We reached there at about 10.30am and the market was very much alive. Most of the patrons appeared to be tourists like us though. It was a food market rather than a wet market so people go there to look for food to fill their stomachs and not for marketing.
There was a crowd at this Fugu (pufferfish) stall.
Eating fugu was one of the to-do things for this trip but I wanted to fill my stomach with some cooked food first.
Towards the end of the market, I saw a small crowd forming at this stall. And it's kobe beef!
I bought a skewer of kobe beef and chose salt, instead of sauce, to go with it.
Even Baby enjoyed it!
It was a few days later when I travelled to Kobe for Kobe beef that I knew this was not the best kind of Kobe beef, but for beef skewer, this was great.
Tried the grilled scallop
It was 'okay', not out-of-the-world experience.
I had expected it to be really delicious from what I had read online but it was just cooked scallop at best.
The 'corner sushi shop'
Very crowded most of the time.
There are two sections. A small side stall selling sushi, pockets of rice topped with tuna or salmon, and a longer counter selling fresh bowls of rice covered with fresh fish.
I went for the sushi as my last trip to Tokyo had me hooked on fatty tuna. William and Baby had the fish bowl.
I picked one of each to try.
(No. 1 Special Fatty Tuna - 800 yen,
Fatty Tuna - 600 yen.
Medium Fatty Tuna - 400 yen
Salmon - 250 yen)
Then I moved on to my next quest: sea urchin
There were different 'packages', the cheapest being 2500 yen for a small oyster and sea urchin and the most expensive being 4000 yen for a large oyster and sea urchin.
We didn't want to take risks so we opted for just a small sea urchin at 1500 yen.
It was creamy and custardy with a little fishy taste. Not a big fan but it was good to taste it for novelty's sake.
I walked past this stall and picked a skewer of angus beef. 'Okay' as well. The earlier Kobe beef skewer wins hands down.
Read that this was a must-eat, so eat we must. I quickly googled on what to choose and struggled to pick out a few items.
Beef, fish cakes, radish. Broth was hot and nice to combat the cold weather.
We were not impressed by the food. 'Just cooked food lor ...'
We walked back from where we came from and returned to the Fugu shop.
The owner was very friendly. I asked him where the small plate of fugu was and he led me to the fridge counter to show me the different sizes of plates I could choose from. I chose the smallest of course.
After that, he placed it on a narrow table with two cute pufferfish display and said,"Picture." with a smile. I was so stoked that I took multiple pictures of the fugu that I forgot to include myself in it, like the sea urchin picture!
The fugu itself was tasteless. It was quite rubbery, like a harder version of squid.
The shop owner also included the skin which were in strips. Even harder and more rubbery! Once is quite enough for the adventure.
We had fun trying the fugu though. It's not something you get to eat everywhere!
Just had to make do with the shop front!
After our food adventure, we made our way to Osaka Castle.
We came for the autumn foliage so pictures with red leaves are a must!
And oh, how beautiful Osaka Castle is!
After taking numerous pictures outside of the castle, it was time to enter it.
We took the lift up to the 5th floor and climbed the stairs to the 8th floor where the observatory was.
From the top, we got to see the multi-colour foliage with the concrete skyscrapers as its backdrop, kind of different from the other observatories I had been to.
Photography was not allowed on certain floors as they contained historical stories and artefacts associating with the country and Osaka Castle, such as the different types of head gear for the great men in the history.
Basically, the Osaka Castle was the brainchild of a hero who rose from a peasantry background to a courageous general and then a ruthless Japanese ruler.
By the time he passed away, he was in his sixties and his only son was just 6.
His story remains an inspiration to many of humble beginnings.
On the second floor, tourists could pay to dress up and have their photographs taken.
Models of Osaka Castle
The only fun activity for a child: stamping the Osaka Castle stamp
I read online and understood from the people who had been to Osaka Castle that there was 'nothing much' in the castle. Not sure how we did it but we ended up spending 3 or 4 hours at the castle! And as it was turning late, we didn't even have the time to visit its garden which I read was supposed to be more enjoyable than the castle.
So we moved on to another 'must-go': Shinsekai.
When we reached Shinsekai, our first thought was,"It looks like a ghost town!"
The shops were closed by 5.30pm and there were very few visitors.
Anyone who writes that Shinsekai comes alive at night ought to be shot! If this is 'alive', then what is Dotonburi?
If I could go back in time, I would not go to Shinsekai! A waste of my time.
I googled for the must-eats at Shinsekai. I almost fainted. Every article pointed at kushikatsu. I scoured the shops at Shinsekai and true enough, almost every shop was selling kushikatsu. One or two were fugu shops which we had already tried in the morning. And thank goodness we did. Otherwise, we might have ended up ordering a fugu steamboat which we would be sorely disappointed with and had our pocket burnt!
I googled further and found a sushi shop near the tower.
The variety of sushi was quite limited and there were some we could not place order for so we ended up having salmon and tuna sushi, thinking that we would return to Dotonburi for better food. Yes, at that point in time, we just wanted to get out of there asap!
Only this small area was crowded as tourists just wanted a picture of the tower and the seemingly bustling place (when it was not!)
We returned to Dotonburi and wanted some ramen but Ichiran had a long queue so we settled for this shop.
It had pork broth but it was a little peppery and did not come anywhere near Ichiran.
We continued roaming at Dotonburi and found the Glico man on the Shinsaibeishi Bridge where we refused to do the goofy pose that everybody was doing, with one leg and two arms raised! Everybody was crowding that area to take a picture with the running man so I had to settle for a shiny face picture.
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