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Continued from a previous post, I’d like to share more about my short trip to Osaka.
Here’s “Mizukake Jizo” filled with moss or alga because it’s watered every time we pray.

As we entered the gate…there was a line of people who came to pray.

Can you see some green statues? I kinda refrained from taking photos from front of Jizo, as that attitude may look fool against God. It’s only Jizo statue but as a Japanese I somehow feel like showing some respect to it.

Nice small alley that connects this small shrine and commercial area filled with drinking places.

Speaking of Osaka, it’s also famous for “Owarai geinin” or comedians especially who are good at Manzai style of comedy. Many professional comedians are from Yoshimoto group in Osaka and it’s natural we can find Yoshimoto shop to purchase some popular comedians goods.

Osaka Takoyaki charm was kinda cute! My friend just said, “That’s because you’re from somewhere else. The locals are already bored.” She never enters Yoshimoto souvenir shop, which is just the same as I never visit Tokyo Tower since my childhood. ^ ^;

Tsuutenkaku tower is a symbol of Osaka. It’s located in Shinsekai, which is a place for men again. There are many many Kushikatsu bars and Japanese chess or “igo” game or several analog types of game places. All these atmosphere just made me feel as if we were back 30-50? years ago. I’m afraid young women wouldn’t like this place. Most of the people were middle-old aged men and tourists.

A fake Billiken-san statue. The genuine one is inside Tsuutenkaku tower, according to what I heard. But we didn’t go inside the tower then.

Again this area looks…what to say…”vulgar” to be honest. The scenery is messed up with too many individual signs but that even looked delightful to a tourist like me.

There was no way we didn’t try the most famous Kushikatsu at the most famous Kushikatsu bar “Daruma“!! As you can see, so many celebs have visited this bar and left autographs that are kept all over the wall above menu.

Original Kushikatsu for 105yen. I have no idea why they don’t open a branch bar at…such place like Shimbashi in Tokyo. Shimbashi is also a place for mid-old aged men to hang out for drink.

“Do not soak the Kushikatsu twice into the sauce!” This is repeatedly warned and is a basic rule that we have to follow. That means, we should not soak the Kushikatsu after we had some bites because the sauce container is to be shared with others. Cabbages were free. Kushikatsu was fine, but I found myself not very fond of this type of place. I’d prefer Tapas or Bar. To be honest, I like western foods and wine more than Japanese foods and sake. :p

I like Osaka and I wonder how it’d be like if I move to live in there. People are funnier and things are cheaper. The city is very small compared with Tokyo, and so everything is so close and convenient. I could visit grandma more often. But I know I’ll miss Tokyo a lot more! The main purpose of this trip was to see my grandma, but in this public place I just share my Osaka tour with my Osaka friend who kindly spent time with me from 10am to 9pm.

I’ve visited Osaka (only my grandma’s house) so many times since my childhood because it’s a hometown to my father. But it was my first time trip to look around the city like this, thanks to my friend from Osaka. She always says that I am as funny as Osaka people. It sounded so interesting when she said that my skin (outside) is the one from Tokyo but my mind (inside) is totally the one from Osaka! Yeah, that’s possible. I found compatibility in Osaka, while many Tokyo people don’t like it. (Basically there’s a cultural difference between Tokyo and Osaka, and each people do not like others very much.)

I’ve been away to Osaka to see my grandma for a couple of days and I came back last night. My father is originally from Osaka, although no Osaka culture or Osaka dialect were shared with me who was brought up in Tokyo area. It’s always fun to hang around non-familiar places whether it’s inside or outside Japan. Again I find I like travelling!!

1st day -with local friend-

Osaka subway~. If you’ve ever come to Osaka, you remember this. Compared with Tokyo subway, it’s very small and less complicated with less people. But I always felt that the ceilings, because they are not very high, somewhat gave me the feeling of pressure, nevertheless I am very short. I don’t think there should be much difference between the ones in Tokyo. I have no idea where that feeling came from.

Kanidouraku! One of the most popular Doutonbori photo~.

Kuidaore doll was there, even though the Kuidaore restaurant has been closed for a while.

These are all familiar symbols in Dotonbori. Especially the Kuidaore doll character with red and white bordered outfit is still popular even after Kuidaore restaurant was closed some time ago. I understand that. Osaka people would not want the restaurant go. People still love Kuidaore, and that’s why they keep the character left.

My friend took me to the Ootako Takoyaki stand that is famous for its big lump of octopus inside Takoyaki.

You don’t know Takoyaki? Here it is. A light snack with small pieces of octopus inside the dumplings with sauce and dried bonito flakes over them. I don’t eat Takoyaki usually because I don’t know what else I should eat it with. Only Takoyaki for meal is too little but with rice or noodle, it looks like too much carbohydrate…

Anyhow this day we had another carbohydrate after Takoyaki, that was Ramen at Kinryu. It was not too oily, not too heavy, and was good with some kimchi.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was…what to say? It was designed for men. What I miss in Osaka is nice cafe or restaurant with good atmosphere. The ramen is only 600 yen with a couple of Chinese-style barbecued pork, free kimchi and steamed rice as much as we want. No wonder men like it!

Interior was a bit odd but fun to explore.

…to be continued to the next post. Stay tuned!

These days I’ve been quite busy finding hotels for my trip to Malaysia and Singapore. As you may have been familiar with it, but I like to use Trip Advisor whenever I find accommodations for myself especially for international travel.
I have to say that sometimes reviews look a bit exaggerated and I am often confused between bad ones and good ones. But after all I have to convince myself that each one has different way of thinking. If I think it’s good, then I just try it. That’s it. What I like most about this website is “CHECK RATES!” function. While many reservation service sites open, I often like to settle at either BOOKING.COM or Hotels.com.

What about domestic travel? Of course, Trip Advisor again! But actually when I travel inside Japan, I’d rather check out Jalan first. Comments and ratings left to each hotel registered at Jalan are trustworthy. What I like about Jalan is that I can save points which I can use for my next reservation through Jalan. This means I can get discount just because I make a reservation through Jalan first of all, and also that I can have my points deducted from total amount of payment. The points are valid for about 2 years. In order to make reservations through Jalan, membership registration is required. I also enjoy their email newsletters even while I cannot afford anything.

*Disclaimer: the image is from one of Jalan’s email newsletters.

I remember it was 1st of November when every shop started playing Christmas songs to urge Christmas shopping or only to create joyful atmosphere. That lasted until 25th of December, and what happens from the very next morning in Japan? Everyone starts to prepare for New Year Day and super market is such a good example that changes its decoration or foods so much: from Western foods, sparkling wine, and desserts to special foods that are to make Japanese new year cuisine, called “Osechi ryori“. This website lists Osechi recipe: how to fix each of Osechi food in Japanese. Even if you can’t read it, you can guess how hard it’d be to make so many different things at a time. (Actually today many of them are pre-fixed and sold at super market, though…) As for myself, I don’t like “Osechi ryori” very much since my chidhood. However, unlike old days, most of stores open except for 1st of January in Tokyo, which practically means there’s no need to pre-fix Osechi ryori for the whole family to keep eating it until 3rd of January. What do I mean? As mentioned in my old post, in Japan New Year is much more meaningful than Christmas, and so most of companies let their employees have about 1-week of holiday from end of December to at least to 3rd of January. Housewives usually prepare Osechi ryori by New Year eve (Dec. 31) so they can rest 3 days of new year without cooking much. But that’s an old story and not true any more today, because super markets open from 2nd of January, so as some restaurants, which is unlike old days when almost all stores closed around 5th or 6th of January…

Having said that, it’s our tradition to eat Osechi ryori. Nowadays as we have less kids, and there are many ways to outsource Osechi instead of cooking it by ourselves, there are many people who reserve Osechi somewhere, at online shop for example. As for myself, I never cooked Osechi by myself nor ordered it somewhere else. I just visit my husband’s parents and eat it there. :p Osechi looks very beautiful and each food has a meaning such as longevity, prosperity, victory, luck or happiness…thus we still like to eat it even though the situation has totally changed today.

It’s not only Osechi that we should think about. As you have exchaned Christmas cards, we exchange new year’s cards called “Nengajo”. Before email was available, I spent quite a lot of time making my original cards every year. But lately I have noticed, I don’t have to exchange them with close friends because I see them very often. They say there’s no need to follow old tradition and keep formal between us. Those who send me new year’s cards are the ones I don’t see often. In other words, it’s not too much to say that they are sort of friends who are connected with only 1 card in 365 days. As is often the case, the card is made from a photo of their KIDS only, not themselves, saying “My girl has turned 3 years old, she now can do this and that, she is blar, blar, blar…” and NO INFORMATION about themselves! To me, this just looks like they are reporting me on the details of their kids every year. Well…good to hear that, but I’d be much more interested in what THEY are doing, not what THEIR KIDS are doing…This really makes me feel uncomfortable and I do wonder if they have ever thought of the feelings of the people who cannot have kids even if they want to. Hence I stopped writing new year’s cards a couple of years ago, and only reply to those who sent me cards. I’d like to suggest that we should meet and chat instead of exchanging cards only one time a year and continue that superficial relationship. (I’m not talking about Christmas cards that I exchange with people outside Japan. They are close friends but I cannot see them often because of distance.)

Osechi or new year’s cards, whatever it is around new year is not really my taste. I at least visit my husband’s parents for new year’s greeting, first shrine visit to pray for wellness in the new year, and reply to those who send me their kids photo cards, I mean Nengajo. :p I’m a lazy Japanese who is not faithful to its tradition and culture, and is more likely to be crezy for New Year Sale from the 2nd of January!! (LOL)

*Disclaimer: The photo is quoted from this page of KIRIN beer.

Aflac (American Family Life Assurance Company) is an American insurance company that is successfully increasing its sales in Japan, too. Basically I don’t like TV commercials of any insurance companies, and Aflac was not exceptional. I have negative images on them because sometimes I’m annoyed by their sales pitch phone calls.

As you may have already known it well, duck is often used in a TV commercials of Aflac. In Japan, it has been the same. The duck has been a symbol of Aflac. You can watch several commercials of Aflac in Japan from here.

But recently they released a cute original character named “Manekinekoduck” and I’m in love with this since I got a mascot from some medical seminar that was sponsored by Aflac the other day.
Video is worth a thousand words. There’s Manekinekoduck song available.

Here’s a photo of the mascot I have.

What I am impressed is not only the cuteness of the character or the song, but their effort to compete in Japanese market. I mean, “When in Japan, do as the Japanese do”. That is to say, creating original character or paying for a copyright to collaborate with famous character such as Rilakkuma is inevitable to win more Japanese customers today. Characters are not only for kids or girls. Any aged men or women like to have character goods in Japan.

In fact, Manekinekoduck has already changed my negative image towards insurance company so far, and I do press it several times a day to enjoy its singing. This cute character is awesome. It’s going to brainwash us and someday I may knock on the door of Aflac’s office to join their insurance. :p

Many international companies come and leave Japan. It doesn’t mean their strategy that worked out in the U.S or Europe will do in Japan, too. I can see that Aflac is adjusting to Japanese market now, and I liked that.

How did you like Manekinekoduck?
(Manekineko= beckoning cat)