A big crab placed above eye level can be seen from afar in one of the billboards in the Dōtonbori Street, one of Osaka’s more flashy tourist spots. Just below the roadway is a busy stream of people getting in and out of restaurants and shops, having their dose of Japan’s third most populous city.
“At last, we’re here!”
Known as the center of a miscellany of restaurants and bars, Dotonbori is a must visit place for foodies when in Osaka.
Like Tokyo, Osaka is a place best seen by foot or better yet, by bike. But since we can’t afford to travel around town with a bike on hand, we’ve been walking and walking and walking all day.
The sidewalks are filled with small and big paper lanterns that lit up the small pathways, often leading to a parade of four to six chair bars.
Dotonbori is, without a doubt, a place that imbibes both youthfulness and old age with its mixture of modern and traditional Japan.
I love that the details of the banners are all kid-friendly with their usage of cartoon animals, so kawaii! One could take every turn and still be amazed at how this place looks so vibrant.
Since we got so amazed at how lively this place is, we literally got tired feet, me much worse, hence my need to buy home slippers from Daiso. Imagine climbing a mountain with sneakers on, yes, the struggle is real. Hahaha! My feet is just really aching. The photographer purposely cut my feet to hide my slippers so yeah, thanks hihi!
Anyway, we capped our fourth day in Japan by having a taste of Osaka’s delight: the takoyaki.
We tried the first Takoyaki our eyes laid upon– the Takoyaki Takamasa. The small resto had screencaps from a local TV show, plastered in their wall, showing the hosts of the program eating their dish. It’s a common way of marketing, I think, because when I ate street ice cream in Ueno two days ago, they also have a poster as such. But I don’t know. Heh. It’s effective especially if we don’t have no one else to seek advice from on whether it’s good or not.
This store’s version of takoyaki is served with overflowing onion chives. Personally, I’m not much of an onion fan so what I did was remove all those greens and set it aside to enjoy the takoyaki.
But it can’t be done entirely. So what I did is the mind over matter mantra. Lol! First bite and you’ll notice the smooth batter inside, part solid and part liquid in form, and you can feel the texture of the octopus marrying your taste buds. What differs this version from the ones in Manila is that you’ll know that takoyaki or octopus balls is called as such for a reason. Most takoyakis in Manila only have the batter, not the octopus so it’s truly a delight to have a taste of this legitimate Osaka snack. Thankfully, we have Hokkaido Takoyaki in Manila so no need to travel 2,664 km just to try it. Although on my next visit to Japan, I’d love to try their other famous snack: the okonomiyaki. It looks so yummy and filling that we actually didn’t have the time to try it as we’re busy eating other food. Japan is just overflowing with yummy delights that six days isn’t enough!
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