3 days in Osaka.

Ikumi and I went to Osaka this week. Osaka is Japan's third largest city and it is located roughly in the middle of Honshu island. It is famous for having an enormous amount of restaurants / eateries and also for the local people having a noticeable accent and their own unique dialect. The journey from Nagasaki took us around 5hours (2 trains) and it was my third journey on Japan's famous 新幹線(shinkanesen).

Hakata to Osaka, with two friends "明太子" (mentaiko) and "高菜" (takana).  Rice balls, or おにぎり (onigiri) as they are known in Japan, are a great snack and a healthier substitute for crisps.

3 hours to kill on the bullet train. I crack out my laptop and keyboard. 

2011 - the year of creativity. I'm trying to record my own album this year and I managed to get a lot of ideas down whilst traveling speeds in excess of the speed of light.

Ikumi and I at the infamous Dotonbori bridge. Whenever the local baseball team Hanshin Tigers win, the fans change like The Hulk into a bunch of Millwall fans and go crazy! The fans come to this area, jump on cars, climb lamp posts and then jump off the bridge into the river below.

Osaka buildings

We stayed with Ikumi's youngest sister, Minori. She was a great host and really looked after us, we had a great time with her :-)

Ikumi and Minori

Ikumi and our "bump" :-)

Minori and me - in Ikea

Hot Dog time.

Food - We ate a lot of different food. At least Ikumi had an excuse. I let gluttony get the better of me :-)

I can't remember the Osaka name for these, but in Nagasaki they are called 肉マン(nikuman). They are steamed and are made from a flour dough containing pork, onions and delciousness. They are my new favourite Japanese food. 

天ぷら(tenpura) - vegetables,  seafood and deliciousness lightly fried.

Sushi! This was the REAL DEAL. Fresh fish caught that very morning and  prepared in front of our own eyes. Yo Sushi! has nothing on this.

Sushi chief preparing sushi.

A kind of sushi (that I have forgotten the name of) 

My favourite kind of sushi - salmon

Sushi + miso soup = deliciousness.

Blowfish! A chief in Japan needs a special license in order to prepare Blowfish. They are toxic and if not prepared right, fatal to humans. I like my life, so I didn't eat any. 

We spent our days walking around the city, sightseeing, shopping and just having general fun. Part of me felt that I was in another country as I wasn't used to seeing the neon-big-buildings part of Japan (Nagasaki is a small country town compared to Osaka). 

Oh my god! This connivence shop has a heart! I wonder if it's on sale.

Tall building

Old part of town

Kinryu ramen shop

We were very tired on the train ride back home but very happy to do a little bit of traveling together. We talked about traveling together with our daughter in the near future. Traveling really does broaden the mind, and gets rid of the daily cobwebs of the rat race.

It's all about bento boxes and train rides