After a late night of carousing, we slept in for the first time in days. It was a good hotel with a great bed, and we slept late. Fantastic. The town was slow to wake up, so when we first walked out the door, there was not much open. We ended up in a small place called Arca Cafe and Bakery. They specialize in focaccia sandwiches, and the one I had was delicious. I do not like Japanese bread. It’s soft, too airy, and has no texture. Sorry, the Europeans ruined me when it comes to bread. The focaccia was still softer than we’d have at home, but it was an excellent bake.
We decided to take the morning to visit Osaka Castle. It was built in 1583 and reconstructed in 1931. The ingenious defensive design struck me most—multiple moats and massive stone walls with carefully fitted interlocking blocks. The tower rises eight stories high, commanding attention with its distinctive silhouette.
I’ve seen castles, forts, and palaces all over the globe, and Osaka Castle is very impressive from the outside. While we were walking the grounds, we ran into a guy from Seattle who stopped us to talk about how impressive the structure is. The moats and the sheer height of everything do set it apart.
After our mandatory history lesson and visit to a culturally significant site, we visited the Sennichimae Doguyasuji, a kitchenware shopping street. We bought a very nice kitchen knife as a gift for someone while we were there. I wasn’t in the mood for a lot of shopping, so I just bought a small bowl for our kitchen.
We had lunch while we were there at a place called Matsuya. This was a tiny udon noodle place where you first order what you want using a ticket machine outside of the restaurant and then find a seat at the counter, put your ticket down, and get what you ordered. I had a big bowl of noodles in a Japanese curry sauce. Delicious. We were the only tourists in the shop, and it seemed like a place where people grab a quick lunch during their break.
After lunch, we decided to walk in a thrift store district and take a long nap before going out later. After last night’s escapades, we were both feeling our age and wanted to nod off before the evening started. We got a puff pastry dessert from a bakery called Grenier Patisserie, which was famous on social media at some point, but we walked right in. It was a puff pastry with strawberries and cream, and it was excellent and certainly deserves whatever accolades the algorithm gifted it.
We weren’t going out clubbing again, but I had made us a reservation at the ROR Comedy Club. It’s a comedy club that hosts English shows, so I thought that might be a nice break. Before that, we stopped at a small place called Jokanya for okonomiyaki. This is a Japanese savory pancake. It’s a hefty egg and flour batter, with cabbage as a primary ingredient. The restaurant was delicious, and we got to sit at the bar where they cook everything.
After that, we finished at ROR Comedy Club. That night, they had three comedians: one was a guy from England who was there to perform, another was a Japanese guy, and the third was an English guy who had lived in Osaka for many years. All were very funny, but the Japanese guy was the filthiest of them all.
Next: Japan – Day 9: Tokyo