The end of April and beginning of May is Golden Week in Japan, when much of the country shuts down and many of the locals go on vacation. They sort of lump a bunch of holidays in one week, including the Emperor’s birthday, Memorial Day, Children’s Day, and Greenery Day. The schools are closed and many people have paid days off because their company is closed. Last year, Katie was off the entire week–kinda like Spring Break.
Tons of people use this time to travel to Osaka for their own vacation, so everything is even busier than before. You may recall the pictures I’ve posted of Dotonbori–the famous bridge that is all lit up like Times Square. Katie and I went there Friday night and it was packed even more than usual! Like at least 50% more people. You could move, but you had to go slowly. There were lots of sales in the stores just like our Memorial Day sales coming up in the US. We stopped at Critters Restaurant for a cheeseburger and fries. It was good–not like home, but good. The burger had a ton of black pepper and there were 13 fries, haha.
We found a pie shop around the corner and despite the fact we were full decided to split a slice of chocolate pecan pie. It was very good, dark chocolate with pecans baked on top, yum! 
When I woke up Saturday morning, I noticed a longgggggg line of cars waiting for the Arrow Pachinko parlor to open at 8 a.m. When it finally opened at least 100 cars entered. By 10 a.m. there was a mob waiting in the street, with the gentleman in the red vest announcing directions of some sort over his bullhorn. I’m not entirely sure what was going on, but it was a Golden Week party for sure! 
Katie and I took the train to Umeda the other day. One of the main department stores there, Hankyu, is at least 8 stories of high-end shopping. Somehow I had never gone to the very top floors above the store, so we took escalator after escalator up up up. On the 9th floor there was an exhibit which rotates and this time is was all things Snoopy. Yep, Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown are all popular here. There was an entire exhibit dedicated to paintings of Snoopy in Japanese settings with Japanese words.
On the 10th floor there was a huge area like an amphitheater where people relaxed. Finding a place to just sit and chill here is pretty unusual, so this was a treat! 
The 11th floor overlooked this area from on high. All the way around the top, there were restaurants, one after another. 
On the 12th and top floor, there was a observation area, with a gorgeous view of Osaka, with the mountains and spring clouds in the background at sunset. Even though it was 6 p.m. the traffic was not as bad as Orlando. 
Katie pointed out that you could see Osaka Castle, gleaming in the middle between the city and mountains.
One of Katie’s friends is from India and coincidentally is a Gator! Yep, he got the same engineering degree as Todd at the University of Florida. I mentioned to Katie that I’d always wanted to try curry and he offered to take us to an authentic restaurant. Since it is Golden Week, the “best” place was already full with reservations. The second best place did not accept reservations and was full when we got there yesterday. The third place was amazing and I not only loved the food, the experience was incredible and I can’t believe it’s not the “best”!
This restaurant was located in an old tunnel with a bunch of other places under a big building. Katie’s friend is multi-lingual, so despite the fact the hostess was speaking Japanese, he was able to help determine there were 3 options listed on the blackboard for today’s menu: chicken, fish, or deer.
We ordered 2 fish and 1 chicken meals, paid, and waited in the hall. After 5 minutes, she ushered us into 3 of the 12 seats in the tiny restaurant. It was like being at Waffle House except the cooking area was waaaaay smaller. These guys couldn’t even move around. They would just stir, turn around and add ingredients, turn around the make up the plates full of food. Along the entire edge of the counter were varieties of spices, seeds, and nuts in jars. 
The plates each came with a variety of items completely unknown to me. The cook closest to me said in passable English that you can mix it how you like–brilliant! The curry flavor was very mild and only in a couple items. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I found it all delicious! The restaurant is so small that everyone eats and leaves as a courtesy to the people lined up in the the hall. The cook asked where we were from and they all bowed us out of the restaurant with many arigatou gozaimasu–wishes of thanks.
As soon as we were out of the restaurant I grilled Katie’s friend for information. He explained that this is food typical of southern India, where he is from. The only thing Japanese was tempura fried veggies–in India they would not fry anything. He explained that naan bread, served at many American Indian restaurants, is from northern India. He told us he used to visit a restaurant in Orlando which was excellent, authentic, and cheap. It wasn’t in an area most of us would visit, but that just goes to show you can’t judge a book!
It was another beautiful spring day at 75 and sunny. Turns out we were only blocks from the Osaka Castle! There is a verrrrrrry large park in the back of the castle none of us knew about that includes grassy areas, playgrounds, woods, fountains, and a river. We wandered all over enjoying spring with our Japanese friends. One lady had a large tan & white rabbit on a leash………and it was wearing a little hat and jacket haha! Up ahead were a group of kids and teens on unicycles, like 20 of them! Japan, you crack me up!
Today Katie and I become roommates again as she’s officially moving out of her apartment. In another week Todd & Priscila arrive and we move to the trendy, touristy area of Shinsaibashi. Time to continue getting organized; everything for both of us has to go to the next apartment. From there we will ship our last box home and what’s left goes to Europe woohoo!
Photo: Umeda at sunset from top floor of Hankyu department store building
Recent Comments