osaka

I gotta admit that in Osaka, there aren't much "sights" to see, especially if you want to entertain someone with children. My friend from college, Len and his family are here for several days. I met up with them yesterday to take them to the Aquarium, Osaka castle and some shopping.

After the Aquarium, we went to the Tempozan Village for lunch then rode the "World's Largest Ferris Wheel" (that's what my ticket says). I think the ride was about a half an hour. They even have one special car that has a see through bottom...yikes! I'm glad we rode in the "normal" car. The day was sunny and clear. Afterwards we walked to the Tempozan Park to check out some of their cherry blossoms.

Osaka Castle's cherry blossoms have just started to bloom, and the air is still very chilly, so I think it may be another week before we see more blooms.

I'm glad I was able to meet up with them and I hope Len and his family enjoyed Osaka and will enjoy the rest of their trip!

Gosh, the month flew by. I still have some posts waiting to be published...I guess they will have to wait a little longer.

the past couple of days

The past couple of days we had my cousin staying with us. He was in Japan for work and had some days to spare. It was a nice time to bond with him as we usually only see each other at family gatherings.

Our first day together was spent at the Osaka Aquarium. There is a ticket for 2400 yen (about US$24) which you can buy. This allows you entrance to the Aquarium (2000 yen about US$20) and then free rides on the Osaka subway system. If you are staying in Kyoto or Kobe, check with your concierge, because there are ticket for a little more that will allow you to ride the other private lines too.

It was quite noisy as the aquarium was filled with school children. All excited to see the different sea animals and fishes. We stopped to have a soft-serve cone (or as the Japanese like to call it "sofuto kurimu").

From the aquarium we headed to Namba, this is where did a little shopping and we had takoyaki. Takoyaki is one of Osaka's famous foods, tiny round balls of batter are filled with bits of tako (octopus), green onion, red ginger. After buying a plate to share we realized that we both don't really care for it because of the mushy insides.

From Namba, we walked to the Dotombori area to have okonomiyaki at Chibo. There is a Chibo in Hawaii, but the head restaurant is in Osaka. Okonomiyaki is yet another famous food of Osaka. We ordered an ikatama with yakisoba noodles in it. Ikatama is a savory thick pancake filled with cabbage and ika (squid). The noodles are also added to the pancake and the piping hot pancake is brought to your table to sizzle in front of you while you eat and chat.

After our snacks and lunch, we headed back to Umeda for more shopping. We walked and walked and walked. Finally, we were hungry for dinner so we stopped into a conveyor belt sushi shop and had several plates of 100 yen (about US$1) sushi. It had been a long day, so we got back on the train and headed home.
The next morning over breakfast, my cousin talked about the UCC coffee museum on Port Island. I asked him if he'd like to check it out and he said he would, so we jumped on the train to Kobe.

The UCC coffee museum is located on Port Island right next to IKEA. For 210 yen (about US$2.10), you can check out different displays and explanations on the stages of roasting coffee, as well as the learn about the coffee belt. Most of the explanations were in Japanese, so we ended up just browsing around.

At the end of the museum route, there is an area where you can take a test. I got 5 answers right and was proclaimed Dr. Great Coffee with a photo ID card. My cousin had a mishap with his computer and ended up just receiving a commemorative visitors certificate with his photo.

Afterwards we headed over to IKEA. There were these cute French-made glass bowls that I seen on Friday. Can you believe they were only 59 yen each? (About US$.59) I bought 2. My cousin mentioned that IKEA has these delicious cinnamon rolls, but when we got to the cafe/restaurant, there were none to be found and he was disappointed.

Instead we decided to have lunch, I got the Christmas plate. For 895 yen (about US$8.95) you could get an assortment of Swedish foods. I enjoyed the meatballs and gravlax, but didn't care for the pickled herring, though it did remind me of namasu.

While waiting for the shuttle bus, we had some soft serve, only 50 yen (about US$.50). It was a mini cone but we agreed that it was softer than the one we had at the aquarium.

After lunch, we headed back to Sannomiya and took the train to Tarumi. There is a huge outlet mall there. My cousin did some window shopping and we had more soft serve at the McDonalds there.

The sun was beginning to set so we headed home. On the way back we were able to see this beautiful orange sunset from one of the stations.

After more shopping at Kawanishi-Noseguchi, we headed back to Ishibashi for sushi at a shop near the station.

In two days we did a lot of shopping and a LOT of walking and ate a lot of soft serve. I hope my cousin enjoyed himself, we enjoyed having him stay with us.

Hope your week is going well.

toba (sights)

Toba is about 2 hours from Osaka on the Shimahanto (Shima peninsula). It is a very touristy area, mainly due to the pearls. This is where Mikimoto have their pearl farms, museum and shops.

Toba also has lots of seafood, awabi (abalone), ise ebi (a spiny lobster), sazae (horned turban). If you're not able to eat seafood or don't like seafood, this is definitely not the place to visit.

There are lots of areas in Toba that have been featured in a book by Mishima Yukio called "Shiosai" (I don't think I've read this book, so I'm not too familiar with it).

If pearls aren't your thing, there is also an aquarium and a cruise around the bay.

The cruise ship was supposed to resemble the characters in a folk lore "Urashima Taro" similar to "Rip van Winkle". Also, some of the scenery along the bay was used in the story "Urashima Taro". The boat actually reminded me more of a floating Chinese restaurant that used to operate in Hawaii a long time ago (Oceania? Is it still around?).

At the hotel we stayed at, there was a nice garden area with a pond.

Have you ever seen one of these? They are called kemushi (hairy worms). If they touch you or if you get too close to them, you can get a reaction and break out into hives.

At the aquarium, we came upon these kuwagata (a type of beetle). If you find these in the wild around Japan, you can sell them to the pet stores for big bucks!

At the Mikimoto Pearl Island, there was a diving show. Here ama (pearl divers) dive in the water without any scuba gear except a mask. Some going as far down as 6meters (about 19 feet)! They don't even wear wet suits!

I was surprised that they jumped in the water with all the kurage (jellyfish).

In the Mikimoto museum, there were many beautiful sculptures and jewelry from around the world, plus Mikimoto's special collections.

And of course, there was a beautiful sunrise.

My next post will be about...the food...stay tuned!

umi no hi

Today is Umi no hi (Ocean Day). It is a national holiday and Satoshi has the day off. It has been raining with lightning and VERY LOUD thunder--off and on for the past couple of days.

Since we didn't have a chance to get to the ocean today, I thought I'd share with you a photo of a mambow (sunfish), on a recent trip with my family to the Osaka Aquarium.

And a photo of Manzamo in Okinawa, which was taken a couple of years ago. It is a beautiful area but, this cliff was actually a site where many Okinawans plunged to their deaths for fear of being captured by America during the War.

Lastly, I wanted to share a way to keep cool. Have a bowl of cold soba (buckwheat noodles). This version is called oroshisoba. Oroshi is the term for grated. You can put whatever toppings you wish--I served our soba with wakame (kelp), chirimen jakko also called shirasuboshi (dried young anchovy), thinly sliced nori (dried seaweed), oroshi daikon (grated turnip) and an umeboshi (pickled plum). The sauce called tsuyu--in the cup, is diluted a bit with water for dipping.

Have a good week!

okinawa (day 2-am)

Day 2 started with a buffet breakfast. Taro imo (like sato-imo, sometimes called dasheen) a thick potato soup with corn, cubed aloe with shi-quasa (sometimes called hirami lemon, is like a mix between a lime, lemon and orange), salad with goya (bittermelon), okinawan carrots, spam, egg, weiners made with ukon (tumeric), fried taro imo and beni-jagaimo, papayairichi(green papaya stirfried with chives and carrots).

We then went to the Churaumi Aquarium. Chura means beautiful in Okinawan and umi means ocean in Japanese. This aquarium is big! and has 3 jinbeizame (whale sharks). There were a lot of tropical fish and also some fish that we see in Hawaii fish markets. There were also some species that I've never seen before, like these chinanago (garden eels)--(eew sea worms!!)

Our next stop was the Yanbaru Anettaien, this garden area has a rainforest atmosphere with hego (fern) that are over 10 ft tall!

Lunch was Okinawan style bibimba (rice with Okinawan vegetables cooked in a stone bowl). Bibimba is actually a Korean dish. And aloe sashimi (sliced aloe). Aloe is quite bitter, but tasted good with a splash of lemon and soy sauce.

There was an area where you could try your hand at making chinsuko (Okinawan shortbread) and andagi (Okinawan donuts), I didn't get to try this but the man who was frying them gave me a free one to eat!

Blue Seal ice cream is also very popular in Okinawa. The American name is Foremost. I had Mint chocolate chip (since I can't find this flavor in Japan, not even at Haagen Datz) and Satoshi had beni-imo (red sweet potato).