Osaka
We spent a day in Osaka yesterday, with the highlights being an incredible lunch, a rooftop garden, and an amazing aquarium.
We had a little trouble finding our hotel (wrong train station, then wrong hotel) so by the time we got there we were starving. We ended up wandering semi-randomly into a restaurant because the food displayed outside looked delicious. Turned out to be a pretty fancy place (didn’t look it from the noisy, bustling exterior). We sat on pillows on the tatami mat covered floor in our own private room. The table was just perfect height for Riley to stand at. The waitress gave her a little windup ladybug that flips over, but unfortunately it kinda freaked her out… she was happy playing with her little bag of toys though (there were little dogs, cats and horses all over the table by the end of the meal).
We asked the waitress to bring us the house specialty (“osusume onegaishimasu?”) and a shabu shabu (kind of like a meat and noodle soup that they cook on the table in front of you.) We ended up with lots of delicious little things, and the soup was yummy too. Riley just ate noodles. We tried giving her some layered tofu, but she was not impressed and started crying because she couldn’t figure out how to get it out of her mouth… she settled down again as soon as it was out though!
The most fun part was when George and I made octopus balls. The waitress brought out a little metal plate with 3 ping-pong-ball sized openings in it and a flame underneath. Then she told us to stir up the egg batter and pour it into the plate (filling the openings and the rest of the plate) then drop pieces of octopus in each opening. Then she said, “don’t touch” and disappeared for a while.
When she returned, she instructed us to cut between the openings (think mercedes benz sign) with a toothpick, then fold in the edges over the openings to make a ball, then spear the ball and flip it over. We just looked at her like that would never work, but it did!
They cooked a little longer, then we transfered them to a bowl, poured sauce on top (tasted like barbeque sauce) and sprinkled some stuff on top (I forget what it’s called, George knows), then served it to our husbands (like the good wives we are). Sage liked it, I didn’t really, but it was fun making it anyway! Since making them, we’ve seen little octopus ball stands on the street everywhere we go. I guess they’re pretty popular!
Later while reading their guidebooks, George and Brad realized the restaurant we went to is actually very highly recommended. Good fortune that we stumbled upon it! The restaurant was 8 stories and we just randomly picked a story. Turns out as you go higher it gets fancier and more expensive… we were on floor 6.
After lunch we checked out a roof garden…
…then went to the aquarium, which was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, Riley napped in her stroller the whole way through the aquarium, which is too bad because there were otters and penguins and all kinds of cool fish that I think she would have really liked…
Whale shark! Pretty awesome. He’s huge!!
Freaky giant crabs…
Jellyfish!
I think that about sums up Osaka. Oh! The amazing thing is, we put Riley to bed around 9:30pm (after dinner) and she slept all the way through the night until 6! Apparently she’s not affected by jet lag… (it’s 8 hours earlier here) She’s such a star!
For more pictures and videos from Osaka, click here.