Alas, every holiday has to come to an end and it is the same with ours. With slightly heavy hearts, we made it a point to make the most of today and do whatever we can in a day!
First off, we headed to Janjan yokocho which is so-called because the ‘Janjan’ sounds like the sound made by the shamisen and that area used to be where all the shamisen shops/ training schools used to be.
When we walked out of the station, I couldn’t help but take a pic of the Engrish…
What they really meant to state was that this escalator only went up and not down to the station.
We saw this sign at the entrance. If you understand Japanese, do you get the pun? It made me go
( -_-;)
Janjan yokocho is now famous for the kushi katsu (fried skewers of food) restaurants and they were all lined up one after another. How did we choose where to eat our kushi katsu? Why…by the number of famous people who have eaten at the place!!
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| Our kushi katsu moriwase |
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| Second round |
It seems like anything that can be fried and skewered will be done! We had prawn, shishamo, asparagus, sausage, mushroom, yam, quail eggs, eggplant…oh gosh…I don’t remember what else I ate! They even had Camembert cheese on the menu…but we resisted. Everything was delicious and not over fried. They gave us a plate of raw cabbage and I guess this is to balance the unhealthy fried stuff that was going into our mouths. There’s a bowl of sauce in the middle of the table and you simply dip your kushi into it before eating. NO DOUBLE DIPPING!!
After eating, we walked around and did a bit more shopping! From Janjan yokocho, we could see another icon of Osaka – Tsutenkaku/ Osaka Tower.
I can’t believe that there’s a shrine that’s dedicated to Billiken, which is also surrounded with advertisement and food names. I’m not sure WHY the Billiken is so famous in Osaka, especially when it’s really an American creation.
We met another friendly Osakan in another cosmetic shop where yet again, we got shocked expressions of “you are speaking Japanese but you’re not Japanese and don’t live in Japan!” again. She was so cute because she noticed how we were staring at a limited edition collection of Majolica Marjoca products and she told us how to use them and how all of them are so surprised that the stock came in early because they were only meant to come in May. She was also very shocked at how we were not wearing make-up although we’d be taking photos! Lol…she was telling us how she and most Japanese women would put on even MORE make up during holidays as they will be taking photos. Only goes to show how lazy I am.
After that fun conversation (and buying 1 limited edition highlighter make up), we went otaku hunting in Denden town. Siew Mai was having a curry and udon craving so what’s better than curry udon for tea?
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| Siew Mai’s curry udon |
I ordered a beef tsukemen and Siew Mai had to do the pun “Ramen, tsukemen, boku ikemen” constantly to me. -_- I shan’t bother to explain the pun…those who understand Japanese will probably be laughing their heads off or having the same expression as I did.
After Denden, we went to Ame-mura (American village) where I did more shopping but that’s about it. So…last stop was the Aquarium!!
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| Asian otters! |
Above is the famous whale shark that is kept in the Osaka Aquarium. It was humongous and although the aquarium holding it was rather large, it kept swimming only in a circle. Quite sad that it’s not free to roam the oceans but yet at the same time, I’m glad to see a whale shark this close. So…I’m going to bombard you with a few more photos with captions for you to enjoy!
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| A seal decides to press itself against the glass |
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| King penguin |
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| More HUGE King penguins. I can’t imagine the size of the Emperor penguins |
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| Swimming dolphins |
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| Spider crabs that are as huge as my upper body! |
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| White seal is chilling. Brown seal eyes white seal and wants to play! |
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| Sunset over the Osaka Bay |
After visiting the aquarium, it was time for a quick dinner before heading off to our hotel for our luggage and then to the airport. As it was our last meal in Japan, we made it a good one!
The sashimi was so fresh. The prawn was huge! The nimono above deserves its own photo because of that yellow thing that looks like scrambled eggs. It’s not. It’s fish eggs. A lot of it! The whole set only cost us JPY 2,600 (SGD 33.80) but we were so full and the freshness was unbeatable. The tempura was also crispy but yet not oily. Yum!!
Thus ends our journey in Kansai and I love the Kansai people! They’re so loud, friendly and fun-loving. They may not have as many English speakers as in Tokyo but I think that their friendliness more than makes up for it. Kyoto, of course, feels a lot more refined than Osaka but I like how everything is still a throwback to tradition while they do integrate modern life. Ah…I wanna go to Japan again!!
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