Good Ramen Hunting 2015: Ogling in Osaka

Todays itinerary was going to be as minimalist as the Shinimamiya apartment we got for our two day stay.
Seriously if there was any less in this place the walls would not have paint on them.
The good thing about this is that it forces you to go out and see the town and it makes you appreciate a place with a chair.
The Osaka Castle rates highly on everyone list of places here so the next set of pictures are about the castle and the bits around it.

Bonsai Ornamental Cherry

Young girls learning a traditional dance

A scene that Tiz thought was worth taking

The 1000 steps up to the castle level

OK, they were only 69 BUT they felt like 1000

Beautiful gardens around the castle

Tiz on the bridge of the outer moat leading in to the castle

Selfie, which would have been far better if only Tiz would buy me

an extendable, chrome with pink handle, remote button selfie stick

This pose and hand gesture seemed extremely popular with Chinese tourists.

I don't think I looked any more or less silly than any of them, doing it

From the top looking south

From the top looking the other way

Tiz, being incredibly brave, given her vertigo

Below are scenes from a big battle fought in Osaka in the 16th century

Their battle history and lines of succession make interesting reading,

despite being quite complex

All the scenes above are very elaborate and the figurines are beautifully made

Views from a bridge on the way out, north side

From the castle we went to Kuromon Ichiba Maarket

We had this mackarel andsome squid for lunch

White strawberries which were very very expensive

This place was selling taro-yaki

(cheesey golf sized octopus balls)

in quantities that were staggering

I can vouch for their yumminess!

We then strolled over to Doguyasuji,

the chefs' tools shopping area

They take their chopsticks very seriously,

much the same as we take our knives and forks

Got dishes? Hell yeah! Got 1000's!

We even found the odd musket and katana

Not souvenirs, not for sale to foreigners, not cheap

After our wander around the chefs area of Doguyasuji we had a bit more of a look and discovered some of the funnier side of our hosts

First of all we came across a boob shop.

Yes, they sell all things "boob"

Please don't ask me to explain any further

Then we came across this little sweetie spruiking for maid bar ....

.... and as soon as she saw me wth a camera pointed at her she was off.

Maybe she is shy.

We did a U-turn a little way up the street

and I tried to get a better photo of her without being obvious.

The picture above is the best I could do. Sorry.

And here's another maid bar spruiker.

Not that rare really

The tanuki

It's here solely to balance out the five pics prior to it.

We had seen this little critter everywhere and wondered what it was.

Tiz had a look on the interwebz and found the following

in a blog by a guy called Mitchell Wilson.

It made me laugh, as I hope it does you.

"The translation of tanuki into English is a little misleading, if I’m honest.

Apparently, this rather cute (but annoying and rubbish-consuming) critter is a known as a raccoon dog.

This is a misnomer just because it looks nothing like a dog and probably shares very little common ground with our faithful friends.

Raccoon, I’ll allow, but dog? No.

It’s sort of like a cat and a raccoon with a bit of rat thrown in there.

It’s Nature’s hodgepodge – an experiment in gene-splicing gone wrong, if you ask me.

The Japanese, however, have a tendency to revere them.

They’re known for being quite Tanuki - Cute But Deadly virile and having rather large testicles.

Therefore, there are numerous statues available in the form of a tanuki,

complete with oversized testicle

I’ve heard tell that these statues have something to do with fertility, but I reckon the Japanese people just want big-bollocked raccoon dogs adorning their homes."

Once that was all over the last thing to do for the day was book our seat to Hiroshima for tomorrow and eat!

We had planned all of our train trips with precision but had not accounted for anyone else travelling on the same trains nor did we inform Japan Rail of just how important we were.

This was a mistake on our part as when we tried to book two seats on the 10:30

Shinkansen to Hiroshima we were given a firm "No".

The best the lovely man behind the counter could do was 08:40 from Shin-Osaka.

This meant that we would need to be up at 07:00 and on a train at Shinimamiya by 07:40.

We figured that as we slept precious little on the bed in this apartment anyway (it was worse than a tatami mat!) it wouldn't be a problem.

Last dinner in Osaka was had in E-Street, at a place that looked like a franchise but made great noodles.