It's been awhile since I've blogged. For the past two months I've been in Japan spending time with my boyfriend. We'd been trying to save up for a short trip near Kyoto (where he lives) but alas, there is too much good food and I'm horrid at saving up. Yesterday, I went to Osaka for the first time and went around the Dotonbori/Minami Namba area. Here, I saw the legendary running man sign board with my very own eyes.
(ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ Yes, legendary because my Japanese friends have mentioned it to me quite a couple of times. 大阪に行ったことがあって，よかった！
All the giant bright colourful signs here... it's quite different to how Kyoto looks. It's much busier here too and the trains stations are incredibly confusing. I had thought Kyoto station was confusing but I was completely lost here. When we were heading back to Kyoto, my boyfriend took me down to one train platform that up the stairs to a maze of hallways. After some twists and turns, perhaps passing through another train platform, we finally got to the platform we needed to go to for our train... I don't think I'll ever be able to catch the train on my own here.
Getting lost aside, I love this place. Food, food, food EVERYWHERE! I love the massive ornamental displays to promote the shops. Everything looks so full of life and excitement!
I've seen this shop with a giant crab over it a three times just walking down the street, I assume it much be some famous Osaka delicacy. I wanted to get some crab sushi actually, but since me and my boyfriend are pretty dirt poor at the moment, I sadly didn't buy any. I was going to get some kani flavoured senbei (Kani = crab), but regrettably, I forgot to come back to this shop before we left.
This has gotta be my favourite statue in front of the shop. I love my sushi.
We ended up getting ourselves some okonomiyaki from a restaurant my boyfriend's been with a couple of his seniors. He said it was a famous shop but I was suspicious because of the very shifty looking front entrance with stairs that lead to a basement... There's an unspoken rule that any sort of shop that leads to the basement somewhere is someplace you should be very wary of. It didn't help that my boyfriend mentioned Osaka had the highest statistics of people being murdered.
こえーっ
ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ=3=3=3 Right after he said that, we unknowingly wandered down a street with several love hotels. They were so bright and colourful, I thought they were a toy shops.. whoops. orz 最悪ですー！！ Disturbing thoughts aside, here's the seemingly-suspicious okonomiyaki shop. :)
Fortunately, I think I can ignore my aforementioned rule for once as it actually looked very nice and friendly. If you look at the photograph above carefully, you'll notice that this shop isn't completely empty and there were customers other than me and my boyfriend. That's very reassuring because I don't think they'll try and drug us all and sell us off in the black market.... yes, I think I have too much imagination sometimes.
And if they still attempted to drug us all, lucky for me and my boyfriend, we were given seats next to the sliding doors and could have easily escaped out to the streets. Nothing that exciting happened however, we were served already cooked okonomiyaki (that were un-drugged). After reading mangas, watching anime and Japanese dramas, I was looking forward to seeing the waiter cook the okonomiyaki before my eyes (which would also reduce the chances of us being drugged). On the bright side, that meant my clothes and hair didn't smell like okonomiyaki afterwards. I did get the chance of witnessing special okonomiyaki sauce being slathered over the okonomiyaki though.
めちゃ美味しかったです～ The finished product was scrumptious. Much better than the food court stuff (obviously). On the left, was my boyfriend's Pork okonomiyaki (豚玉焼き), the normal okonomiyaki flavour. On the right was my ika-yaki; squid okonomiyaki （いか玉焼き）which I'd been wanting to try after searching up top foods to eat in Osaka. Despite the initial shady appearance of this shop, I think I would definitely come again some day. Though perhaps if I should ever come back, I'll pick the lunch time to come again. There were lots of alcohol on the menu so I think this place becomes an izakaya (Japanese equivalent of a pub) at night. Drunk men plus burning hot metal plates on the table- my paranoia hits the roof.
After a very very filling lunch, we explored this arcade opposite the running man signboard. The arcade was quite similiar to the Teramachi arcade in Kyoto but the shops are somehow more vibrant with a decorative front. I found a shop with a bunch of gothic lolita things which Kyoto doesn't have (or at least I haven't found one yet). If I go there again next time, I may buy some lolita socks as a souvenir. I'm not very into that kind of fashion, but I admit I have a soft spot for frilly super girly things. As a little girl, I would always dream about becoming a sugar plum fairy princess of sorts. My dreams about the future has drastically changed from this but every now and then, a little bit of super girly girliness is something I enjoy. But even better than Lolita, I discovered a massive three storey Hello Kitty shop. I didn't take a picture of the fabulous shop front as I was too excited but there's this giant magical tree in there...
Don't know why I took a picture of this tree of all things, but I don't think I was thinking properly and too busy having my head in the clouds with Hello Kitty. I wanted those pajamas at the store front but they were $60 for a set. I've been thinking of buying myself pajamas for awhile since my boyfriend thought my pajamas looked very ”ださい” and ”おばあさんみたい” which pretty much means lame and old-woman like. They weren't really like any other pajama I've seen so far. These were very feminine but did not display much skin. I can't properly describe what the pajamas looked like but they would have been my perfect pajamas.
Enough of my girly rants, and on to more food! After walking around I was longing for food. specifically kasutera cake (カステラケーキ）and this cheese tart I saw earlier. Kasutera was a cake that originally came from Portugal but had somehow magically made it's way into Japan when Portuguese traders came to the country some centuries ago. However me and my boyfriend couldn't decide on the flavour that we wanted to get. I wanted some exotic Japanese flavour like sakura or yuzu while he wanted chocolate. So in the end we went off to the cheese tart shop. And I'm glad we did too because this is some amazing cheese tart! This cheese tart shop, Pablo had a long line of people waiting to order, so something told the two of us that it would be worth trying. After standing in line for awhile, we realised we couldn't buy one slice of tart as I originally thought. You had to buy a whole tart which was roughly the size of a small birthday cake. Me and my boyfriend are not big eaters so I had doubts about finishing the cake but after some consideration, I decided to go for it anyway. And it was 780 yen well worth it!
~ Freshly baked ~ 新鮮ですね～ o(≧▽≦)o
Pretty wrapping, さすが日本
Unfortunately, a bit of the lovely yellow sheen got peeled of during the transportation back home but nonetheless, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it. The crust still looked crisp and perfect- and remained that way til this morning too! I secretly got myself a small slice while my boyfriend was still sleeping. I find that I enjoy sweet treats more than when I'm alone; there's nobody to disturb my bliss. 一人スイーツパーティ
ヽ(=^･ω･^=)丿 ちょっとさびしそうね．．．
とろけるレアチーズ
❤ Looking at how soft and fluffy it looks inside, I think it is understandable why I want it all for myself. Though I was doubtful about whether the both of us can finish this cake, I think I can actually finish this by myself. This cake is surprisingly very light and not as creamy as I initially imagined. It also not overpoweringly sweet which makes eating the whole cake in one sitting very possible. The sweetness is also nicely complimented by the lemoney flavour from the yellow sheen and the crunch of the crust. When I return to Australia, I will experiment with cheesecake recipes and attempt to replicate this divine cheese tart. Yes, divine. Absolutely divine. So divine my picky boyfriend loves it too. He was initially not too excited about cheesecake. Chocolate cake seems to be the only thing he ever eats. At first he agreed to help me eat half the cheesecake because it wasn't something among the list of things he hates eating and it seemed popular. If we ever wander downtown Osaka again, I'm sure we'll be paying Pablo a visit again.
And here below, there's more food porn of the delectable cheesecake from this morning's secret breakfast.
If you managed to read my little essay of a post here, I wish you have a lovely day and I bid you adieu or should I say, さよなら！
