December 5th,

Day 2

I didn’t sleep well from the day before, but it wasn’t going to bring me down for today. I have 0 plans for today, though, and I planned to go check out some indoor stuff.

Right after buying my plane ticket and consolidating my plan, I had a horrible realization. My plane arrives on the 4th, and by the 5th, I should be visiting the Himeji castle in Himeji and have Kobe beef for dinner that night. It really was right after buying my plane ticket that I realized that it is going to rain on the 5th. So, since I didn’t really have a master plan of where my destination was going to be, and decided to just try my luck at wherever I go.

To prepare for such an unforeseeable disaster, I brought an umbrella with me. It didn’t remain in my backpack for long; it was actually quite useful. That’s why I recommend either bringing a retractable umbrella with you, or buy one in Japan.

Since I don’t trust hotel sheets, I always take a shower in the morning after waking up. The hotel I stayed at that night did not have breakfast included in the price I paid for, so I needed to go out and buy breakfast. Luckily, I’m in Japan. Japan has plenty of breakfast options, but the most memorable ones are definitely from the convenience stores. Last time I was in Japan with my cousin, every morning we would get pre-made food from the convenience store downstairs and heat it up at his place. I don’t have a microwave in my hotel room, so I will have to ask the convenience store employee to heat it up for me.

There is a convenience store called “Lawson” right adjacent to the hotel I stayed at that night, so that was rather convenient. I told my friend Flora that whenever there are many convenience stores that is proximally similar, I will always choose Lawson over the others, because Lawson decided to open its first store in China in my hometown Dalian. I very much appreciate the fact that they chose to open in Dalian, so I will always shop at Lawson.

This is omelette with pan fried soba, which does not have any meat in it. It was still okay for breakfast, and I liked it. After breakfast, I checked out of my room, and headed towards the hotel that I will be staying at tonight.

Hotel name: Karaksa Hotel Osaka Namba

Address: Chuo-ku Nishishinsaibashi 2-9-13

Price: 431.82 RMB (60 USD)

Verdict: ★★★★☆

The hotel I am staying that night was a 5 minute walk from where I stayed the previous night, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. I dragged my luggage all the way over there, and was welcomed in by a guy named “Han”. His name tag had flags for Japan, China, and Korea, so I am guessing that he speaks all three languages, and he is actually Korean. He looked rather Korean, though. Japanese hotels will take your bags for you before check-in time, and will give it to you once you arrive, so I left my luggage with him and went on my way.

My first stop, was Uniqlo. Since I forgot to bring my winter jacket with me, I definitely need something to keep me warm. Yesterday I wanted to visit the Uniqlo in the Shinsaibashi Suji, but it was so crowded, I hate crowds, so I didn’t go in. Today, though, I thought that the store would open at 9:00 AM or something, so I headed straight to Uniqlo. It was closed. On Google Maps, it said that the store would not open until 11:00 AM, so I was screwed. Luckily it wasn’t even that cold, and with the clothes I had on, I was warm enough.

I made a reservation online for Kani Doraku at 11:30, it is the only lunch time availability left. Which means I need to tailor my time around my reservation so I don’t lose it. Now that Uniqlo was a bust, I searched online and headed towards the Kuromon Market.

The Kuromon (Black door) market is considerably south-east from my hotel and Uniqlo, and it took me a while to get there by feet. I didn’t know what they sell in Kuromon Market, and I was hoping for some good souvenir shopping there. Unfortunately, Kuromon Market is the ultimate food paradise. That’s unfortunate for 2 reasons. One, I just ate breakfast, I could not for the life of me eat another bite without food bursting out from my stomach and making the market very bloody. Second, it’s only food there, not much anything else. Still, it was nice walking around. I snapped this picture and sent it to my Japanese professor, Professor Sumitomo, who taught me Japanese for 2 years.

Kuromon Market was a bust, so I headed towards the temple located near Shinsaibashi. For the life of me I could not remember the name of the temple, but it was rather small and contained only a worshipping area. I didn’t pray or anything, but it was the only temple that I didn’t stop and pray. I felt that as a Chinese person, I shouldn’t be really making plea deals with deities outside of our god systems; but that thought dissipated real soon.

Soon, it was almost 11:00, so I headed towards Uniqlo and waited for it to open. It really does not open until 11:00 exactly. I was the first one in there, and went for the winter jacket section. Normally I would wear something like L in the U.S., and since I know Asian sizes are typically 1-2 sizes smaller than American ones, I asked the store employee if they have XL. Turns out, they don’t have anything larger than L. I get the logic, normal Japanese folks are a wee bit tinier than I am, so stocking something too big for someone bigger doesn’t make sense. For me to buy an XL version, I would need to make the purchase online and wait for it to arrive at the store. I didn’t want to waste my time here, so I just thanked the store employee and headed towards my lunch reservation.

On my way there, I saw the “Taste of Dalian” store again. It was still funny.

Soon, I arrived by my lunch reservation. I arrived by 11:20, which was 10 minutes earlier than my reservation, so I waited outside and checked out the menu. The restaurant is called Kani Doraku, a very famous crab-focused Japanese food place that was featured in the RGG series. It is most recognizable by its giant crab figure by the entrance. Since it is very famous, reservations are very hard to get. I could not get a table at its central location, which is its main branch; the only table I could get is at its Eastern Branch, which is just a few hundred meters down on the right of Dotonbori walking district. It wasn’t much different, so I took it.

The food really was crab based, as everything was crab. I could not find things that are not crab based. After deciding on what I should get, I walked in, and was shown to my table. The restaurant has a traditional Japanese decor, and it is very spacious. It has plenty of floors, and I was seated next to a window. Everything comes in sets, and I asked the waiter if I could finish a set by myself, he said maybe. I said what the hell (not really), and ordered the most expensive set. I thought to myself that I really shouldn’t save money on some experience that I will probably not experience again.

Soon, the first dish came. It is boiled crab with vinegar. You are supposed to take the crab meat out with its special bamboo prying tool that takes the crab meat right out, then dip it into vinegar. It was okay. I wasn’t used to dipping crab in sauce, as we eat crab by itself where I’m from.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

The second dish is crab sashimi, and you can eat it with the side dishes.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

The third dish is the crab chawanmushi, or steamed egg paste. I really don’t know how to translate it into English. It is a very special Japanese delicacy that originated from China, but its taste is considerably different from ours. I always order Chawanmushi when I dine at a Japanese restaurant in either China or the U.S. This one was different, though, because it had a very dense soup on top of the egg paste, I’ve never had that before.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★★

Next came a pot. Although I did not know what was in the pot. The waitress, dressed in Japanese kimono, came and lit the fire and it started to cook. She told me to wait 35 minutes.

While I was waiting, the waitress came and set a grill on the table. It is to grill the crab legs. Grill for a bit, wait for the color to change, and then squeeze some lemon juice on there for the taste. It was okay.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

The last main dish was crab Tempura. I’ve had my fair share of Tempura before, and it was mostly shrimp and stuff. Never have I ever had a crab leg tempura. It was the best dish out of everything I’ve eaten so far.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★★

When 35 minutes hit, I opened the lid of the pot, and surprise surprise, it was rice. It was cooking rice the whole time. It is a Japanese style food called Ochazuke, or Tea dip rice. You are supposed to pour tea into the rice bowl and combine the unique flavor of rice and tea. Since this restaurant is crab based, of course I had to put crab meat on top of the rice and stir it that way.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

It was then that the waitress started to speak Chinese directly to me. Before then, I have always conversed with her in Japanese. I don’t know how, but she knew exactly that I am Chinese. She’s from Changchun, a city that is far north from where I’m from, but we basically speak the same dialect. She thought it would be easier for the both of us that she explain how to eat the Ochazuke in Mandarin. I wasn’t against the idea, though I was still curious how she was able to tell that I am from China.

Lastly, dessert was served. According to the waitress in Mandarin, this is a specialty of this restaurant. It is vanilla ice cream with Japanese matcha poured on top of it. The matcha was hot, and she stirred it with the tea tool first, and then poured it onto the ice cream. It was pretty good.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

Lunch took 2 hours. I can see why this restaurant was always full and won’t let in customers who didn’t reserve. Everything was served in courses, and it took time between each course. Even though the set dressing and the mood of the restaurant was pretty good and chill, I am not the biggest fan of the food. It tasted fine, if not bland. Crab tastes good when it comes in small quantities, not when everything is crab. But that’s just me. I hope for variety when I am in a restaurant that serves food course by course. It was a bit overrated.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★☆☆

One thing I feel like I should write about is the use of the word “Arigato”. As I was dining, I see a Chinese guy who always uses “Arigato” to thank the waitress for bringing the food to him. It might seem like a nice thing to say, considering its English equivalent is “thank you” or “thanks”, but it is really rude for him to say that.

The correct phrase to use in that situation is “Arigato Gozaimasu”. “Arigato” can only be used between friends, or with people with lower status than you. By saying “Arigato” instead of “Arigato Gozaimasu”, since you and the waitress are not friends, you are saying that you are her superior and she is inferior to you. It normally shouldn’t bother a real Japanese person because he/she knows that you’re a foreigner and doesn’t know any better, but it’s best to not be the rude one.

I’ve learned that when I was in UCLA with Professor Ikeda. He was later fired for sexual harassment, but still learned this from him. He said it was rude to use “Arigato” to him, and I have never used “Arigato” alone again.

My next stop was the famous Kaiyukan, the Osaka Aquarium. I’m not sure if it fits your definition of famous, but it is certainly famous in my opinion. When I was a student under Professor Sumitomo, to finished a presentation for another class, I asked her where are some famous landmarks in Osaka, where she’s from. She recommended the Kaiyukan, and it left a very big impression on me.

This trip to Kaiyukan through train also marked the first time that I used an IC card to ride a train. Before my solo trip to Japan, I constantly worry that I was going to get on the wrong train or miss the train or what not; but with the help of Google Maps, I never got on the wrong train throughout my entire journey in Kansai. I was late some of the time, for sure, but there are always subsequent trains that are there, you just need to wait a bit.

I downloaded my Suica card onto my Apple Watch, so all I had to do was touch my watch, or hold it close enough to the IC Card Pad, and the machine will let me in. It was such a painless process, I was very impressed.

After a lengthy train ride, I arrived by the Kaiyukan. Kaiyukan’s aquarium is the biggest in Japan, if not in the whole of Asia. According to what I’ve read, it has the largest aquarium tank that contains numerous aquatic creatures in a vertical cylinder. Tourists start by the top floor, and move down gradually to see everything inside the very large tank.

It was certainly impressive; however, I’ve seen my fair share of aquariums and this one wasn’t that much of a difference. Here are some pictures that I took that I thought were interesting.

Kaiyukan Verdict:

★★★★☆

After thoroughly viewing everything that was in the Kaiyukan, I was going to go to the Instant Noodle Museum that lets you create your very own cup noodle. Unfortunately, December 5th was a Tuesday, and for some reason, most places don’t open on Tuesdays, which means the Instant Noodle Museum wasn’t open. That was a bummer, so I started to look on the map for stuff to do that is either indoors and interesting.

Then, I saw the Tsutenkaku, or the Tower to the Skies. I’ve first heard of the name Tsutenkaku from a TV show called “Gochisosan”. It is a long ass soap opera focusing on a girl’s life through her food and her cooking before and after WWII. In the show, she gave her future husband a nickname called “Tsutenkaku”, because he is tall, and nicknaming him something of his Kansai origin that is also tall seemed apt at the time. What was memorable about the show is that the tower was built before WWII, back when China couldn’t even build a tall building. As a Political Science major, I have to see this steel miracle.

After yet another train ride, I arrived by the outskirts of the tower. The tower looked old, and why wouldn’t it. It finished building in the year 1912, 1912! Holy crap, this tower that looked modern and sleek is older than my grandparents! Back then, it was the tallest building in Japan; and basing on my historical knowledge, I am guessing that it was the tallest structure in Asia back in its time. I bought my ticket and got in.

At the lobby, there is a old man that sits at a table filled with paintings. He takes requests, and he draws you and whatever anime character that you like together in a square canvas in Japanese anime style. I thought that was interesting, and it wasn’t terribly expensive. It costs 2,000 Yen to just draw yourself, and another 1,000 Yen if you want to make it 2 characters. I sat down and paid him 3,000 Yen to paint me and the Tsutenkaku together, because according to him, Tsutenkaku is considered as another character. Fair enough. He said he will need time to finish, and asked if I can come back tomorrow to pick it up. I said I don’t think I will be back and I don’t mind waiting till the end of day for him to finish. He gave me his card so I was allowed to reenter before the tower closes at 7 PM.

After going through the lobby, it’s an elevator ride that takes you to the top of the tower. On the top, there’s not much stuff, to be honest with you. It’s just a circular platform that has a panoramic view of the city. Of course there are taller buildings now in the year 2023 that towers the Tsutenkaku; but it doesn’t take away the tower’s historical significance. By the year of 1912, Japan has become the absolute master of Asia; it might have only a tiny sliver of land, but it was the strongest country in all of Asia, surpassing China. The tower has seen through it all, all the history, all the happiness, and all the hatred. Every step that I took inside the Tsutenkaku was my affirmation of this building’s historical significance, and I enjoyed every second I spent inside. It was much better than the Guangzhou Tower that I visited just a month before.

There are also a few boxes that sell Omikuji, or fortune telling. You are supposed to throw in a specific number of coins in there and take your fortune telling from the open box. Nothing stops you from just taking one without paying, of course, but that might be bad omen.

The Tsutenkaku has a special “God”, or some sort of deity that I don’t really know, called “Biliken”. Legend says that you will get good luck by touching its feet. The Tsutenkaku omikuji is pretty interesting though. Once you paid, you will grab a random packet. There are two kinds of packets, one has a yellow Biliken, which signifies good fortune with money; one has a pink Biliken, which signifies good fortune with love. I opened mine, and it was a pink Biliken. God knows I could use some good fortune with love. The pink Biliken now features prominently on my backpack.

I still had some time before the painter finishes the painting, so I paid some extra money to go to the very top of the tower where there is no roof. It was very cold at night, but it was interesting to see. It is very safe though, don’t worry about falling down or anything. Unless you have a death wish, you are very unlikely to trip and fall to your death. There is a platform that goes out of the body of the tower, and there is a line of people trying to take pictures there. Didn’t want to wait in the cold just for a photo op, so I just walked around and left.

When you leave the very top floor and the floor that the elevator brought you to, there is one other floor below them that is another observation deck but is filled with loud music and Tsutenkaku’s very own anime character. I’m not the biggest anime fan, so I didn’t really care, and just got down through the elevator. You can, of course, choose to walk all the way down to the lobby; but there are multiple signs that advises you that there is nothing to be seen there and it will take quite some walk to get down. Don’t do it unless you are very capable physically and has nothing better to do than walking down flights of stairs for nothing. I didn’t want to do that, so I took the elevator down.

When you leave the elevator, you are greeted with a museum that shows exhibits of the Tsutenkaku tower. It was rather interesting. Here are a few pictures that I took.

Tsutenkaku Verdict:

★★★★★

After the museum, there, of course, is a gift shop. I really liked some of the products there, but unfortunately, most of them, if not all, are “Made in China”. I didn’t fly all the way to buy stuff from China just to bring it all the way back to China again. Skip!

Then the time hits for me to get my painting. I got back to the desk where the old guy paints, and he has another customer. Based on what I could eavesdrop, apparently since it was too late, he couldn’t paint for them. Here is the final product, though.

Can’t say it looks like me, but since people were staring, I didn’t say much other than “You did a good job!” And “This really looks like me!” You be the judge though.

Painting Verdict:

★★★☆☆

After getting my painting, it was pretty late, so I decided to just walk around Dotonbori  more. Yesterday, when I was walking in Dotonbori, I saw a capsule machine thing that is very popular in Japan. On the machine, it says “too sexy/horny”, which is equivalent of saying that it is adult only. It needed a 500 yen coin, but I don’t have one, so I skipped it yesterday. Today, though, on the way of walking to the metro station, I saw the machine again near Tsutenkaku. By then, I have a 500 yen bill, so I had to see what’s in it.

Another person was walking around the machine looking. I knew from the looks of her that she is a foreigner too, so I asked her if she is going to try one. She replied in perfect English that she already tried a couple of them, but they were basically all just panties. I don’t want panties, so I went for the machine that says “big breasts”. Once I got the capsule out, twisted it open, I was immediately amused by what was contained inside. It was a spherical boob shaped keychain made out of silicon, so it was soft. For the sake of your sanity, I will not include a picture here, but it is made to mimic the look of a woman’s areola, and it was very amusing for sure. Me and the lady had a good laugh, and I put the boob thing in my bag and walked to the train station.

Taking the train back was easy with Google Maps. I first headed towards the Wagyu on a stick place that I passed by yesterday. I wanted to try that, but I was too full yesterday from the Takoyaki.

The shop is right by the river, a prime location. The Wagyu stick is 1,500 Yen. It took a while to cook, and to be completely honest with you, it didn’t taste like wagyu. I know there are certain levels to Wagyu and perhaps they really did use wagyu but with the lowest quality; but to me it tasted just like prime rib from the U.S. Didn’t taste much like the Wagyu that I had in mind. Disappointed, but still ok.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★☆☆☆

On the bridge that crosses the river, there are performance artists. They’re not there everyday, and someone new comes everyday. On Tuesday, there’s a “magician” type guy that plays with the crystal ball, which was rather boring. Right next to him, though, is a guy who stays motionless. I thought it was interesting, so I gave him 10 Yen, and as soon as he heard someone put a coin in his bucket, he started to move, and did a very interesting thumbs up with his whole body. Too bad I didn’t take a video, but I didn’t know he was going to move in the first place. Interesting.

After the performance artist stunt, I was on the move for more food. Since lunch took 2 hours, I wasn’t really that hungry, so I decided to skip a full meal and instead just eat some of the street food. As I was walking, I saw a street shop selling some unknown thing on a stick. I didn’t know what it was, and from my Japanese, I read something about it being made out of rice, so I bought one and tried it.

It was basically just grounded rice made into a ball and dipped in soy sauce. It’s interesting. It is very soft and savory, although it’s going to be too much of carbohydrates for me. I ate two, and threw the third one away. I am sorry for being so wasteful.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★☆☆

After getting the rice ball, I walked along the street, and saw the “too sexy” machine again. I tried one, and got a woman’s lingerie. Boring. The machine belongs to a game rodeo place that shoots darts or something I don’t remember, and the employee was looking at me. I started to talk with him, and he was surprised to learn that I am not Japanese, I was very flattered. We chitchatted, and I used my last 500 Yen coin to buy another capsule, and it was yet another woman’s lingerie. We had a good laugh, had some decent convo before some customers came, and I walked away while he was serving his customers.

Continue to walk, I discovered a sushi place that serves Kobe beef. I have avoided shops that sells Kobe beef because I was planning on going to Kobe and have teppanyaki the next day. However, this shop smells so good, so what the hell, I’m gonna try their Kobe beef sushi. It was the highlight of my freakin day.

Like from the video, they first grill one side of the beef on a grill so the part that touches the rice is not raw, then they put it onto rice and burn it with a blowtorch, and lastly put sauce onto the beef and put wasabi on the side. I tried their platter, which contained three different kinds of meat; one cheap, one expensive, and one hella expensive. I spent 2,000 Yen on 3 pieces of sushi, and it was well fucking worth it. While they were grilling the beef, they have a special song/chant thing that they do.

The cheapest one, on the right, was bland. It was only okay, didn’t really love it, and it made me doubt if I have spent 2,000 yen on something wasteful. Then, the one in the middle. It was so soft and it melts in your mouth, it was the best. It wasn’t until I tried the third one, the left one. It was the most expensive out of the three, and it almost made me cry. It was so delicious! I can’t believe how good it was.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★★★

After the Kobe beef sushi, I was pretty full. I walked around Dotonbori a little bit more. After I exited from Uniqlo that morning, I asked my Dad who was home to see the size of my Uniqlo winter jacket that I forgot to bring. He replied that it was L. With that information in mind, I went to the Uniqlo store again.

On the shelf, there were two kinds of winter jackets. One is 1,500 Yen cheaper, and one is more expensive. They all looked the same and felt the same. I asked a store clerk what the difference was, and even she didn’t know. She looked on her special machine to learn that one is from the year before, and one is the current style, with the current style having a slightly different pattern than the old one. When she was explaining it to me, she saw that I was confused with the word “last year”. I knew what it meant, I was just simply confused that last year’s design was the same as the new one. She was very lovely.

Shopping Experience:

★★★★☆

After Uniqlo, it was time to go to bed. I went back to my hotel and asked for my luggage. Turns out, they were kind enough to already put my luggage in my hotel room. All I had to do was check in with my passport and go to my room.

When I got to my room, I was shocked again. I couldn’t believe how big the hotel room was. I stayed at a tiny tiny tiny ass hotel room yesterday, and it was even more expensive compared to this hotel, which is very close to each other. The room has a giant bed that is bigger than king sized. The toilet is separated from the bathroom, it’s in its own separate room, which was kinda neat. I was very surprised by the size of the room.

After taking a shower, I started to book tomorrow’s hotel and make a reservation at the Kobe beef teppanyaki restaurant that I wanted to try. My plan was to first arrive at Kobe and leave my luggage at my hotel, then head to the Himeji Castle; after touring the castle, I would head back to Kobe, check into my room, and head to the Teppanyaki place for dinner. Osaka (Namba), Kobe, and Himeji are on a straight line. Solid plan, right?

Except, I could not make a reservation at the restaurant that I wanted to try. I tried booking online, but every time it would return an error message. I tried to reserve with their Japanese website with no luck as well. No matter how far I set the date to be, it would still show me that no seat available. I know the restaurant did not close, so I knew that it must be a technical error on the website’s part. Japanese people always reserve by calling, so I must man up and call them the next morning. It was too late, don’t want the other side yelling at me.

With that information in mind, I just booked the hotel for tomorrow, which was very expensive. All hotels in Kobe were expensive for that day, and I picked the cheapest one. After booking, it was late, so I just slept. This time, though, since the hotel wasn’t too close to the roaring crowd, not much noise leaked into the room. I slept soundly.

Osaka Verdict:

★★★★☆

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