Dispatched from Elsewhere: It starts with a dream…
Day 5: Taiwan -> Japan
I had a weird dream this morning. In this dream, I was in Japan, and I was picking out a magnet from one of those spinning contraptions in every gift shop. I pick one and show it to my sister, explaining to her that it made me emotional. “It captures a kind of mundanity you don’t have to explain,” I tell her. The magnet is a photorealistic, sculpted (as if from clay) image of a bald man in a blue suit eating ramen, and it was about the size of my palm.
When I woke up, I told my sister this dream. “Side quest unlocked,” she said.
The journey to the airport is smooth, and Taiwan's airport is pretty fun (my family stops for sticker pics with Sanrio character headbands on) but getting into Osaka is absolute ass. There is a QR code that has to be obtained beforehand via the Visit Japan website, and while it is on one person's phone, each code must be generated and presented to the customs officer individually. It's super chaotic, especially with huge throngs of people coming through. Once you get through, you have to go through the process again as you're leaving.
At this point, I'm pretty tired of endless grey buildings.
That said, the train ride into Nanba is amazing. It's pretty grey out and very rainy, but the weather is cool and the views are still of another world.
It's dark and rainy when we arrive in Nanba, but it's a short walk to the hotel, and I'm already stoked. A (little known?) fact about me is that I love Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I'm sure I'd love the rest of the Yakuza games too (they're just long and slowly being remastered), but Like a Dragon is one of my favourite gaming experiences in recent memory. Most of that specific game takes place in Osaka, and I've spent hours and hours and hours running around these streets talking to weirdos and kicking butt. Still, I don't think I predicted the sheer excitement I felt walking these aesthetically similar streets.
At about 7:30pm, the streets are so alive, and the lights bounce off the rain puddles so beautifully. Everywhere you look, there is something delicious to behold. For many reasons, I hate to romanticize Japan, but oh my god is it ever stuck in our programming. This is the foodie capital of one of the foodiest countries in the world, and I'm as awestruck as I am overwhelmed.
It's such a fast-paced environment amidst so many bodies at every turn, and while this is the kind of world I'd come from, I'm a little rusty with the kind of big city vibe that makes Vancouver look absolutely dinky. Taipei was busy too, but Osaka feels electric.
Our hotel is a little apartment right around the corner from Kuromon Market. It's two bedrooms, with a little kitchen and dining room area. As Japanese places go, I'm just grateful to have my own space. I'm sleeping on the floor today on a mattress with fluffy blankets--kind of a compromise it seems with Western familiarity and a traditional futon.
We meet my sister's boyfriend here, and he takes us to dinner. We're pretty famished at this point, so I tragically only take one sad little photo.
In 2014, my mom and sister and I went to Tokyo and found a little cafeteria hole in the wall type place run by an obachan and an ojichan. We have zaru soba there, and it immediately becomes one of our favourite memories. Zaru soba is now a must-have on every Japan trip. My sister's boyfriend, B, orders us zaru soba at a little place nearby alongside a variety of tempura, a beautifully marinated bit of mackerel, and this egg dish I can't seem to figure out. It's somehow steamed and pan fried, with the consistency of something between sundubu tofu and blood jelly (豬紅). Honestly, I'm obsessed, and I never would've ordered it myself. The soba is delicious too--super Q and so clearly handmade fresh every day.
The tempura batter is light against the fresh, flavourful veg. Tempura shitake is already one of my favourites, but the fattest green beans in the world was also amazing. It's a fantastic combo alongside the namabiru (draft beer).
We wander a bit more after dinner and hit up a couple of pharmacies on the way, but everyone is pretty pooped. Still, I fall in love with a big Smiski at the pharmacy, and I'm immediately tempted to get it, but do the responsible thing and wait to see if I'm still in love by the end of the trip.
On our way back to the hotel, I see a big Kumamon in the empty Kuromon market, and it feels super nostalgic.
It's not the most eventful day, but I'm excited to be in a new place and tonight, I'm finally doing a little catch up on my dramas with the precious bit of alone time I have.
See y'all tomorrow!
Flor, out!
P.S. The rumours are true! The toilets are pretty damn amazing.