03/23 Osaka

Today we finally checked into a hostel with internet so i can finally start writting. I was told Osaka was a good food city and it hasn't disappointed yet. We have 3 days here, so we decided to just wander around for the first day. The first thing we did was stop by a noodle store and picked up some Tsukimi Soba, buckwheat noodles with a raw egg, for lunch. It was pretty good and only 290. Afterwards we spotted a takoyaki stand, the first of many. These were much better then anything back home, and extremely hot. I popped one in my mouth and pretty much burned my entire mouth, but it was so good. After various other snacks, we found ourselves at Shitennoji Temple. The neat thing was there was a festival going on as well, which made the place very lively. After some overservation, we figured out it was the day for locals to be blessed by the monks. The other good thing, was all the food. Here we had okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake), an egg/batter crepe, and taiyaki (fish shaped cake seen often in anime). Everything was very good, and we felt lucky to find the taiyaki as they only seem to be found during festivals. Also, the okonomiyaki was much better then from hiroshima.

After exploring all the temples and shrines in the area we kept walking and found many more shrines, the biggest of which was Isshinji Temple. They were doing the blessing ceremonies here a well. I was a little disappointed in the lack of kimmonos but i'm sure i'll see more in kyoto.

After more walking we stumbled into Den Den Town, which is Osaka's Akiba. It was pretty neat being surrounded in Otaku culture with the abundance of models and figurines. I was able to find some mini food for steph here.

After more stumbling, we walking into Bic Camera, a huge electronics store. I am really tempted to by a small travel laptop here, but i will wait till tokyo to see what my funds are like. One neat thing they had was a 3d tv, which while interesting , seemed inpractical. The vast amount of selection is crazy with 500 different mice, and hundreds of different laptops, cameras, and tv.

After more walking, we hit Dotonbori street, a huge street focused on food. We visited some landmarks here, such as the giant robotic crab (kani doraku crab) infront of the crab restaurant Kani Doraku. It was too expensive to eat there. There is also a large 8 floor building, Kuidaore, with each floor being a restaurant featuring a different type of food. we also didn't eat here. Instead, we ate more takoyaki, okonomiyaki negimayo and ramen from Kinryu Ramen, a popular place. You ordered from a vending machine, which spit out a ticket and then you exchanged it for your meal. it was pretty good. after some more wandering, we found the Glico man sign, a famous neon sign for the Glico candy company.

Tired from a long day of walking, and planning to go to Nara tomorrow, we headed back. Of note, we found a lot of Fugu restaurants and will try some before we leave. hope it's not deadly.