred to as sushi with the seaweed roll, is not technically called sushi, it’s maki. I may have got that wrong but it’s what I picked up. Happy to be corrected in the comments.

My friends also told me that you just dip the fish bit in the soy sauce, avoiding all contact with the rice, because the soy sauce will cause the rice to crumble. Unfortunately, my chopstick skills meant my sushi was highly likely to end up in the soy sauce anyway (and thanks to Yosuke, we have photographic proof).

Dotonbori street was absolutely mental. It’s everything you expect Japan to be, with the neon and the flashing and throngs of people and the food everywhere. I would normally hate being somewhere where you are constantly dodging people, especially when a majority of these people are probably tourists (Yosuke estimated 60% tourists), but there such an energy to the place it didn’t even matter.

The next morning my appetite was back and I actually had a good go at breakfast. I had miso soup, salmon, simmered mackerel, some noodles and the obligatory croissant and fruit. Still weirds me out having miso soup and noodles for breakfast, but I’ve realised that I love miso soup so it was pretty easy to come to terms with.

Day trip to Minoo Park

I needed my energy because I was going on a train-hopping journey to Minoo Park. From my hotel, I walked to the closest station, which was Nagahoribashi. From there I caught a train to Shinsaibashi and changed lines to get to Umeda. At Umeda, I had to change rail companies and get a train from Hankyu Umeda station to Ishibashi where I changed lines again to get to the town of Minoo.

This actually took quite a bit of planning to A) get the right directions and B) turn those directions into a reality. Somehow I managed to pull it off, though, and I arrived at Minoo Park, only to realise that once finished at the park, I then had to do it all in reverse!

What was most difficult is I had a subway map, but I did not have a map for the private trains (i.e. from Hankyu Umeda and onward) so this made things a little more adventurous. I did have to make a blind call in Hankyu Umeda station though. There were two trains on the platform without any obvious (or at least English) signs showing which way they were going. I hopped on and asked the friendliest looking person if this was going to Ishibashi and as the doors closed she confirmed that it was.

I arrived at Minoo Station without issue. If Osaka felt somewhat off the beaten track for international visitors, Minoo Park was even more so. I hardly saw another Anglo and barely heard any English from the time I got there; it was most refreshing. I didn’t really know which way to go, but I could see a mountain over the top of the houses so I felt that would be s pretty safe option. There also seemed to be a steady trail of people in sensible clothes and footwear heading in that direction.

Sure enough, the buildings dissipated and were replaced by trees, moss and running waters. From here it seemed obvious which way to go: up. Though there were several forks along the way, all of which had signs in Japanese to help. I took a few wrong turns, but nothing disastrous because every time there was a man or a barricade to tell me not to continue.

The path started out as sealed path then turned to gravel and rock steps before turning back to sealed closer to the waterfall. It never felt busy, although there was a steady stream of people walking in the opposite direction and at the top, there was never fewer than 20-25 people.

With about 500m to the end, I passed a lady and heard from over my shoulder “where do you come from?” I turned and answered “Australia” feeling some relief and confidence that this was in fact not a common answer.

She was a lovely lady with some pretty reasonable English who just wanted to chat (and probably practice). She told me cousin did a year of uni in Sydney, and that she is a retired junior high teacher in social studies.

At the top, she took a photo of me and we said farewell. It was a lovely interaction with a local. And I mean that in the truest sense of the word, she lives in Minoo and walks up here quite often. I mean, wouldn’t you? She was very surprised that I would make the effort to come out here, in fact, everyone I mentioned it to was, including Yuji, Yosuke and the hotel reception guy were surprised I was heading out that way. The reception guy, who was most helpful, simply, “oh have you seen everything in the city and want something else?”

My lady friend took a photo of me and then I set up my tripod to get some more anyway because — photographers you’ll understand this — people who are not photographers just don’t tend to frame the shots how I like it. I enjoyed the serenity, took my photos, and began my descent back down.

Near the bottom, there were some small shops and a lady who was wetting the pavement with water flowing through a stormwater drain. I noticed at her shop she had some Minoo beers on tap for 500 yen. It doesn’t much more boutique than that! I felt it would be rude not to stop for one.

I hopped back on the train at Minoo Station and found my way back to Osaka fairly easily. I felt like I needed to shower and refresh back at the hotel, the place I had planned to go next was on the Midosuji line, which I was already on (rather than changing lines, then walking 10 mins to the hotel and back again) so I just stayed the course and figured I would head back later. This turned out to be a great choice because I ended up seeing a lot.

Up Japan’s Tallest Building

That stop was the Harukas 300, the Observation Deck on the Abeno Harukas — Japans tallest building (though not structure, they make the distinction to give it a title). I usually try and go up a tower when I’m in a city because it gives a good lay of the land and can help you get your bearings a little. I’d already gone up the Umeda Sky Building, but, well I have no reasoning, I just wanted to.

I got off the train at Tennoji Station and began looking for signs to the Harukas 300 because I knew it wasn’t far. What I didn’t realise was how close it actually was. Out of the station turnstiles, I saw the sign, followed it right and saw the entrance for the Abeno Harukas, right there in the station.

As I exited the lift the word out of the word my mouth was “wow”, followed by, “that’s pretty special”. We were high. Like, “no building in the area even comes close” kinda high. And it was true, what made it even more spectacular was that the Abeno Harukas building was on its own down the south end of town, so you could see so much.

I took my time up here because I was really enjoying the view. I actually only took a handful of photos including a few selfies on the tripod, which came out surprisingly well. I found in the distance Osaka Castle, which I visited yesterday. Once I knew where to look, it was quite obvious and striking. Just to the left of it was the Umeda Sky Tower, which was less obvious but still visible from the distance. Just below me, still to the north was the Shittennoji Temple, Tennoji Park and Tennoji Zoo, which I planned to visit next.

After doing a full lap of the deck I headed back down the elevators and started looking for signs to Tennoji. From the building, it looked like I had to cross a very busy road to get there and I was unsure how this was going to work. Thankfully, and in true Japanese style the signs were easy to follow and an underpass took me under to the park. The afternoon heat was starting to get to me by now. I had long ago hit my 10k step goal so when I saw a Tully’s Coffee I thought it a good time for a rest. I had an iced coffee which was surprisingly good and a glazed doughnut, which was surprisingly not good (damn you Krispy Kreme for raising my expectations to an unreasonable and unhealthy level!) But it was a good pitstop nonetheless.

A Small, Urban Zoo

I walked east through the park and came to the entrance to Osaka Tennoji Zoo. Having just been to the Singapore Zoo, which was incredible, I said to myself “alright if it’s less than 1,000 yen I’ll give it a go. At 500 yen this was a no-brainer. I paid my entrance fee and began to wander.

I started at an aviary, followed by some black bears, a polar bear and some flamingoes. The flamingoes excited me because they always just look like faded plaster statues and I only caught a passing look at River Safari in Singapore. I saw hippopotamus, more rhino, lions, hyena, and even some sheep! The variety was actually quite impressive, it just wasn’t to the (impractically high) standard of Singapore Zoo.

After about an hour I realised that the afternoon was getting away from me and the animals left were either ones I’d seen a few days ago or ones in which I only had a passing interest. I was ready for the next activity and found the exit that led to the Shinsekai area.

Eating my way through Shinsekai

Shinsekai was an area that I’d read about and honestly, didn’t sound that appealing on paper. There’s a large, rickety old tower there as the centrepiece from years gone by. Reports had said the area is not as safe as some as well. Though it had been recommended to me by some friends back home (Hey Maddy/Gabby!) and Yuji also asked if was going last night, so I thought I might as well.

I was completely blown away by the area. The Shinsekai sign was written in some kind of 80s electro-rock band font and the area was covered in the typical Japanese imagery with writing and colourful signs on every storefront and every corner. Since it had been a hot day and I’d walked a lot I felt pretty open to any sort of malted beverage that I came across. The first one that I saw happened to be in a vending machine. I haven’t seen a beer vending machine since I was in Prague in 2010. It was a novelty then, and it’s a novelty now. All the writing was in Japanese so it was going to be a lottery. Since it was hot, one of them had a picture of a lime on it so that was all the sign that I needed. Beer, get inside me.

Shinsekai was full of restaurants, mostly the tempura or yakitora (octopus balls) variety. Some places played loud Japanese music to attract attention which worked perfectly. I had some more octopus balls because they are delicious and then sat down at a place for some tempura. There was an English menu so that helped a little. But if I had any question about the menu, which I did, this was often in the too hard basket.

But this is what I’m loving about Japan; the lack of English is somewhat surprising, but it’s fun. Being a fairly developed country, and Japan has pretty strong ties to the English speaking West, I sort of expected more, but there really should be no expectation that there is. And this goes for every non-English speaking country. We English speakers are so spoilt and I think it can spoil some of the fun trying to interpret people when we can’t speak the same language.

In this tempura place the guy probably only spoke slightly more English than I Japanese. He could say 5 or 10, which I interpreted to mean I could order either 5 or 10 pieces in a set for a good price, (helped by the menu) and I just pointed at a few things on the menu. Then I saw on there some kind of Japanese spirit called shochu. This was a must try, so I pointed to that as well.

I ordered shishamo fish, pork ribs with miso, scallop, octopus, and Shiitake Mushroom. For a drink, I had Satsumashiranami, a type of shochu, which is a Japanese distilled spirit made from sweet potato. They were pretty small so I ordered another round: cheese, octopus dumplings, avocado, shishami fish (it was my favourite from last time), salmon (didn’t order it but it appeared on my plate, I’m sure that’s what it is), and dorakyai (which was on the dessert menu. I didn’t recognize it, so let’s give it a go). I was very pleased with how this turned out, but in all earnestness, when you’re deep frying stuff in batter, then dipping it in brown sauce, it’s going to come out pretty good no matter what it is.

I tried waiting around for darkness to cover the street to bring out the lights but I was overdue to put my feet up so I began to head back to the train station just past the Tsutenkaku Tower – Shinsekai’s centrepiece.

Japanese Barbecue for Dinner

I spent an hour or so in my room getting refreshed and about 8:00 I headed out for dinner. Lunch was at 4 so I figured I was due for a late dinner as well. So far in Japan, I had eaten pretty well, but there was one gaping hole: Japanese barbecue (or yakiniku). I made it my mission to find some tonight. I found a place on Dotonbori Street because I couldn’t get enough of the area last night.

As usual, I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of options on the menu. They made it easy by ranking their top 10. This tells you the scale that the menu was on when there was a top 10, and many didn’t make the list. I went for numbers 2 and 3 since they were out of 1 (that’s a good sign I thought). I asked for some advice on how much to order and my server (who happened to be French) who said you can order more later. I guess when you don’t have to wait for it to be cooked there’s not a long wait.

Yakiniku is a fun experience because not only is the food awesome, but its sorta fun cooking it yourself. I mean, sure, there’s a certain level of lazy and arrogance from the chef when they don’t actually have to cook it, especially when we can make such a big deal about having to cook at home. But it’s so easy, and there’s no preparation or clean up. They bring out the table barbecue with hot coals, all you have to do is throw on the meat for a couple of minutes each side and you’re good to go. However, at one time I did need to be rescued when a particularly fatty item I was cooking had flames that threatened to burn the whole street to the ground. She moved all the pieces around and rubbed some ice on the grill.

Numbers 2 and 3 on the ranking list were beef outside skirt and loin, which, with the sweet (I’m guessing) teriyaki marinade they came in, not to mention expertly cooked by yours truly, were absolutely delicious. I also ordered some corn and pumpkin as my token vegetables, which were also a good addition — again, in the sauce.

It was so good so I thought an encore performance was in store. I thought I’d go a bit more adventurous this time, you only live once right? And when will I next be able to eat genuine Japanese BBQ again? I went for the small intestine, which I think was ranked number 4. This time I think I’d bitten off more than I could chew — at one point literally.

The sauce helped, but it was still very strange to me. See, here’s how the thought process goes. Before ordering, you think, “Sure it sounds weird, but over here it’s a delicacy, everyone must love it so I’ll try it”. Then when you start eating it you’re like “oh this actually isn’t half bad, the name and the imagery of where it came from on the cow just makes it sound weird”. Then by the end, you’re like “yeah ok I’m not really enjoying this anymore, I’m done”. I made it through 3.5 pieces of intestine which I thought was a pretty good effort.

Here’s why it was weird to me. The intestine was comprised of two bits: the chewy outer (or inner) tube of the intestine, which was a bit tough. But then on the other side, the inner (or outer bit, I’m not sure, of the intestine, gee my bovine knowledge is low) was all fatty and rather slimy. Each on their own wouldn’t have been great, but together it was double weird. So I ate most of it but gave up on my 4th bit. That’s a fair effort in my opinion. The total for this dinner was about 3,600 yen, or about $40. Pretty expensive for a dinner, yes, but a great experience.

I took a few more obligatory photos of Dotobori Street (it’s just so photogenic!), Dotonbori canal, and the famous Glico man sign before retreating for an early-ish night and bed.

In the next instalment of #squadSQ, I ride my first bullet train and get served a 7-course meal in my traditional Japanese hotel room. Stay tuned!

All flights, transport and accommodation were provided by Singapore Airlines in association with Visit Japan but the fun I describe is 100% real and genuine.

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