Arriving in Osaka was a dreary affair compared to the festive welcome in Tokyo. Instead of arriving on 27th at 9 pm, we pulled in at around 4 pm on the 28th.
The weather was cold and rainy, it was dusk, we were late and some people were still cranky about the propeller issue.
Instead of colourfully dressed singers or taiko drummers, the ship was greeted by a handful of onlookers, Azamara's CEO, Larry Pimentel and a pink bus-load of at least 40 of his go-team members.
This was the cruise-line's damage control. The go-team was made up of Royal Caribbean International employees from around the world. They would be responsible for the logistics of moving six hundred bodies from Osaka to Shanghai and making them feel as comfortable along the way as though we had sailed there.
They endured jet-lag, a bit of abuse and probably the most adrenaline-charged, stressful assignment ever piled on luxury vacation specialists.
But they made it work.
We all had to get off the ship to once again clear Japanese immigration but I got right back on the ship because...it was Indian night at the buffet!
Hooray! Some kicky, spicy stuff to counteract the safe cruise food and the delicate Japanese flavours.
I really overdid it. The Indian guys were cheering me on! I had one spoonful of everything on the buffet except for the deep-fried selections. It was so different, I really kind of wished that there were spicy options offered every day.
The next morning, when I woke up, I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. In the other ports, there had been clear plans but Osaka was kind of free-form.
It's usually my habit to get off the ship too early when the shops and restaurants haven't even opened so this time, I spent the early morning packing up the rest of my stuff.
Should I get on a train to Nara to see the deer? Should I go to the aquarium? Should I go downtown to the Dotonbori district around Namba station? No way. That's where everyone from the ship went.
Weather was cold...not sure a whole day outside would be smart with an hour travel each way. I ruled out Nara.
It was Saturday. There would be tons of kids at the aquarium. Scrap that idea.
The town around the port was quiet except for the throngs of people getting off the subway to go to the aquarium...why don't I just stick around here? Okay!
It was only 11 am. Too early for lunch so I just walked and walked and walked some more!
What did I find? Only the best stuff that no organized land-excursion will ever show a tourist. For example, I had the opportunity to see how the old and new Japan manages to live alongside one another.
Down streets only as wide as a North-American back alley, ten story apartment buildings that look as though they were built in the sixties or seventies stand next to hundred-year-old homes built low to the ground, maybe one and a half stories high. Sometimes, in the narrow spaces between, modern architects have created single family homes on several levels with fully functional use of all the space available.
Hearing some shouting, I found some little girls playing tag in a tiny court yard and next door, some rhythmic chanting coming from a local shrine or community centre-type place.
In the film "Lost in Translation", Bill Murray's character is an American action film star sent to Japan to shoot advertisements for a Japanese brand of whiskey.
No joke, I saw publicity photos of Tommy Lee Jones used to sell Coffee Boss coffee from vending machines! Strange! I took photos of that and other assorted weirdness.
Then there was big excitement at the fish shop as the van pulled in with the catch of the day. When you hear the expression "hole in the wall" to describe a small, nondescript place this shop beats that.
The store front is maybe eight feet wide. Three feet for fish, three for fruit and if you can squeeze inside past the old ladies battling for the choicest pieces, there is a two foot wide aisle lined with buckets and baskets of all kinds of goodies.
I saw whole crabs powdered in sawdust, sea cucumber packed into brine-filled baggies, huge snails and lots and lots of fish. It was crowded in there!
On the way up the street from the ship, my kanji skills had scoped out a sushi place with no English writing on the sign, this assured me that this place wouldn't be a tourist trap. I returned there with a fierce craving.
There were still a few minutes to kill before the restaurant was scheduled to open on a Saturday so I sat on a bench nearby listening to a guy on a megaphone rambling on about the subway system in Osaka.
A non-asian lady and her daughter emerged from the Osakako subway station and looked at the map behind me.
They seemed a bit lost and the mum was mumbling as she looked at the map. But the mumbling sounded very familiar to my ear. She was saying: "Bon, alors...nous...sommes..."
So I just piped up..."Avez-vous besoin de l'aide, Madame?", then directed them to the aquarium in French. It was kind of awesome to be a tour guide, in French, in a Japanese city...that I'd only been in for a few hours!
The bad news was that the sushi shop never opened. A basket of freshly-washed oshibori napkins that had been delivered by the laundry sat uncollected on the front step. Oh well, maybe the sushi master was still at the fish shop fighting with the grannies.
Saddened by my sushilessness, I walked around looking for something else.
There were lots of ramen shops and soba shops and places with unappealing-looking plastic food in the window.
Many of the places had gangs of salary men in suits chain-smoking. Yuck. I was almost right back at the ship when a tiny shop caught my eye.
It had a solid door with no window to see inside but a small banner said "okonomiyaki" in katakana.
Okonomiyaki means "oh my goodness…this is better than sushi and you have to come to Osaka to get a piece of me!"
This food is like omelettes or pancakes stuffed with any kind of thing you like. Seafood, veggies, meat, cheese, old shoes, anything goes.
Daringly, I slid the rolling door open and discovered a very enticing restaurant. There were tatami tables at the back where you have to put away your shoes before sitting.
Instead, I sat down at the bar where one could see the chefs making the orders. Beside me, was Cindy, the future cruise specialist and Le Club Voyage Hostess from the ship. We had met earlier in the week. I got my pancake filled with "mix"...basically a combo of squid, octopus, pork and beef.
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| Authentic Osaka Okinomiyaki |
It was suggested to me that beer goes well with it so I got a pint and we both really enjoyed our meals! Cindy went back to work and I continued the unstructured wandering.
Here is where the gluttony becomes out of control. Beside the ship and the Kaiyukan aquarium is a shopping mall called Tempozan Marketplace. The link below is in Japanese but click on it to see proper photos rather than the blurry, badly-framed and washed-out images that I captured. Also, their Takoyaki (grilled Octopus) mascot is my new boyfriend. Insert hentai tentacle porn joke here.
Instead of regular food courts, they have built a little circuit called Naniwa Kuishimbo Yokocho to look like narrow streets with food vendors...something like what I had seen on Gulangyu Island in China.
It was totally fake but you somehow feel better buying food from a place with electricity and running water.
So even after my filling beer and okonomiyaki, I threw caution to the wind and sampled some pork buns and some sashimi. The sushi restaurant had a kids' menu, something that we don't get at Japananese restos back home. The nigirizushi are cut up small for kiddies. They take the curry and shape it into Kuma-San or in English, Mr. Bear. They even have Crab au Gratin. Not a hot-dog in sight.
Finally, I managed to pull myself away from this fantasy land of calories to my stateroom, the most relatively food-free area that I could find.
Just to be social and say my goodbyes, I did a quick pass around the public areas after dinner had safely ended, put my suitcases out for collection and then went to bed!
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