Exploring Osaka

After a delicious breakfast buffet, our group gathered to take a train to our morning’s destination. We spent our morning visiting both local craftsmen and food vendors. One shop sold only sesame seeds and their products. They are known for their golden sesame seeds, which I bought a couple of bags to bring back. We also visited a paper lantern maker. He uses washi paper, which we saw being made earlier in our trip, to make beautiful, strong lanterns. He also is a fan of bluegrass music and played us a little song. At another stop, we saw  beautiful cut glass.




We stopped at a okonomiyaki spot for lunch. If you recall, we had this earlier in our trip, but this one was slightly different with different fillings. I was thrilled to be able to have this one more time on the trip.

The food sampling part of our adventure today started right after lunch. We stopped by a little shop that sold only tuna and we sampled the medium fatty variety. It was delicious. We also had the opportunity to try puffer fish, which I passed on. Some people even tried the oysters, both raw and barbecued, but I had tried these earlier on the trip so I passed. At a Matcha restaurant we had the option of trying it in all different forms from a hot tea, cold, tea, and even ice cream.





Yoko, our guide, took us through a grocery store so we could see what was available. Everything looked very fresh, including the seafood. I recognized some of the goods but not all of them. I love wandering around these kind of market streets.






For dinner, we went to a very special restaurant. The restaurant has been awarded the Michelin green star, which represents a restaurant that focuses on sustainability. Before dinner, the chef demonstrated how he uses knives in his dinner preparation. Because it’s a small restaurant there is only one chef,  a sous chef, the chef’s wife who does the serving and another person. Over the serving of several courses, we had both raw and cooked food along with pickles. Probably the most fun came at the end of the evening when we were given very small little hoe to dig around a big bowl that represented a river to find a little chocolate shell. It truly was a special evening.






Tomorrow: we go out to the country. 

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