Osaka in One Night

Ruth decided to stay at the hotel in Osaka and rest, as she’s fighting a virus. But I joined the others from our tour on a walkabout through a shopping, restaurant, clubbing, and sightseeing area that includes the famous Running Man. More on that later.

The tour group all settled on a katsu restaurant, but the confusion and concern around the level of spice etc. was a bit of drama that Tatiana, Aaron, and I didn't want to be involved in, so we bolted to find a place to eat on our own. Someplace a little dirty with a lot of personality and beer.

After almost 9 days of listening to other travelers' mild to medium stupid and ignorant complaints, we just needed to get away from the heathens for a short while. Sanity break.

We walked past the most amazing female street band, tons of restaurants, tons of convenience stores, karaoke (of course), and gentlemen's clubs, and then we found gold. 

A one-man, six-seater, hole in the wall ramen house that was so small you couldn't turn around on your stool without hitting your knees on the wall. It was exactly what we wanted. 

The bathroom was equally small but they still somehow squeezed in a bidet. 

The chicken in mystery vegetables, the deep fried pork, dumplings, and the ramen were exceptional! We also had some Suntory beer and a glass of Yamazaki whiskey. The whiskey was a transformational experience. Probably my favourite ever. 

The dude that was serving us taught us that although arigato means thank you throughout Japan, here they say, “okini.” Some Japanese tourists that joined us for a bit couldn't speak English well at all but we're highly amused at us saying, “Okini,” and tittered as they stumbled through English “Goodbyes” and “Have a nice trips.”

We loved this restaurant guy who was happy, hard working, terse, and spontaneously funny all at the same time.

When the bill came, we had just barely enough Yen between us to pay for it. Whew. Escaped arrest once again.

The running man is just a giant electronic billboard in the middle of a cramped Times Square kind of area that's got a bridge over a canal where boats ferry tourists on sightseeing trips. The local colour here is gigawatts of diversity and I felt like I wanted to take photos of everybody. 

It's a very cool but extremely crowded area so we decided to amble down the shopping street to look for an umbrella for Ruth, cold meds for Tatiana, and something for Ruth for supper. Oh, and Japanese toothpaste for me. It's a thing. At the restaurant, a simple transaction for a ham sandwich evokes customs like handing money over with two hands and receiving the sandwich with two open hands with a slight bow.

We got back to the inn and I spotted a McLaren car dealership across the street. What would I have to do to get a test drive in one of those? I just want to drift and then see if I can break the sound barrier on the highway. 

Some other day maybe because tonight was our only time in Osaka. We're off on a train ride through the mountains tomorrow.

- Rik