It's a normal tea cup.

Day 14

We woke up late today. It was hot at night and I think we are getting tired of the trip. Driving takes it's toll. 

Maybe I should have included more rest days. I say that every time I plan a trip and every time I want to do as much as I can. In the end I never allocate enough 'lazy' days. Saying that, I'm sure Will and Jorge are going to be a lot more tired than us when we finish.

No plans for today I must say. All we knew is that we had to return to Tokyo by the end of the day. Manuel did not have any ideas, as usual!, so I decided I wanted to buy noodle bowls as we have none in London. We have tried to eat noodles in soap dishes and that has proven to be a bad idea...

We took the subway this morning and found the picture below on the platform. Does this mean there is a lot of 'grabbing'during rush hour?

Yesterday, at Shinsaibashi, I did not see many home shops. It was mainly fashion, many high street names and I even found a branch of the street with luxury brands. Today we went to another area of Osaka that is popular for shopping: Tenjinbashi-suji Shotengai.

Tenjinbashi-suji shopping street (shotengai) stretches from north to south approximately 2.6km from Tenjinbashisuji 6-chome subway station to Tenjinbashi bridge. It boosts to be the longest straight shopping street in Japan. The street is covered by arcades in succession with gaps in intersections. Each section of arcades has it's own theme, one with red toriis, another with blue toriis, another with flags, etc.

It is like this street is your local high street. Old ladies pulling their shopping trolleys into grocery stores. People on bikes stopping at the door of the mini-market to grab some lunch. Shops selling groceries, clothes, shoes, books, snacks, medicines. Food restaurants and food stalls. It is clear that this shopping street has more affordable items and caters for the basic needs of life. Saying that, pachinko is not a basic need and the amount of Pachinko Halls is unbelievable!

Shinsaibashi has a shopping mall feel, Tenjinbashi-suji has a neighbourhood feel.

We walked literally for miles. It takes a while to walk the full 2.6km! It was not as crowded as last night Shinsaibashi was, but it was a weekday morning so instead of crowds of tourists and fashionistas you could see the locals going about their lives.

There were some food stalls along the route. One of them selling soya milk products. We bought a soya desert. I ate a chocolate pudding and Manuel bought a plain soya pudding and was given maple syrup to pour on top. They were delicious! I do not eat soya related products in the UK because I really don't like the taste, but the soya products in Japan are absolutely delicious. They clearly keep the best stock for themselves...

I was paying for my chocolate pudding and, clumsy as I am, I managed to drop it. It splattered on the floor. The old lady selling the desert came quickly to clear it away and gave me a new one. No hesitation at all! I tried to pay for the second one but she would have none of it. Customer service at it's highest level even on the streets.

I did find a homeware shop to buy my noodle bowls. The shop was packed with porcelain ware and I spent some time there choosing. What do you think?

As I was paying a tea cup caught my eye. I fell in love with it and added it to my shopping. I was remarking to the shop assistant how beautiful it was, she looked at me, frown her brows a bit and replied 'It's a normal tea cup'. Well... it may be normal to you but I don't see such pretty bamboo painting on tea mugs commonly in Europe!

It was just after lunchtime and we decided that we were done with Osaka. We picked up our backpacks from the hostel and headed on to Shin-Osaka train station. 
Below, a photo taken on the subway. Manuel's only comment was 'If it was me taking that photo, I would have been arrested'.

We had time to quickly buy a bento box and board the shinkansen to Tokyo. Eating in trains is frown upon in Japan, bento boxes in shinkansens are the only exception. 
As usual I slept the all way. Damn comfortable and stable these shinkansens! Worth their price in gold (one way Osaka-Tokyo per person: ¥14450, £99, €116.6, $127.5).

Wise Owl Hostels Tokyo. Yes, we're staying at the same hostel and we arrived there almost at the same time as Will and Jorge.

Will had dinner with his friend Chris whilst watching the highlights of Giro D'Italia. Manuel is technically incapable of eating, he gets unwell every time he tries so he skipped dinner (he really needs to check what's going on!). That means me and Jorge had a date night.

We went out looking for food and found a steakhouse. Why not? Let's see how Japanese do steak!
We can confirm Japanese can handle any type of food and are able to transform anything into a gastronomic orgasm.

Osaka really comes to life after sunset!

Day 13

Breakfast was at the train station, at a cafe. I was in need of strong coffee. It's hot in Osaka and I always feel a bit less energetic when it's hot.

Today was a special day. We had booked a cooking class with 'Eat Osaka'. Osaka Street Food was the theme. I was sooooo excited!!!!

Meeting point was at Tower Knives Osaka in Shinsekai.

Shinsekai is Osaka's old downtown, a district that developed before the war and was neglected for decades after the war ended. It is an area of commerce, restaurants, shops, gambling and it does have a vintage feel. Half of the establishments were closed. I have been told that Osaka is a city that wakes up at sunset so I was not expecting much open in the morning.

The Tsutenkaku tower, constructed in 1912 after Paris's Eiffel Tower, is an observation tower with 103m and towers over the area. Tokyo Tower in Tokyo and Sapporo TV Tower in Sapporo were built in the shape of the Eiffel Tower as well. It seems Japanese have a fixation with the Eiffel Tower!

The chef responsible for the cooking class picked us up from the shop and took us to a nearby house. According to her, they use a friend's house for the cooking classes. It did look like a private residence.

There were 6 of us around the table, an american couple from California, an Australian couple and me & Manuel.

Osaka Street Food menu included:

• making udon from scratch. 

• chopstik okonomiyaki. 

• yakitori.

We started by making the udon dough and learned that it is a lot more fun and unconventional than we thought. The dough is kneaded with your feet and the proving is done in your pants (in this instance it was Manuel's pants who proved mine as I was wearing a dress). Worry not, the dough was inside a plastic bag throughout this process! 

We learned how to cut the dough and the tricks involved in cooking them al dente, The chef had already prepared the dashi sauce for it and cut the remaining ingredients.

The yakitori is the easiest dish in the planet. Season, let it stand for an hour and then cook in a pan. As easy as that!

The chopstick okonomiyaki requires a bit more work. Cutting the vegetables, making the mix, cooking in the flat griddle, rolling it and then topping with the sauces and bonito flakes.

In the end we ate what we cooked and had green tea and a typical green tea kit-kat for desert.

The chef gave us the recipes in writing and sent us the photos she took throughout the class via e-mail. The class was great, the chef was knowledgeable, the food was very good and the service (from the booking process to the photos afterwards) was excellent. It is worth the full ¥6500 (£44.5, €52, $57) we paid for it.

After the class we returned to the knives shop. I know the reason why the meeting point was there was marketing but the truth is that I had intended to buy a proper Japanese kitchen knife on this trip. So it was perfect as we used the knives during the class and then went to the shop to buy one.

Tower Knives Osaka sells Sakai knives. Sakai is a city on the outskirts of Osaka that has been famous for it's forged knives for several centuries now.

I had wanted to buy a knife with hand-folded steel but they were a bit out of my budget so I chose the 2nd best option: pre-folded steel but hand crafted. It is called Gyuto (each style and size of knife in Japan has a specific name), 210mm, and it cost ¥29,000 (£199, €234, $256). It was no cheap cookie but it will be my kitchen baby for a while.

The shop offers name engraving for free. My name in Japanese was engraved on the blade for posterity. 

The shop assistant was great. She taught me the technique to cut hard and soft foods and how to sharpen it. I also bought the stone to sharpen it, I know... shop, shop, shop...

We said goodbye to Shinsekai and walked to Osaka castle. It was an hour walk. Osaka is big! It was sunny and sun is always welcome.

Osaka castle stands in the middle of a big park named after itself: Osaka Castle Park. Very imaginative! Around the park are several government buildings and hotels, all very modern and sharply contrasting with the park.

Although the first version of the castle dates from 1583, war and lightnings have destroyed it several times. The present version dates from 1931 and it was constructed with ferro-concrete, not wood. It miraculously survived WWII and it was refurbished in 1997. It is a big landmark of the city and surrounded by secondary citadels, gates, turrets, stone walls and moats. 

We went past a building that was clearly a martial arts hall. There were 2 classes ongoing of the 2 most popular Japanese martial arts: judo and kendo.

The park is very busy, full of tourists but also locals traversing it by bike on what looked like their daily commute. It's worth a visit!

Manuel was feeling unwell again. We're not sure what's wrong with him, Is it the weather? The food? He decided to return to the hostel for the day but I wanted to see more of Osaka so I headed southwest from the castle to Minami area, one of Osaka's major city centres and the most famous entertainment district to check out Shinsaibashi and Dontonbori.

Shinsaibashi shopping arcade and surrounding area is Osaka's premier shopping centre. It's 

600m long and I did what I was supposed to do, I walked and shopped. I finally bought Japanese underwear. Yay!!!! Sorry, my boobs aren't allowing any photos!

Shinsaibashi leads on to Dontonbori street, which runs along the canal of the same name. It's a popular shopping and entertainment district and a food destination. At night is it lit by hundreds of neon lights.

Both Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori were crowded, Osaka really comes to life after sunset! 

I walked for hours, I'm not sure for how long. I was hungry and looking for street food I hadn't tried before but all the street stalls had food I already knew and the restaurants had huge queues. I kept going until 9.30pm and then I quit and went into an okonomiyaki restaurant, It was managed by a lovely old couple. The lady tried to get a conversation out of me and we did managed with my small knowledge of Japanese and her small knowledge of English.

Some photos on the way home: