Osaka, Day 2

Whoa, how did two weeks pass without me realizing I hadn’t continued the epic tale of my Osaka adventures? Well, at any rate, time to remedy that!

For your viewing pleasure, I give you Day 2 of my trip in Osaka.

So, we lingered in the hotel room, luxuriating in early morning slumber.  After eventually rousing ourselves, we ventured out into the world. I was determined to hit the same sushi joint that I had gone to with Yuri, since Meri is also a sushi aficionado. Oh, and the parfait shop as well. First, however, we decided to stop and get (what else?) some sweet goodies. Gotta pregame the day, yanno.

 My selection was a sakura-flavored steamed bread. It had azuki beans, was seated on a sakura leaf, and had a smidgen of ume on top. I was surprised how the sweet/salty/sour ume brought it all together. It was really good.

Meri got a sweet potato pastry. It was full of starchy goodness.

After our light breakfast, we jumped on a train towards Kobe. Due to my abysmal navigating skills, we accidentally went one stop too far, but it resulted in a fortuitous photo opportunity.

Voila, a trendy cow! Yeah, I just had to take a picture.

Anyway, after backtracking a bit, we decided to partake of parfait deliciousness before going for sushi. And this time, I took pictures of the restaurant itself! It’s one of the cutest eateries I’ve had the pleasure of visiting, I swear.

But of course, it’s the food that’s the star.

Meri's roll cake parfait, chocolate flavor. They did in fact bring her a little side dish to place the roll cake on. It'd be really hard to eat otherwise.

My dish had, I think, vanilla and chocolate regular ice cream, vanilla soft cream (Japanese soft serve), and some frozen yogurt as well. The garnishes were three marshmellows, little bites of sweet potato, chestnut puree, cornflakes (duh), and the bottom had a thin layer of honey. I actually couldn't see the honey, but boy could I taste it! It was a great little surprise.

And the carnage.

After our ‘scream, we wandered a bit. When I visited the bathroom in one store I was treated to this thoroughly amusing sign, and its Engrish.

I don’t know why it was so amusing. Maybe the “Caution, drop!” had something to do with it. Also apparently it's the bathroom of no return. You may never leave... or at least you can't if you have an infant. Glad I'm kid-less.

Before long, we were heading towards sushi, though.  Meri was observant and noticed this sign in the strip mall.

Do you see it? There’s a Curves there. Why is that so funny? I don’t know, but it is. Laugh with me.

But enough scenery, sushi time!

 Mixed tempura. I think this selection had shrimp, kabocha, okra, and maybe squid.

 Negi maguro / negi toro. Otherwise known as "scallion tuna", or tuna belly mixed with scallions and chopped very finely. It's yuuuuuuuummy.

 This is shrimp with cheese and basil sauce. I love the variety of sushi at this particular chain.

 Cucumber and ume rolls. A simple, but oh-so-tasty combination.

Tarako (spicy cod roe) and mayonnaise. Japanese mayo is a bit sweeter than most American brands. Kewpie mayo is the most common brand name here.

This is seared bonito with what I think was a kind of tobiko puree on top. At any rate, it was also delectable.

Nasu, or Japanese eggplant. Looks perhaps bland, but biting into it, the masterful panfrying was evident. It had a lot of umami from the oil and flavorings. This was further boosted by the miso sauce topping it. Miso-seasoning is often called "dengaku," and with eggplant it's called "nasu dengaku." It's a wonderful preparation for this veggie.

Pork belleh. You really only need one piece when it comes to this kind of luxuriousness. Full of fat and flavor.

This was a lovely light dessert. Frozen mango chunks with cream. At first it was a little too frozen, but after letting it sit for a few minutes, I could bite into it without getting brainfreeze, and it was delightful.

We needed a bit of time after all that yumminess to digest, so we decided to go bowling. ‘Cuz when you think of Japan, you think of bowling, of course.

This Pulitzer-quality shot I took...

And a shot of me Meri took. Actually she managed to get a shot of me getting a strike (my only one!!), fortuitously. 

My weapon of choice.

 

See that thing down at the bottom?? That's the bandaid I had on my thumb after shredding my thumbnail.  It went flying into the great waxed yonder after a particularly vigorous chuck of the ball. No pain, no gain.

I don’t do much bowling, but I had a really good time. I’d totally do it again.

We also spent some time in an arcade, where I took a picture of this amusing video game machine...

I <3 House of the Dead. Typing of the Dead will always hold a special place in my heart.

We also got ourselves some purikura, or artsy photos from highly swanky, specialized photo booths. They're awesome at making you look good no matter what. Here, see?

The little eye sparklies were my addition. You can glitz these things up in myriad ways at the little "post-production" monitor thingy.

Because we were still in a smorgasbord-y mood, we hit a (rare) buffet for dinner. I, of course, ate way too much. But it was a good kind of stuffed, haha.

I got some pizza (with mentaiko and nori), unohana, spaghetti, a spring roll, a nikuman (meat bun), and some chilled tofu.

Every meal must come with dessert. My poison this time, from the top going clockwise, was red bean soup, soft cream with some chocolate and walnut cake topped with cereal, a donut, a sesame ball, another bit of cake topped with cream, and sweet black soybeans topped with kinako.

Before returning to our hotel for the day, we indulged our girliness and went shopping. And I think Meri performed some kind of devilry on me, because I actually elected to buy non-purely-functional shoes, and a hat. Here, have a look.

Phew, that was a loooong day. But it was good times, and fashionably lucrative to boot (har!). I thoroughly enjoyed the fooding, bowling and shopping. Definitely need to practice the bowling part, though.

Next up, day three!

Mata kondo.