Week 23 - Osaka

Phew admittedly I'm writing this 3 weeks later because the trip to Japan didn't provide any time to write. It started straight away when we arrived in Osaka at the airport. A completely crazy airport placed on a small island, which means that when you land you fly so close to the sea that you can practically see the fish... aaaah yes.

Unlike in Korea, where everything seemed very black, gray and uniform, the immigration arrival hall was a laughing stock. First we went to the first station to take photos and fingerprints, which was run by old smiling women in white lab coats. Then to the usually grumpy immigration officers, who stand out from all other countries here with their pastel pink boxes and a friendly Konichiwa. In addition, for every hello and thank you there are about 1-10 bows which I find so sweet and polite that I am still delighted every time. I think it's really nice to hold a door open or free up a space because it's so pleasant to interact with each other.

Admittedly, we were completely overwhelmed at the airport because our preliminary research was virtually non-existent in terms of transport. It turns out that there is not just one provider per city, like the BVG, but several, some of which also operate national trains, etc. So let's take a quick look at the nearest convenience store (the first of hundreds) and talk about the sheer selection of things -Go bowled over meals and snacks, but reached for the beloved triangles again and ate them in two bites. When we finally secured and loaded our ICOCA card, we headed to the hostel. Luckily, Google Maps is working normally here again and is even much better for transport than it is here. Platform, wagon and exit are displayed precisely every time you change trains and leave the train, so you don't have to take many detours. Where exactly which carriage of the incoming train will be is written on the ground so that you can position yourself perfectly. In general, you quickly notice that in Japan there is a system or a clever solution for many things, even the smallest things. Korea is the first high-income country in Asia that I visit and in many aspects it feels like Europe, just the Asian version. If that makes sense… 😂.

Osaka was a great introduction to Japan for us. Not a small city but not Tokyo the megacity. Our days here were a bit gray and cold but we made an effort to visit the tourist spots (Osaka Castle, Tstuenkaku, that's it actually haha). Here it was simply much more exciting to get to know the surroundings and the food. The architecture of the houses is very unique: tiled, narrow, very high houses (see pictures). A lot of things here remind me of the Wes Anderson films, the pastel colors (lots of pink, mint green very retro), the traffic light posts are white and there are thousands of these little box cars driving around, like something out of a Nintendo game.

There was ramen on the first evening, although it was in the tourist center, but it was quite good so we were well introduced to the system and English wasn't an issue either. You usually order and pay directly on arrival on a screen, after which small tickets are then printed out with your order. Then you are assigned your seat and pass the tickets on to the waiter. You often sit at the counter and can watch the chefs. It's really cool and not unpleasant at all because they're just doing their thing and you're not being watched or anything like that (staring isn't okay here either, I noticed that more and more often later). To use the toilet you have to change into a pair of slippers down in the restaurant (they love slippers here), then go up the narrowest, steepest staircase and change into toilet slippers at the top of the toilet. Toilet is a whole separate topic, more on that later. The ramen bowl is actually ready within seconds, since the broth has been cooking for hours and the toppings have been marinating since last week. That's what makes the whole thing so delicious. By the way, there is always a carafe with the iciest water ever, which goes perfectly with the hot, salty ramen broth. I always really enjoyed ramen in Japan, and we generally didn't have a single failure in terms of food throughout the entire trip. But ramen is not the same in any restaurant and you naturally develop preferences and at some point you know what makes the perfect bowl for you.

Breakfast for me quickly became two Tuna Majo Onigiri (the triangles) and Esther got a bit tired of them and tried a variety of sandwiches and wraps. There are a lot of viral things here from TikTok and Insta that people swear by. But sometimes they also look a bit questionable. Everything is fresh, that is without question. Here are a few impressions:

After two days we were ready to head to the next city.