Culinary Backstreet

 Today was our last day on our pre-trip. We traveled today by train to Osaka to meet up with our group that we will be exploring the Japanese food culture  with for the next week. This trip was put together by Milk Street, which is a cooking magazine. The trip was limited to 8 people which means we’ll have a nice intimate experience.

We arrived before check-in at our hotel so we walked across the street to find a place for lunch. It was OK, but I’m sure it won’t hold a candle to the food we’ll be having this next week. After a brief cocktail gathering, we walked to our dinner location for the evening, Bird. This casual restaurant features yakitori, better known to us as meat on a stick. We tried several great dishes, many featuring chicken of which one was cooked rare. I think as Americans we have problems thinking about eating chicken that isn’t totally cooked, so a lot of us had problems eating this one. Everything else, however, was delicious.


After dinner we took a stroll through the streets and alleyways of Osaka. This is obviously an area where a lot of the city’s nightlife happens. We walked along a big promenade that was covered and lined with shops and restaurants. We also wondered down a very narrow alleyway that contain miniature bars that would probably only hold four or five people at most. It really was a great introduction to the city.





Tomorrow: Sampling the foods of Osaka

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