Day 7: Osaka with Issei

I woke up to another delicious breakfast at the Ryokan. After thanking the staff and checking out, I grabbed my luggage and walked to the station to head for Osaka, or more specifically, Sakai city. It was another nice day and the trip went quickly. I ended up getting to the hotel an hour early, but thankfully my room was ready so I was able to check in right away. I had plans to meet up with Issei later so I spent a little time doing some shopping nearby and relaxing in the hotel room while I waited for dinnertime. Though I didn’t spend too much time in Sakai during the time I lived in Japan, it was the closest big stop south of the city, so I had been there a few times. That’s where the Century 21 office was that I went to to find my apartment. It was nice being back, not too much had changed.

In the evening, I met up with Issei in Dotonbori for some food. For the first place we ended up at, he had picked out a wild game restaurant that he wanted to try out, so we got to eat some meat from a few unusual and interesting animals while we had a great time catching up. The atmosphere was a little strange, the only person working there was a white guy who looked really tough but spoke in polite Japanese. The lights were dim, and there was also no light at all in the bathroom (it was broken)! The food was pretty good though, much better than I had expected, though I don’t eat a lot of game meats.

We ended up at a second restaurant for some more food and drinks, this time more of a regular Izakaya. I think I ate more different animals in one day than ever before in my life. Off the top of my head, we had tuna, chicken, squid, whale, pork, boar, deer, dolphin, kangaroo, crab, and some kind of flat fish.

After some fun chatting and with a stomach full of food and drinks, I headed back to the hotel. It was a fun day and I had plans to meet up for Yakiniku with Issei’s family tomorrow.

Day 8: Osaka with Issei and Family

I didn’t have any plans during the day, so I though it would be a good time to catch up on some laundry. Luckily there was a laundromat nearby. After taking care of that, I did a little bit of shopping near the station. I had started to fill up my spare suitcase with all sorts of snacks and food that you can only get in Japan. It was nice to slow down the pace a bit and do a little relaxing as well.

That evening, I met up with Issei and family and they took me for dinner at a Yakiniku restaurant ‘Wan Kalubi’. It was great meeting up with his parents again, as we haven’t spoken in a long time. We all had a great time at dinner and the food was amazing. They even had these little food delivery robots bring our order to the table, which was a first for me.

I had told the folks at my favorite bar, Beppinsan, that I would be there the following day, but I had a bit of time to kill in the evening and it’s near my hotel so I stopped by for a surprise early visit for about an hour. It was fun even though there were only a few people that evening. It felt like home and I really miss living close by. The walk back to the station was super nostalgic, it’s mostly the same route I had taken to get back to my apartment a ton of times. On that walk I could clearly recall the sound of the key going into that lock after a night out. It really makes me want to move back!

Day 9: Osaka

Today is the day I set aside to catch up with my friends at my old local bar, Beppinsan, where I used to be a regular. Before I headed over, I grabbed a quick tea and donut from Starbucks while I did some studying and thinking about plans for the weekend coming up. As I mentioned, I had initially set aside time to go to Shikoku with Tommy, but since we axed those plans, I started looking at heading to Shiga prefecture, which is the only prefecture I have yet to visit in the Kansai region. I might hit up Osaka’s version of Akihabara, Denden town as well.

Before heading out to drink all day, I decided to brace my liver with lots of rice, so I got some Katsudon for lunch at the station by my hotel. I also did some more shopping while waiting for Beppinsan to open – got to keep filling up that second suitcase. It was also Hina-matsuri, a girls festival, so I bought some chocolates to give as gifts to the girls who work there.

I headed over as soon at they opened. Over the course of the day and evening, I met a lot of familiar faces and some new ones too, I even got to catch up with the owner for a few hours. Issei also showed up for the first time there in a few years. After drinking for around 9 hours, I had a blast but I was tired as hell. Got my typical convenience store sandwich on the way back and then crashed at the hotel.

Day 10: Osaka with Tommy and Yuko

I decided to go to Denden town to do some shopping. I found that it was a lot nicer than Akihabara, the stores all have a better selection and are bigger and less crowded. For lunch, I went to ‘Chikara Meshi’, it had been a while! On my first trip to Japan 10 years ago there was one close to our hotel in Shinjuku, so Vedran and I ate there a whole bunch of times. Back then we called it ‘Grease Bowl’ because with the way they fry the beef comes out greasy like bacon, but it soaks in to the rice and is just amazing. I did so much shopping that my second suitcase was basically full.

I met Tommy and Yuko in the evening for some Kushikatsu. The place we wanted to go was all booked up and we would have had to wait a long time to get in, so we wandered around Nanba for a while looking for some other restaurants. The two of them were following me, but I kind of got lost too, it’s been a while and I always get turned around in the streets there. We all figured it out in the end and ate well that day. I ended up going back to Beppinsan again real quick the evening for a couple more drinks.

Day 11: Hikone, Shiga Prefecture

I decided to head over to Shiga Prefecture so I fill that in on my map of prefectures to visit. There is a city there called Hikone which has a castle and garden that looked nice, so I decided to take the Shinkansen over and check it out.

The castle was a short walk from the closest station, and up a whole bunch of stairs, I spent a little time walking around the grounds before going inside for a quick little tour. They always have dangerously narrow and high stairs in old castles and buildings like that! From the castle, you could see a great view of Lake Biwa, Japan’s biggest lake. It was my first time seeing it. I also checked out the castle gardens which were nice, but still a bit early in the season to see it at it’s best I think. There was a couple doing what I think were wedding photos there as well, so I tried to stay out of their way.

It didn’t take that long to tour the castle, so I googled what else was around there. On Trip Advisor, there were ruins of an old castle that showed up, so I went for a look. After walking there for 20 minutes it was all closed off! I headed back to the Shinkansen station in Maibara to think of what to do next. I had thought about eating there and trying something local, but it was still around 3PM and nowhere opens until 5 or 6, so I just headed back to Osaka and got some tasty Tantan-men Ramen at the Shin-Osaka station.

Overall not too exciting of a day, but I got to go somewhere new, so I’ll call it a success! It was the last day of my stay at the Hotel in Sakai, so I decided to get another laundry run out of the way in preparation for packing up my stuff to head over to Issei’s place.

Day 12: Osaka with Issei and family

My stay with the hotel was over, so the first order of business was to check out and head to Issei’s house, where I’ll be staying for the rest of the trip. Issei’s family treated me to a big helping of Takoyaki and Yakisoba from a local shop. After that, I took it easy for a few hours, since I was starting to feel the tiredness set in from all the running around. I was also able to deliver the last of the gifts I brought, including some that my mom sent for Issei’s mom, since they hit it off so well last time!

Issei and I went out for Yakitori at a nearby restaurant that he had taken me to before a long time ago. We ended up chatting with the only other customer who was there at the time who turned out to be a former pro boxer. We were chatting in English and he kept turning around and saying “Sugoi!” (Amazing!). Even when we were chatting in Japanese, he did the same. We got to talking and he told us about how he is planning on is opening up a restaurant soon. It was fun experience talking with some local folks and I ate and drank way too much again, but it was worth it!

Day 13: Kyoto

I headed to Kyoto in the morning and got there around noon. I was planning to check out the Eikandou temple, and then pick up a few gifts from near the famous Kiyomozu temple area.

To start things out, I grabbed some lunch from a fancy looking restaurant, ‘Junsei’. It was a real traditional Japanese lunch, and I figured I’d treat myself since I came all the way to Kyoto. I had Yuba for the first time, I had no idea what it was but I ordered it anyways. It turns out it’s the film from the top of lightly boiled soy milk, which you can dip in Ponzu. The rest of the meal was great, really high quality, and there was also a nice garden view from inside the restaurant.

After that, I headed to the Eikandou temple. On the way, I stopped by a old famous aqueduct to take some photos. The temple itself was quite big and picturesque, though I don’t think I was able to capture it well with my phone camera. Things were still not in full bloom, but it would be amazing in the fall.

I went to Kiyomizu after that and wasn’t able to find the shop I always go to. I would always get mom a gift from the same place, but it seems like maybe they didn’t survive the pandemic? After some more searching, I still found some gifts elsewhere, and I was able to snack on some hot pepper meat buns and Shiso flavored ice cream, both of which were great. After that, I headed back to Issei’s place and was treated to a late Sukiyaki dinner with his family.

Day 14: Osaka

I headed into Osaka in order to meet up with my former Japanese teacher Kuri-sensei for some Okonomiyaki! We had a long chat catching up and talking about the last few years over lunch. It was one of those restaurants where we ordered the ingredients and got to make it ourselves at the table as well, which was pretty fun.

I got a haircut because I had some time to kill and it was getting a little long after a couple weeks. I think the last time I had someone cut my hair was right after I came to Japan for a year, so first time in 4 or so year. It is nice and relaxing having someone else do it for me, though, maybe I should go more often.

Went to Beppinsan one last time this trip. Issei was there too. Got to say goodbye to everyone for another year or two. It was awesome to see all those folks again, and even though I didn’t get to meet up with everyone, I can’t wait for next time.

Day 15: Osaka

Issei’s father decided to take me out and show me around a few places in Osaka!

We first went to a town called Fukushima (no, not that one) for some Unagi from a restaurant that he highly recommended. At one point, the staff asked me to choose between two options related to my lunch and I wasn’t sure what the choice was, so I left it up to him. I ended up with the eel liver in my soup! I wonder what the other option was? Either way, it was some tasty eel.

After that, we went to the longest shopping arcade in Japan. It was pretty darn long, which was impressive, but it was mostly just really normal stores. We did eat some authentic Chinese food while we there there. There was also a station nearby so I purchased all of my train tickets for the trip to the airport the following day.

From there we went to a park in the Tsurumiryokuchi area. There was a big pond in the park with a bunch of cool looking ducks and other birds, and some blooming cherry blossom trees. We stopped by a building where they were keeping plants from around the world and had a look as well.

Lastly, we headed to an area called Shin-Sekai to take a tour and have some food and drinks. He showed me around and gave me a history of the area, which used to be a big tourist spot decades ago, and still is to a certain degree. I thought it was a fun way to spend the last day of the trip… until…!

Day 16: Bonus Day

On my last scheduled day in Japan, I woke up to a bit of a surprise. Just half an hour before I would leave for 4 hours of train rides, I get an email from Air Canada telling me that the return flight from Toronto to London was cancelled. While I was fretting about whether or not to leave, the flight from Chicago to Toronto was also cancelled due to heavy snow and I had my decision made for me, because I got automatically re-booked for the following day. Air Canada was kind enough to give me a worse schedule too, since I had a bonus extra connection to worry about.

In the morning, I headed to the Japan Rail station to change my Shinkansen and other train tickets I had bought in advance. Issei’s dad ended up going back a second time since there was a train with a better schedule that I should take instead, but it turned into a bit of an ordeal because he couldn’t get a refund or exchange one of my tickets since he didn’t have my credit card.

After resolving that, we also went out for some Wakayama-style Ramen for lunch. Since we had time to kill, Issei’s brother Shunsuke taught me Shogi, which is way more fun and less difficult than I thought it would be. I think I did pretty good for a beginner.

I took it easy for the rest of the day and got ready for another long flight back.

Day 17: Heading home

Though the train to the airport was all smooth sailing, the flights back were a bit crazy. With the extra connection, the layover times were much shorter, and I had 3 of the shortest transfers I’ve ever experienced. Heading in to Vancouver, I was still on the plane I arrived in, and I noticed it was only 20 minutes before the next one boarded… and I still had to go through customs and immigration! I ended up sprinting past everyone to get the front of the line so I could make it on time. With the very short connections, of course they lost my luggage as well. At least it showed up the following day.

It was a really interesting trip, much different from my usual ones. I ended up meeting up with way more people and spending way less of the trip solo than I normally do. I still managed to see a whole bunch of new places as well as visiting some old familiar spots, so it was a good healthy mix of different things. I hope my next trip is as fun as this one.