I’ve had way too much work this week (damn you, Hibernate) and couldn’t give the blog any attention. Milking the Kyoto travelogue for a whole month is starting to prick my conscience. The busy stretch should wrap up around mid-May, so I think I’ll be able to run the blog normally again after that.
At the kiosk in Okayama Station
I left early in the morning without eating, so I bought a bento at the station where I changed trains. The most famous thing around here is mamakari bo-zushi, but that day I tried something different.
Momotaro no Matsurizushi
It’s chirashi sushi.
The bento box is so cute..
It’s shaped like a peach, the local specialty. Not that there were any peaches inside, though..
What’s inside
Maybe because it’s an ekiben, it’s made a bit sour so it keeps longer. It was tasty at first, but by the end I was sick of it. Lots of additives too, so I probably should have just bought the bo-zushi. If you want a proper ekiben you have to research it beforehand, and this time I clearly didn’t do my homework.
Cherry blossoms in Osaka
Taken near Shinsaibashi. They were already mostly falling.
Ladurée, popped up in Daimaru Shinsaibashi
The pricey macaron shop, right? They’ve opened a temporary stand as a limited-time event until June. For the price, the taste doesn’t seem all that special. But they sell nicely designed chocolates and little goods. You can’t pass a place like this without buying some omiyage.
Little goods
Not cheap, but the design is good.. and compared with designer fashion prices, they’re well within reach.
Osaka Taishoken, newly opened in Den Den Town
Nice concept. A Taishoken branch opening in a place like this.. I wanted to join the queue too, but I was a bit busy that day.
Den Den Town, same as ever
There are maids handing out flyers, creepy otaku, and young women in floaty skirts walking boldly into doujinshi shops..
The shop where I hit the jackpot
My kind of mouse is small, light, with a smooth click and wheel, and wired. But you hardly see mice like that anymore. Wireless is the trend, so decent wired mice have almost all been discontinued, online and at the big electronics stores alike. Wireless just isn’t 100% reliable, though, and changing batteries is a pain, so I can’t use one. So I went hunting all over, and this shop had something that’s hard to find even at Tsukumo in Akihabara. I’m going to use it for the next ten years or so. After that, touch?? ^_^ The aluminum hard case was cheap too, so I bought it and I’m very happy with it. I really scored a lot of good stuff that day.
Backstreets of Namba
Lots of izakaya. It feels a lot like the old backstreets of Jongno.
And there was this cute dog..
The sign says not to feed him because he’ll get fat.
Along the Dotonbori canal
It seems to have settled in as a date and sightseeing spot. I think this level of canal development is just about right.
551 Horai in the basement of Shin-Osaka Station
551 Horai is the shop famous for butaman, a pork bun a bit like a steamed bun. Lots of people who visit Osaka buy them as omiyage. Maybe because it was my first long trip in a while, time was tight on the way back as well and I had no time for a proper meal, so I decided to buy a bento. Being a shinkansen station, there are loads of bento shops, but nothing really grabbed me. So I bought the shumai bento, the best-looking thing at this well-known place. It’s 850 yen, and since they make it after you order, it takes about 10 minutes. If your schedule is really tight, that could be hard.
A cafe inside the shinkansen station
A shinkansen station is nicely done up inside. One cafe caught my eye; apparently they sell sandwiches made with premium Matsusaka beef. I’ve made up my mind to stop there next time I come to Osaka by shinkansen.
Shumai bento
This time, a huge success. It had shumai and tenshinhan, karaage and battered shrimp, and every one of them was far better than what you’d get at an ordinary Chinese restaurant. The shumai had a strong shrimp flavor. Tenshinhan is a Japanese-style Chinese dish of egg laid over rice with a sauce on top, and the sauce was especially good. I thought, so this is the joy of regional travel through bento. Of course you could order it in central Osaka too, but a bento has its own charm. Next time I’ll do a bit more research and work my way through only the signature bento of each region. That kind of thing is part of the fun of travel too.