{"id":3726,"date":"2001-01-31T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2001-01-31T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sch1auh0s7.site.nfoservers.com\/wp_lew1slau\/?p=3726"},"modified":"2022-04-25T23:27:02","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T23:27:02","slug":"osaka-japan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/2001\/01\/31\/osaka-japan-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Osaka, Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Towards the end of January I had the chance to visit Japan with my brother Philip. It was a holiday simply to get away from all the worries in the past few months, as well as a chance to see each other after two years apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passing of our mother made me want to weave a better web amongst us brothers, Philip, Kevin, and I, simply because the original bond, my mother, isn\u2019t here anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure mom would want us to stick together, through good and bad times as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this trip, Philip and I travelled through Kyoto, Osaka, Shusenji (in Izu), and Tokyo. These are the pictures that describe our fun times during this two-week trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s pretty easy living in Japan, even if you don’t speak the language – all restaurants have these display cases with pastic\/wax food models that show you their entire menu… if you see something that looks appetizing to you, just tell the waiter\/waitress which one you want by\u00a0pointing<\/em>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An example…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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we decided on a restaurant based SOLELY on the wax model display…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What Philip ordered…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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An exact (except for the dish) replica, in edible form…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A Totoro shop… kids sure have it nice in Japan… if you have the money, you can buy ANYTHING… That fat stuffed animal is life-sized, and costs US$800…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Example of cool phones in Japan… TFT Matrix Color display, customizable background, and applications you can download to your phone… imagine playing TETRIS or SPACE INVADERS on your phone… wow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Now that is a THIN phone…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of the new Sony VAIO laptops on display… looks like an Apple iBook wannabe…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Walking by an electronic store, I checked out a “newer” version of my digital camera, the Nikon CoolPix 880 (I have had the 800 for the past year or so)… While no one was watching I popped in my Compact Flash card into the demo unit and snapped the next picture…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although there were more features on the 880, I have decided to look around at other gadget marvels…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hmmm… a closeup of Philip with the 880 – images DOES appear clearer, even though my hands moved while taking this shot… I suppose if you have more (pixels) to sample from, the resizing (for this web page) makes it BETTER.

I take my word back… The 880 is superior in quality compared to the 800, even on the web.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back to using the 800…

Next we walked through the “restaurant” district of Osaka… this is definitely an interesting place to see – anything and everything you want and need to start a business in the restaurant business…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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sample sushi plastic models on display…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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dishes, bowls, plates…

They even have stores for uniforms, signage, industrial-strength ovens… the only missing link is an employment agency for staff!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Next stop – the underground food market at Takashimaya, a large department store chain…

There should be no starving people in Japan… just go to ANY underground food market, where they give you enough food to fill any hungry stomach…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Food samples…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More food samples…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiro is arranging to meet up with Silvia, a friend we met Minneapolis (who is now living in Korea) later… Silvia is taking a weekend trip to Osaka… it’s been three years or so since I last saw her…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Top-grade Kobe beef – about US$100 a box (those are only SLICES – steaks cost a lot more)…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jamie just couldn’t stop eating these yummy, FREE food…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Philip also on the prowl for freebie food samples<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finally had to drag ourselves out of that tempation island of food…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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By chance, we run into this famous temple inside a small alley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiro running around town with us for the past three days, still going…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Round two of “deciding what to eat”…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The problem is that all these restaurants are “sans-window”, so we really don’t know if they are packed with customers (due to the great-tasting food, perhaps?) or empty… one important criterium of restaurant-choosing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Restaurant #1 – no one inside…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Restaurant #2 – can’t see a thing from the entrance…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A Japanese noodle (ramen) store specializing in Tonkotsu (pork bone) soup-base – the trick is to boil pork in water for hours until the soup has all the essence of the pork… and then cook noodles with those.

As you can see from the picture on the left, the illustration shows us what parts of the pig is used in their different noodles…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Night scene in Osaka…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Philip discovered another Kani-Doraku, that incredible restaurant specializing in crabs…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Judging from the picture, can you tell that the huge dragon sculpture is simply a decoration for a noodle store – they sure go all-out in terms of advertisement in Japan… even for just a noodle shop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we decided to have Oden, a Japanese specialty meal consisting of grounded fish patties and meat lightly boiled in broth. It’s hard to explain, but it really is a lot more delicious than it sounds!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We pick what we want to eat from the bar counter we were sitting at…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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… and our hostess cooks it right in front of us…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Japanese Oden \u304a\u3067\u3093<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Me biting the head off a small broiled fish<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A slightly embarrassing story at the Oden restaurant. The food was great, but the bill was quite expensive – so jokingly Philip and I spoke in Mandarin about how it was crazy to be paying this much for ‘simple’ food. Then the Japanese owner suddenly spoke to both of us in <\/span><\/em>Mandarin<\/span><\/em> <\/strong>too, saying that he lived for many years in Taiwan, and that even though the food is simple and the restaurant is cozy, it is a labor of love and hard work<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oops. In shock, we apologized and quickly walked out in shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way back from the restaurant… I saw a poster for a “capsule hotel”… these are little confined spaces that one can “rent” for the evening, much cheaper than an actual hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The drawback – each “capsule” is only slightly bigger than a coffin… so if you are claustrophobic (or think you may be), do not try this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of January I had the chance to visit Japan with my brother Philip. It was a holiday simply to get away from all the worries in the past few months, as well as a chance to see each other after two years apart. The passing of our mother made me want to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image165.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3811,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3726\/revisions\/3811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}