Osaka

Today was our last day in Tokyo. We had a really delicious breakfast at the Kimpton. I had the Gruyere and ham quiche and a piece of banana bread. Angie had the caprese sandwich. The quiche was warm, crunchy and just oozing with golden cheesy goodness!! Angie's sandwich had been toasted for some crunch. The banana bread was just as good as when I had it on Monday.  

We were heading to Osaka today so we took a taxi to the Tokyo train station which was about 30 minutes away due to a lot of morning traffic. We had a 10:03 train and got to the station at 9:30. We found our track and took a seat until it was time to board. The train system allows you to reserve seats in advance (as we had done) or there are a few cars which are specifically for "standby". People who bought a non reserved seat that day.  

Inside the train was similar to other regional trains I have taken in the United States, although so much more legroom. We had arranged to be on the "Green" car which are premium cars so that could be why. The conductor brought you a towelette and soon there was a food trolley with snacks you could purchase. The train ride to Osaka was going to be about three hours.  

We arrived exactly on time. The train operation is so impressive. Even the slightest delay is noted while you are riding so passengers are aware. Yesterday on the subway the display screen inside the car indicated one line had a delay because someone's luggage had blocked the door. Another delay was for "fire on the tracks". While that seemed concerning, you just get a sense that the crew knows exactly what they are doing and you are in good hands.   

We grabbed a taxi to our hotel and checked in. We are staying directly across from Universal Studios Japan and our room has what I will call a "Behind The Magic" view. 

 We'll head there tomorrow. This was one of my "must dos" for this trip. We have this park's equivalent to the Florida Express Pass for some rides. And we also have a timed entry to Super Nintendo World in the afternoon. I am very excited to see video games come to life. Hopefully we can ride the new Mario Kart attraction. More on that tomorrow. 

After some time to reset in our hotel room, we took the train to a section of the city called Dotonbori. This is one wild set of streets and alleys. So many food stands and restaurants. And every restaurant seems to want to outdo the other with huge animatronics in full display. Huge crabs!! 

 Spiderman crawling into what looks like a scallop shell!! Giant tuna sushi with a grabbing hand!! So many more. We were going to try to eat at Kani Doraku which is a famous crab restaurant. But they were booked for the evening. So what do you do in that situation? Eat at the restaurant with the giant piece of tuna out front.  

This happened to be a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

 You just pick what you want as it comes around. You get charged by the plate. Different colors have different prices. We had quite a few items. All very good. And the total bill was under $10 USD. Good quality sushi here is very inexpensive. I will definitely have a harder time paying "market" prices back in the United States.  

After the sushi, we walked further down the street and tried one of the signature items from this area called takoyaki or octopus balls. 

 Just like chickens don't have "nuggets", octopus also don't have "balls". Instead these are close to the texture of a danish pancake called aebleskiver. Except inside the ball are chunks of octopus. And they dress them up with some Japanese mayo and bonita flakes!! They are so tasty!! These were only 600 JPY for eight balls which is approximately $4.62 USD.  

We then needed a place to people watch but with seats. Angie found a British Bar called the HUB so we headed there. They were located on the second floor of a busy street. We found a high top by the window and had a couple of their signature cocktails during their happy hour. They had a very refreshing HUB Orange drink which was fresh orange juice, Patron Citronage liqueur and soda water. Angie had the grapefruit version which was just as refreshing. Such a great deal since each jumbo drink was only $3.50 USD.  

After our drinks, we decided to head back towards the hotel and check out City Walk which is outside Universal Studios. Universal Studios in Florida also has a City Walk so we were curious how this would compare. It's set up completely differently than Florida where it is a bunch of larger bars and restaurants on mostly one level. Here in Japan it is more like a shopping mall food court. But so many more restaurants. We didn't even get to them all and I counted at least forty.  

We ended up at a place called Nolboo which focuses on Korean food. We had some deliciously crunchy chicken. Angie had a really wonderfully seasoned pork dish. I ordered bibimbap which I have enjoyed at other Korean restaurants. Usually lots of warm flavors with sticky rice, some kind of protein and a fried egg. Here it lacked any known seasoning, had no protein and included too many greens for my taste. Luckily they had a flavorful chili sauce which at least saved the dish and made it edible. That sauce was so good. We had that same sauce when we ordered Bo Ssam from Momofuku during the pandemic. It is such a delicious sauce. 

Tomorrow we'll have breakfast at the hotel and then head into Universal Studios after that.