Banbachō

Day 39

Today we left Yamaguchi and headed all the way back up to Osaka as we begin our journey up north. After a few hours of travelling we made it to Osaka station and took the metro to our hostel, dumped our bags here and then went out again.

Now today (being the 8th of April) is Buddhas birthday in Japan known as Hana matsuri, japan actually celebrate this earlier than the rest of Asia due to them swapping their calendar! Having researched heavily online I couldn’t find any form of real celebrations happening in Japan today which I thought was strange until I came across one article that said to go to the main temple of that city and they tend to have some kind of display and ceremony. So we headed to Shitennoji which has a beautiful pagoda and grounds with wonderful cherry blossoms. As we wandered around we noticed a statue of Buddha with flowers decorating it as an offering to Buddha. Around the statue a small seating area had been set up with some of the locals sat there. Shortly after we noticed this all the monks came out of the temple and walked over chanting to this area. Watching slightly from afar as we wanted to be respectful they began burning incense and clearly preparing from a ceremony. Then, very sweetly one of the security that escorted the monks invited us to come and stand closer so we got to stand and watch their ceremony! They had many mantras and it was an incredible experience and I think pretty amazing that we got to witness it as we were the only tourists there so not sure how we managed that one! But it didn’t seem a very largely advertised event today if I hadn’t looked it up I wouldn’t have known it was Buddhas birthday today!

During hana matsuri there is also a tradition to pour green tea over the statues of Buddha but we didn’t see this today but we did get very lucky to see the ceremony!

After this we wandered around the grounds for a little while before catching the metro out to our activity of the day- sushi making! Those who have kept up well with my blog will be slightly perplexed as we have already done sushi making, expect it wasn’t the classic “proper” sushi if you like and Jacob really wanted to learn and make the proper sushi, so reluctantly I agreed and I’m so glad I did!

We met the chef outside a metro station with another British couple who were doing the experience and then our chef - Yuki lead us away from the station and we reached a block of apartments where she welcomed us into her home! I was very shocked by this as it didn’t say on the activity description that it was in her home! We took our shoes off as we entered and Yuki gave us some sliders to wear, she welcomed us into her small flat that had sliding door panels and a little kitchen table that we all gathered around to make sushi! We made a few different types of sushi and completely from scratch as we learnt how to properly prepare the rice too! We made Nigiri, sashimi, Maki and Tamago. I discovered that I actually quite like Maki to my absolute surprise! This is the sushi that is rice with fish and vegetables wrapped in a sheet of seaweed. I think the reason I probably liked it was the proportion of fish to rice but this is a huge step forward for me as I seriously don’t eat any fish- until now!!! Making the sushi was also so fun, Yuki was lovely and very helpful and open to lots of questions about cuisine but also Japan in general and her lifestyle. She worked in restaurants for 10 years and now teaches classes for a living! It was a really genuinely authentic experience and was so much fun and it really pushed me as I ate raw octopus! Now that I didn’t like but it’s always good to try new things and it just goes to show that it can work as I now like some fish! Not to dampen anyone’s hopes reading this but I still hated the other types of sushi but progress is progress!

Day 40

We had a slow morning today and headed over to Osaka castle which is one of the most famous in Japan as it signifies the end of the wars in Japan and unifying the country. Standing at 55m the gold and green embellished castle is really beautiful. Surrounded by a moat and extensive gardens it’s very easy to waste a few hours enjoying the scenery and wandering through the cherry blossoms to enjoy them before they disappear!

We then headed to Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street which is the longest shopping street in Japan at over a mile long!! I have to say we were a bit disappointed with this as it really wasn’t aimed at tourists at all which is fair enough reallt but there wasn’t really anything that caught our eye. However, we still enjoyed strolling down it and looking through the food markets and stores. After a mile of walking I wanted a quick pit stop so we stopped to grab a late lunch before setting off to our last destination of today- Dotonbori!

Now I feel that Osaka has been a very laid back city with actually very little energy so far until you get to Dotonbori! Large screens with adverts and posters and light up signs line the buildings- a little like a mini Times Square that leads you to the food street of Dotonbori which is completely bonkers. A long street filled with street food and restaurants with some very wacky eye catching sights. Large plastic moving crabs and cows and fish attached and hanging from buildings advertising restaurants and street food line the street. This is the most busy bustling part of Osaka and it’s so much fun. It feels a bit like a fever dream walking through a sleepy city to then reach noise and smells and lights and people on mass, everywhere!

We tried two different street food vendors, one selling strawberries on a skewer coated in melted sugar which were delicious and awful for you I’m sure and also a wagyu beef skewer which was mouth wateringly good! So overall today has been pretty varied and once again so much fun!Read more