Isekai Travels - Japan

This has been my favorite day of the trip by far! I got to see my wonderful friends and go out to various Isakayas 😸🍻

During the morning, I took some time to message friends and take some time to relax! I went to the coffee shop at the station to pick up a latte and study a bit of Japanese. I have been able to successfully order food and drinks most of the time but it can be difficult to hear! Japanese people speak very softly in my opinion and the mask makes it impossible to read lips. I definitely have had to adjust how loudly I talk and laugh because I'm a very loud person even by American standards 😅

I went to the Osaka Station City Mall with my friends and checked out a couple shops before meeting my other friends Ware, Atsuya, and Shu for some street food at Izakaya Toyo! This izakaya was featured in the Netflix special called "Street Food" and is famous for the chefs using their bare hands to work with the fire used to cook the food. Unfortunately, the special was sold out but we were able to get some awesome cuts of tuna and eel. We poured some drinks and talked switching between English and Japanese. Ware taught me about a the chinese roots of the word "kanpai" and why in China and Taiwan it may have a different meaning. "Kan" means dry and "pai" means glass, so in other countries it indicates an empty glass instead of meaning "Cheers" like it does in Japanese. So, if someone says kanpai then in China/Taiwan they would expect you to empty your glass 🍻 My friends let me know that this style of dining and drinking is called 立ち飲み(tachinomi), which means standing and drinking. We all stood around a table while getting our food and drinking. They asked me if America has tachinomi but I'm not really sure. I'm sure there are some restarants like that but I can't really recall any!

We were not familiar with the Osaka lines as none of us live in Osaka and got on the wrong train for a moment. Everyone in the group saw the map and said 「違う違う違う」which means “wrong one, wrong one, wrong one!”. We found the correct train right after that though. It made me feel good to have a group of people around me I could be comfortable with and not feel completely like an outsider! Traveling with my American friends I always felt a bit on edge wondering if I’m being polite or following the rules correctly. I didn’t feel that way with my Japanese friends though because I can trust that they would let me know 😊 One of my goals when leaning the language was to make meaningful connections with people and I’m so glad I’ve been able to do that without being too fluent yet!

When traveling on the train the group showed my a japanese game called Chopsticks where players all lift none, one or two fingers and try to guess what the total number of fingers will be up. It was super cute seeing them all play on the train and seeing subtle differences in games we play in America versus Japan as kids (and as adults in the case).

After that, we headed out to find an Izakaya! Ware taught me that the brown ball hanging outside indicated the the shop will sell Sake! If he had not told me, I would have assumed it was just a decoration with no meaning. The first izakaya we stopped at was a sitting izakaya where we had to take our shoes off to go in. This was my first time needing to take my shoes off to get into somewhere in Japan. I ordered the Shirako as an appetizer which has been on my bucket list of things to try out here! Shirako is like caviar but the male eqivalent. So, literally translated it would mean be "Cod Sperm Sacs" but that sounds pretty disgusting so we will keep calling it Shirako 😆 I actually liked them alot! It tasted similar to mayonaise in a very light casing. The waiter spoke english and let me know I should not order them because they look like brains and are disgusting. I was suprised at how casual the waiter was when using english (almost too casual) and then how formal she was when speaking Japanese. I suppose that's a perfect example of how the culture and the language are always connected.

Soon after, we headed to another Izakaya where we tried out some sake. My American friends also met up with us there and we became very popular as the only Americans in the bar. It was super cool to see different Japanese people come up to each of my friends and attempt to make conversation. At one point, all three of us were in separate conversations with people we had not ever met before. I'm super glad to have had this experience because it helped show how friendly people could be here and also was great spending time with my friends and getting to know them better 😄 I'm excited to see them all again around New Years!!

After a couple rounds of different sake we moved to drinking something called "Lemon Sours" which were large drinks with many frozen lemons used as the ice. Ware taught us that you can request the lemons to stay in the drink so that they thaw more and it changes the flavor of the drink over time as you get refills! These became dangerous as it was too easy to call the bartender over and just say "naka" for another drink. We all ended up staying out until 2am or 3am and eventually took a taxi back to the hotel.

I would write more about the Izakaya but my ability to acurately recall the night became less and less as I had more and more drinks 😅 I woke up still a little tipsy and my American friends were also very hungover when they woke up. A successful night out and it was so fun!! Thanks so much to everyone who was part of it, I really appreciate you all for taking the time to show me your country and be my friend😊 日本で初めて二日酔いだけど最後じゃないよね😉Read more