This morning we planned on going to the Osaka Prefecture Gymnasium to buy day of general admission Sumo Wrestling tickets. We knew the ticket booth opened at 8am, and overslept because the alarm didn’t go off. We ended up waking up at 8am and got to the gymnasium gates at 9:30am and the tickets were all sold out for the day. One of the guards said that people start lining up at 6am. I guess we’ll try again tomorrow.
We decided to have breakfast in this café that sold pretty good croissants and a deal that included coffee. Then we went to the Swiss’otel to ask for directions and a bathroom break. Their toilets had the works, not only the bidet, but seat warmers, a button to make fake flushing noises to distract others, and a strong refreshing smell to block odor. I could do a whole segment on restrooms I’ve encountered here, but I’m sure
most of you aren’t interested in what I’ve seen. On a restroom note, at the hotel, I bathed for the first time in a traditional Japanese bathroom – locker room style with shower heads and a hot water tub, the only thing different is everyone sits on upside-down short buckets and sits down to bathe.
We decided to go the Osaka Castle. When we got off the JR train, we noticed several women walking down the stairs into the train gates. It seemed a little weird with the amount of women but I didn’t think it was that big a deal. As we exited the train station the line of women grew and then it was like women everywhere. Women that were about 30-50 years in age, some dressed in kimonos and others dressed in nice dresses. I thought it was the Japanese league of women Bay to Breakers and Elgin thought it was some religious cult day for women in exile of men. Who knows what it was, but it was seriously thousands of women.
Any day now the plum and cherry blossoms will be in bloom. I know that I would have appreciated the Osaka Castle Park more if the blossoms were in bloom. It was still a very lovely park with several people picnicking and tour groups roaming the area.
Osaka is known for their takoyaki (grilled batter dough balls with octopus). We saw many takoyaki stands today and tried one stand at the park. So far, we like the Asakusa takoyaki stand more because they topped it better. After the park, we went to Dontomburi, known for its entertainment, lights, and food. There were lots of people shopping and just hanging out. I had my first encounter of harajuku girls today. A couple of girls dressed like lil’ bo peep – girls in big pink ruffled dresses with white stockings and heels with very cute doll face makeup. They seriously looked like they lost their sheep. Then I saw other girls just wearing really loud colored clothing that didn’t seem to match anything. Not sure if that is categorized as harajuku. Then we went into the Osaka Old Town Museum that had several food vendors like the Yokohama Ramen Museum. There were several takoyaki stands, talk about competition. We shared an Osakoyaki pancake that had chicken , egg, and vegetables topped with mayonnaise and the secret ingredient of most of their sauces – Worcestershire sauce J It was yummy. Then we went to another stand that made fluffy egg like takoyaki cakes. He made them in cast iron pans like takoyaki balls, but they were very fluffy and you dip them in a dashi broth. Yum!
In walking the streets of Dontomburi more, we found out that it was the entertainment district because there were several Pachinko (some type of pong ball gambling) buildings and strip bars and clubs. I couldn’t tell they were strip clubs because the open room you see is just a room with tables and chairs with a guy standing there. Elgin pointed out the pin up posters of the girls on the wall and the names outside of the buildings that said Girls only clubs. Who knew?
On our way back to train station, we stopped at a supermarket to grab a snack. We scored on 50% off discounted sashimi! A reasonably large portion for 490 yen ~ $5.00. What a deal!
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