Our adventure in Osaka began with Peter and I meeting another one of his long lost relatives. Two of his great cousins live just outside of Osaka so we were to meet one of their sons at the train station. Shortly after getting off the train we were approached by a man who uttered a single word. Neither of us were familiar with this word and he and Peter stared at each other for about 20 second in silence. He then said something about Tokyo which Peter didn’t fully understand but seemed to respond to. He then gestured us to follow him.
We followed this man, in compete silence, for what seemed like an eternity. We were still unsure if he was who we were supposed to meet or not. After a few blocks he led us down a small dark alley. It turns out that his great cousins live in the back of a book store and the alley is the only way to get to their residence. This in fact was the correct man and not the leader of a yakuza attack squad.
As soon as we arrived at the house we were happily greeted and asked to come in and sit. The afternoon began innocently enough with some beers and a traditional Japanese toast. Then the onslaught of food began. The first thing we were given was a full sushi box that had around 12 pieces ranging from sashimi to rolls. If you know me at all you will know this was a horrifying sight for me. I really am not a fan of food from the sea and being as I didn’t want to offend our gracious guest, I had to dig in. The raw sushi included eel, tuna, shrimp, and squid. One by one I downed them followed by a large helping of beer. I almost thew up on the table after eating the squid piece but luckily everyone was in the kitchen and were unable to see me gag.
We ended up eating most of the sushi thinking this was the base of the meal. We were sorely mistaken. Next came 4 full skewers of fried pork with vegetables followed by a full bowl of udon with a sweet tofu patty. After that we were given two whole bowls of fruit along with a bowl of kimchi. We had to turn down the additional bowl of rice. By this time we were completely stuffed. On top of that they were forcing beer down our throats the entire time. We were like Kobe beef cows. They were serving it faster than we could drink it and politely encouraged us to drink faster.
While we ate we had a nice conversation with Peter's relatives. They were telling us about the Osaka area and what they are famous for. The dish of takoyaki came up which Peter had previously mentioned. It is pretty much fried dough balls with octopus and some weird cream sauce in the middle. I made the mistake of telling them that Peter had really wanted to try it. One of his relatives friends who was joining us proceeded to get up and leave the room. A few minutes later she returned and then shortly we heard a knock at the door. It was the local restaurant delivery girl. The friend had ordered us not only a full order of takoyaki but also two full orders of okonomiyaki.
This was a terrifying sight for us both. I really do not know how we manged to eat all that we did but we ended up eating most of the carry out food as well. There really was no end in sight so we politely had to tell them we needed to get to our hostel before it was too late. We would have probably exploded had we not gotten out of there. Everyone was very nice and it was a wonderful experience but we just couldn’t handle any more caloric intake.
After 5 meals and 14 beers we arrived at our hostel and proceeded to go into a food coma. Our bodies pretty much shut down for the next few hours. Our room however was the biggest one yet, 120 sqft!
After recovering enough to have minor body function we decided to hit the town. We ended up walking down one of the main streets in downtown Osaka. Shortly after arriving a super cute Canadian girl approached us asked if we knew any English. After some small talk she ended up joining us on our walk. Turns out she had been living in South Koria as a teacher and was in Japan vacationing since her contract had ended.
As we were still not anywhere close to being hungry, we accompanied her to dinner but obviously did not eat. A few beers later we headed back out and were once again approached. This time by a super cute Japanese girl. She instead asked if we knew Japanese. Tricking her into thinking our grasp on the Japanese language was better than it actually is she invited us up to a private bar usually reserved for locals. Karaoke and dancing were promised.
Upon entering the bar we started to realize this was a tiny 8 seat hostess bar. There were two other Japanese guys at the end of the bar and another waitress and that was it. They were running under a wild west theme and boy did they pull that off well. The only thing that resembled 'Wild West' was one of the waitresses was wearing a cowboy hat which she took off halfway through the night. After paying our 500 yen 'fee' we nopticed our server was a little put off because we were ignoring her instead of flirting with her like you are supposed to do. We proceeded to ask for the karaoke list.
The best thing about this karaoke machine is it would score you at the end rock band style. We sang all the hits; 'I want it that way', 'All my life', 'Chicken Fried', and 'Live your life'. By this time another man had entered the bar. He was not singing himself but rather having his hostess sing for him. After a few songs of going back and forth he asked us if we were familiar with 'We are the world'. A little drunk and overly confident I immediately said of course. I really had no idea how the song went but by that time it was too late. We proceeded to sing we are the world with a random Japanese guy and two waitresses. I think we pulled it off flawlessly.
After realizing how late it had gotten we had to rush back to the subway before it closed. We jogged to the station but we were too late. We said goodbye our new Canadian friend and caught a taxi home. This could have possibly been the best taxi ride ever. Upon arriving to our destination there was a random 2,000 yen just sitting under the drivers armrest. Our fair happened to be 1500 yen. He took the 2,000 and gave us 500 in change. We attempted to pay and he would not let us. We actually made money by taking a cab.
Its been a long day. We will see what day 2 in Osaka brings. Maybe more of this...
