Bright lights and man-hunting deer in Osaka, Japan
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| Dōtonbori, Osaka |
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| Dōtonbori , Osaka |
Eventually the pair of them figure it out. You head to your hostel in the Higashishinsaibashi district in Osaka. You spend the rest of the evening wandering around the streets of Dōtonbori, an old district teeming with street food vendors running alongside a canal. The streetlights, neon signs and billboards glitter off the canal, turning the city lights upside down in liquid motion.
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| Dōtonbori canal |
Occasionally you look at some of the food vendors in a vain attempt to find a vegetarian meal for your two companions. There are a lot of chicken, fish and beef delicacies which they walk by dismissively, but eventually you find an English vending machine which lists a vegetarian ramen bowl. They share it, slurping indelicately at the open kitchen bar.
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| Osaka Castle |
The next day you visit Osaka Castle (Osakajo). This is an incredible set of buildings founded by Hideyoshi Toyotomi in 1583. It's your companions' first experience of ancient Japanese architecture, and they take photos repeatedly. After visiting the castle you head into a plum and apricot grove, where early blossoms have painted the trees pink, orange and white.
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| Trees at Osaka Castle |
Next, you get the train to the Kuromon Ichiba Market. Here you eat a delicious noodle okonomiyaki (a savoury pancake loaded with salad and sticky-sweet sauce), and modan-yaki (the same, but with yakisoba noodles). You also have a custard-pancake that looks like a cookie. It is two thick pancakes cooked with custard sealed inside, like some kind of pancake custard donut. Your companions will become obsessed with them.
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| Tsūtenkaku Tower |
That night you visit the Tsūtenkaku, a neon glowing tower in the Shinsekai district. You eat at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Self Takoyaki. Takoyaki is an Osaka delicacy made from flour based batter and octopus, and fried into round balls with a special moulded pan. A French waiter stands behind the small counter and helps you to make your own takoyaki. Your companions do a terrible job, mashing the balls into broken shapes. But you, reader, execute the task perfectly. It tastes delicious.
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The next day you visit Nara Park. This is a picturesque area of ancient temples and shrines surrounded by moss cloaked Japanese trees. You visit the Tōdai-ji Temple, which houses a giant bronze statue of Buddha Vairocana. One of the pillars inside the temple has a hole at its base, and it’s said that if you can crawl through this hole you will be able to reach enlightenment. Several visitors are attempting to wriggle through the hole with ridiculous slug-like movements.
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| Deer at Nara Park |
Tame deer block up the pathways in Nara Park like pigeons at Trafalgar Square. "This is not like Richmond Park at all," says the bearded one. No, this is not like Richmond Park. Perhaps you were expecting shy deer grazing peacefully in the distance? Think again. These deer are hunters. They are desperate for the spilled morsel of a cracker sold by the vendors in the park.
Your companions find a custard-pancake seller and purchase some. As soon as you take the plastic bag the deer start to flock around you. It seems that the rustling plastic attracts them. They bite your coat and block your path, determined to see what's in the bag. You and your companions make a desperate escape to a more deer-free section of the park, nibbling on your treats in secret and searching swivel-headed for oncoming deer.
You return home safely, and buy a bottle of Akashi whiskey on the way back. You and your companions drink drams of the stuff from teacups in the hostel kitchen until it's time for dinner. You head to a gyoza place and afterwards you go to a bar called Manmaru, where salarymen are packed in for Friday drinks. They chain smoke and laugh with full-throated guffaws at their red faced colleagues.
That night you curl up in your spacious pod bed. You nervously await the return of the roommate that woke you up last night snoring a sleep-apnea snore. He wakes you again at 4am.