Good Food and Carefree Deer

I know I keep promising to talk about Kyoto and I have made you guys wait long enough. So yes, I do indeed plan to talk about Kyoto.

Right after I talk about Osaka and Nara. Teehee.

When we ventured into Osaka, we knew that we wanted to use the city as a base of operations for visiting nearby areas. At the time, we only considered this because it was cheaper to stay in Osaka and make day trips to Kyoto and the like, rather than find a hostel there. Besides, there would be plenty to see in such a populous city, right?

Well, not so much.

Apparently that runner in the background is iconic. Not sure why...

See, Osaka is known for it’s food. While their food is indeed lovely, that reputation might also be due in part to how few things there are to do in the area as a visitor. There is Osaka Castle, which has been converted into something of a history museum, and Dotonbori; the city’s main drag. Even Dotonbori, however, is not much of an event once you arrive.

It is certainly a sight worth seeing, because between the flashing lights and multitude of extravagant decorations, there is a lot to take in visually. However, it also only takes about twenty minutes to see your fill. Vibrant and dazzling as the place is, it takes only a few moments to realize that nearly everything in that area is a restaurant. Even if those restaurants had been within our price range, you can only visit so many before you burn out.
Before we discovered this, though, we wandered around near our hostel, looking for a local specialty: Okonomiyaki.

This is a pancake, of sorts, with pretty much any ingredient you like in it. Heck, the word is even derived from the Japanese term for “how you like” or “what you like.” You want shrimp? Throw that in. Some potatoes and green onions? No problem. Pork shavings with fish flakes on top? You got it. There are innumerable combinations to this dish. A big part of going to a okonomiyaki restaurant, however, is that you do a bit of the cooking yourself. The chef combines the ingredients and makes the pancake and then you and your eating buddies cook it to your taste and add whatever batters and toppings you care for. To make it even better, this is a pretty cheap dish. While the food was lovely, though, the main event ended up being the other guests.

As we were preparing to pay our bill, a group of four older locals came in and began chatting. From their body language and behavior, I’d say it was a safe bet that at least two of them were already tipsy, if not sloshed. We paid and these men and one woman called us over to chat! Sort of. They spoke minimal English and we had about as much Japanese at our disposal. At one point, they asked how old we are. We each said that we were twenty-three, but when our friend David said as much, one of the old men shouted in surprise and replied. I nearly bent over laughing while my friends stood there confused. When they asked what was so funny, I translated that the man had said that David looked like he was forty-three. That got a laugh out of them.

What was not as amusing was one of the other, more noticeably drunk men. As I have said, my Japanese is not that great. However, I can understand enough to catch the gist of what a lot of people say. Although this man was smiling at us, he insulted us for pretty much the entire time, assuming that we could not understand. Throughout, the woman was politely trying to get him to stop and, in what little English she could manage, gave vanilla translations of what her friend was saying. Instead of “It’s amazing to see a bunch of annoying/stupid foreigners in here,” she said “He asks if you like Japan” and things along those lines.

I don’t know about you, but I find that condescending as all hell. It’s like playing with a dog and saying “Oh, you’re so stupid!” with a big, shit-eating grin plastered across your face and a goofy lilt to your voice. Thing is, I love my dog and wouldn’t do that to him, even if he is a doofus. So when someone does the like to me, you can imagine that it got my hackles up. I was only too glad when my friends decided that it was time to go. They had the impression that something was off about him too, and I explained what had transpired. Can’t say that any of us were terribly surprised, considering that we are foreigners after all. No matter what, you’re going to get assholes like that every now and then because, guess what?, assholes are everywhere, even in the infamously polite Japan.

Taking in the view.

Then again, Iza was carrying around an anime-styled plushy doll of a shrine maiden in her backpack, so perhaps we deserved the ridicule, even though these guys never saw the doll. Then again, David and Iza were pretty thoroughly enamored with Merron-chan and it was hard not to get swept up in the goofiness. I mean, seriously, check out some of these pictures! Iza even made an Instagram account to document this doll's trip!

Okay, I couldn't help myself. I got into it with the doll too.

David's face in the background, though...

Anyhow, the food in Osaka was lovely. Not too much variety for us, considering the distinct lack of money in our pockets, but we enjoyed some takoyaki (battered and baked octopus balls with sauce and seasonings) and Japan’s terrible excuse for beer. FYI, everything here seems to be some variation on a weak lager.

In contrast to the gastronomic hub of Osaka that provided little to do, the nearby city of Nara was a cuisine wasteland with tons to see and do, especially if you like deer. Yes, this is the place with the famous parks where you can feed crackers to a bunch of wild deer as they bow to you and deign to let you sketch or even pet them. Gotta say, deer are not nearly as soft and sleek as they look. Still, I can cross “Deer Cuddles” off of my bucket list now! Seriously, though, the deer in Nara are just so used to people that they simply do not give a fuck. These guys couldn’t have been more chilled out if they were each toking like it was April 20th! Car horns? Who cares? Little children screaming? Par for the course. Foreigners gushing over us? Eh. We deserve the gushing.

We didn't even realize that this lady was in the photo with us until after the shot.

In that same day, we wandered all over several temples and a monastery. We even managed to get a brief peek at the resident Great Buddha statue, though that was more of a coincidental bonus than a destination for us. After doting on deer and admiring temples and Shinto/Buddhist statues for the entire day, though, we found ourselves rather peckish and rather starved for interesting choices. Yes, you can hit up the street vendors or go to a restaurant or izakaya (sort of a small restaurant where you are required to buy at least one drink), but we found nothing in the way of local specialities. Turns out, there’s a local saying that “Nara has a Great Buddha, but nothing good to eat.”

David was looking for an elevator. Falling was the next best option.

And thus we returned to Osaka, stumbled into an izakaya, and had some of the best plum wine that I have ever tasted in my considerably limited experience. In all seriousness, though, if you guys know how to get your hands on some mango plum wine, PLEASE get in touch. It’s hard to go back to beer after tasting the gods’ Nectar.

Seriously. This was TOO good.

That being said, on our first night in Kyoto, we found a bar that sold actual, honest to god BEER!!! I don’t mean Asahi or Kirin (though they offered that too), but stouts, ales, pilsners, and all sorts of others! Better yet? They were actually good, which is surprising. I’ve tried some other “ales” in Japan and they’re all just lagers with different names. This, however, was something else entirely. It tasted like the brewers had maybe studied in Germany and the U.S., because the beer had flavor! Frankly, I was rather surprised to discover that it was brewed in Japan at all. Just saying, f you come to Japan, keep an eye out for something called Hansharo. It is an American Amber Ale brewed in Izunokuni, Shizuoka. Strangely enough, though, I cannot find this beer in Yokohama, even though the cities are essentially neighbors. I need to hunt further…












And after our beer, we left Kyoto and went home.

…


Okay, not really, but still, if I tried to write about Kyoto in this post as well, the entry would be WAY too long. Last thing I need is to scare away or overwhelm my three readers.

So I promise, Scout’s oath, that I will tell you about Kyoto next week.

Until then, can someone PLEASE tell me how to get mango plum wine?!?!?!?

See ya!

Song of the Week: I totally missed last week’s entry because of a crazy work week and now I’ve got you guys waiting one more week for me to blab about Kyoto. So what song could be more appropriate for this week than “I'm Waiting” by the All-American Rejects?

Well, there’s “Waiting on the Sun,” “Waiting for You,” “Wait for You,” “Wait A Little While…” Ah, you get the idea.

Enjoy!