Golden Week Osaka

We arrive to Osaka to a rainy morning. Infact the first day in Osaka was about the only day that we had poor weather over all of golden week. We've been told that in Japan May is a good month for nice weather, but James and I are convinced that the Japanese have found away to engineer good weather over golden week. (According to James they did invent the technology to create clouds by dispersing a certain type of metal into the atmosphere)

After dropping our bags off at our hostel, and having a much needed shower, we hung around with Phil and Thomas, A couple of friends from Canada and France, respectively. It was nice to be able to speak some French for once.  Osaka is flour country in Japan, and so I was on a mission to eat as much flour based food as possible in Osaka. To that end we all decided to hit up a dirt cheap Udon place we saw on our way from the subway. With freshly made udon whipped up infront of us by a team of old timers for around 300 yen, we couldn't have gone wrong. 

Despite the overcast day we made an afternoon of visiting Osaka castle and wandering around that part of Osaka. The pictures don't quite do the castle Justice, but even in the overcast day the gold gleams, and the minimal palette of the grounds (White skies, black roofs, white walls and newly green trees) is very striking.

Osaka Castle was once the largest in Japan, and It still is probably the second or third largest.
Definitely a cool place to go if you are in Osaka.  The grounds of the Castle are a nice place to take a walk, if nothing else. Some of the stones that are used in the foundations at the main gates are simply massive. Over all the grandness of the construction make Osaka one of my favorite Castles to date.

We got lost around Shinsekai and wandered around Kuromon "Blackgate"  market.
It was a good place to hide from the rain, and check out all the fresh fish and meat that we would later pay way too much money for.

 

Apparently this is where the cities restaurateurs go to get their supplies. There are fish and seafood galore as well as bakeries and pastry shops. I bought some nice looking french bread, but despite the looks it tasted like all the baguette I've had in Japan: Plastic. We even saw a blow fish for about 11 600 yen. Or was it 116 000 yen. I don't remember.

In the evening we hit up Shinsekai for some food a drink before meeting up with the Girls from the other placements. At night Shinsekai is basically just street after street of Izakaya and Kushi-katsu places. The very south of Shinsekai around where our hostel was is where all the Japanese working class guys seem to go to get their fill of fried food and drink. It gets abit seedier around this area, and that means the food is a bit tastier! If you're lucky you might even get accosted by a drunk Japanese guy at 10 o'clock in the morning the next day.

Yay for the underbelly of Japan!

The crown Jewel of Southern Osaka: Dotombori. Easily the most happening place I've been in Japan, the streets are filled with couples and groups of bachelors or their female counterparts going out for a drink. If you go to certain streets you'll pass by all the Japanese Hostesses and their "Pimps". And cutting through the middle of it is a lovely Canal, where the neon lights and big ads get even bigger reflected in the water. After meeting up with the Girls from the other placements, and their new Japanese friends we all went out and took a look around to find a good Izakaya. Luckily our new friend Taichi knows lots of Izakaya owners so he brought us to a cheap place owned by his friend. Any plate of food or drink for 300 yen. Not a bad deal.

The ubiquitous and exspensive Kani restaurant chain, With its distinctive Animatronic Crab!
Dotombori by night  is very different from Dotombori by Night, But regardless of what time of day it is, Osaka Is a really cool city, with alot of character, and alot to see and do.