The Great Osaka

After a fun filled afternoon in Kobe, we hopped back on the bus and drove to Osaka, just under an hour away. We stayed at the "Ark Hotel" in downtown and had the evening to do whatever we wanted.

First we walked down to the main shopping district. Osaka definitely has a more youthful, modern feel to it.

Kirk was excited to see an H&M but we didn't have time to stop and shop.

Lots of people were out and about.

I looked up highly rated restaurants on Trip Advisor and found a Kaseki style crab restaurant. Basically we each had about 7 courses of crab cooked different ways. Wow, it was GOOD! First course: simple steamed crab

Crab Soup

Grilled Crab

Crab Au Gratin - awesome

Crab and Veggie Tempura

Crab Rice

Miso Soup

Pickled veggies

Gotta have more rice

We were fat and happy after such a good meal, so we decided to walk around for a bit

The colors and atmosphere at night were really nice. That's the restaurant we just ate at - we were on the second floor.

Some of the unique Japanese styles

We found an Irish pub, supposedly the first of its kind in Japan, and met so many cool people! There were a lot of folks that lived in Osaka while teaching English at the local schools. We met a bartender from Michigan, a guy from New Zealand, a couple of guys from Ireland, an Englishman, and got into an interesting political conversation with a man from France. It was the closest we'd felt to an experience back in the States and we had an awesome night hearing other peoples' stories and why they're in Japan.

The next day, we walked to the Osaka Castle. It had two moats and extensive grounds.

One of the moats didn't so much have water...

The grass look is pretty though according to Kirk

That's the Osaka Castle in the background

We thought this was cool

It's so interesting to walk around the property that's part of the Castle estate and then see the bustling city in the background. The castle really is in the middle of the city, yet has such a cool country-side appeal.

We saw some interesting architecture on the walk back

After lunch, we hopped back on the bus to go to the very famous Osaka Aquarium. It's 7 stories high and you walk to the top first then wind your way down observing all kinds of different critters

His tail just doesn't seem like it's the right size...

Unfortunately the pictures of Kirk's favorites, the otters, didn't turn out, but we saw some funny, rather stoic penguins

The manta ray had a hitchhiking fish!

This seal was carrying a shell around for fun it appeared

Interesting squid type fish

uh...

These crabs won't be anyone's dinner anytime soon

More views of the hitchhiking fish

That's a big shark

We were able to eat Osaka style Okonomiyaki while we there, which is quite different from the Hiroshima style. Both are good, it's hard to pick which was our favorite.

And since our lives revolve around food, at the highway stop on the way back to base, we each ordered some interesting food. I got the white fish soup, but the fish still had bones!

Kirk ordered the fried steak, but it had so much fat on it, she wasn't able to eat a whole lot.

And we have to add pictures of the buffet breakfast that was included in our stay at the Ark Hotel. This was what Kirk ate: Yakisoba noodles, salmon, salad, a fish ball, and chicken tenders. She thought the pink thing was a pickled strawberry but it was some kind of fish roe sausage, ha!

I went for tofu, a hot dog, miso soup, noodles, omelet and bacon.

We had a really fun time. It's so great to take advantage of the trips they offer from base!

Our Afternoon in Kobe

First off, Happy Belated Labor Day to everyone and a shout out for their good work, Ohio State and Virginia Tech! Week One Complete (Tech, NEVER scare me like that again!!)

So we are still playing catch up on our blog... In June, Joel and I took advantage of another ITT trip and spent an afternoon in Kobe and the evening and next day in Osaka. We will split the blog into two parts because, as usual, we took a lot of pictures and had a lot to see. It was about a 5ish hour bus ride to Kobe where we were able to do some shopping, eat lunch, and explore for a few hours before heading to Osaka.

Now Kobe probably sounds familiar because of KOBE BEEF! To be official, Kobe Beef it has to be raised and butchered in only one region in the Kobe area. It is NOT exported, so if you've had what was labeled Kobe Beef in the States, somebody's a LIAR! Also, sad to say, apparently most of the cows that become Kobe beef are not fed beer as part of their fattening diet. I know, so sad - I really wanted that to be true!! LOL - but they are massaged regularly to distribute the fat more evenly which is what makes this type of beef so very tender and tasty... and therefore EXPENSIVE!

Found a church, and a big one at that, right across the street from where our bus parked.

Arrr matey ?

This was one of those tower things where there's a restaurant in the top and it rotates or something like that...

We found the mall!

Kobe is a major harbor town, so it was really pretty right on the water... that hotel has some interesting architecture

Beautiful landscaping outside the mall... and not too much traffic on the road.

Another major shopping center

We wound up hanging out in the Mosaic Mall for a bit and a lot of it was outdoors and really pretty

YES! This is what we were looking for! A Kobe beef restaurant!

Even their lunch options were really expensive - 3300 yen is over $40 US for one meal!

We both wound up ordering a beef "set" which is like a combo so it included a salad, main course, and dessert

The beef! It was super tasty and the sauce was amazing! It wasn't the Filet Mignon though so we will have to go back at some point to try it... we are saving up now.

Ah, the first bite!

A little bit of custard and a cherry for dessert

You know you're in a harborland district when there's a Ferris Wheel

View of the city

I found the Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, only it has guardrails!

Channeling his inner Elvis

Futsol!

This contraption was spitting out fresh green tea... we were able to sample some and it was AWESOME

Can I take him home with us? (BTW, can you tell we found Chinatown!!)

We came upon a traditional Chinese dance with two guys dressed up like a dragon and a live band - this is a shot of people gathering right before the show

One guy is on the others' back. They were amazing with what they were able to do!

He's actually eating a poor onlooker's head :-p

This was the band - the music had a really strong drum beat and lots of clanging cymbals

When did we go to Italy?

I found a giraffe! And I WANT it!

I guess KissFM has taken over the world

Joel and I agreed we would love to go back to Kobe at some point. It was a really contemporary, hip city and there are so many other restaurants we want to try!!