Alright, time for another travel update.

Osaka was our second stop on this trip. We went there because Thomas was curious about the culture and because I thought there might be some interesting photographic possibilities there. Since we’d spent a decent amount of time in Tokyo on both this trip and the last, we decided to branch out a little more and spend two weeks in Osaka.

Unfortunately, our initial impressions were lackluster. One of our first stops was Dotonbori, which is a famous tourist spot. Admittedly, I’m not too fond of touristy areas, but sometimes I can see why people are drawn to a place. In this case, not so much. There were some lights, some food, and some bars. But the aesthetic didn’t inspire me in the photo department. Thomas wasn’t into it either. So, we only spent a little bit of time there.

The Yakitori Chef

A few days later, we went to a restaurant to try Yakitori (a food Osaka is known for) and had a… questionable time. One of the customers there helped us translate the menu, which was so nice of him, but after that, things mostly went downhill.

Once our order was done, the gentleman who helped us left, and the chef took over. Our first order of chicken was pretty much just flashed on the grill; it was almost entirely raw in the middle. However, from my VERY limited understanding of Japanese food culture, I thought it would be impolite to send it back or not eat it. So, Thomas and I looked at each other, made strange faces, and ate it. The next round was chicken heart. It was actually cooked that time, but the texture was awful. This was when we discovered that the chef had been watching us intently as we ate—while we made weird faces and tried to get the food down.

We spent the next 30 minutes mostly suffering through the rest of the dishes. During this process, the chef kept coming back to our table asking us if we liked it (using Google Translate.) We didn’t, but we kept saying it was great so as not to be rude. He didn’t believe us, so he kept checking. At one point, he typed something in Japanese into his phone, and it translated to English as, “Am I in your mouth?” Thomas read it and just laughed, kind of at him, but not on purpose. I just… sat there—lost. It was so awkward. Pretty sure that chef went home very angry or very depressed. We felt so bad.

Eventually, we paid and left. At this point, I thought perhaps Osaka just wasn’t for me.

Ups and Downs

As often happens while traveling, though, things turned around. We braved another restaurant, an izakia-style place (where you eat at a small bar in front of the chefs.) This establishment was run by an older couple. They didn’t speak a word of English, but they were so cheery, receptive, and helpful. We used what little Japanese we had and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Another great encounter happened during our visit to Osaka castle. An older gentleman stopped to ask if a glove he had found on the ground was mine. It wasn’t, but then he started asking us all kinds of questions about where we were from and what we were doing in Japan. It was very endearing, and he seemed genuinely curious about our lives, California, the US, etc… This was the first stranger that had ever struck up a conversation with us in Japan. We finished that evening at yet another izakia restaurant, where the nicest of families greeted us warmly, talked to us extensively through Google translate, and served us multiple dishes of free food on top of our meal.

So even though things started pretty cold, and I probably woudn’t return to Osaka for the photography, the people really sold it. I won’t tell all the stories here, but the kindness and friendliness of strangers were really apparent in our time there, and it left us with an even greater appreciation for the Japanese.

While in Osaka, we also picked up our Japan Rail Passes, which allow unlimited free transport by train (not all trains.) So, we put those to use immediately by just getting on random trains into the countryside and riding them till the end—just seeing where we ended up. The looks we got while wandering around some of the smaller towns were priceless. This was also our first chance to be in a forest or to stand in a field in Japan. Both of which were bucket list items for me (I know I’m weird).

Osaka also had a pretty neat aquarium with Japanese Spider Crabs in it. These things are insanely large and scary looking. Totally worth the price of admission.

There were some missteps, for sure. We got yelled at for accidentally taking photos in a red-light district. I completely failed at navigating the trains one day and turned a three-hour trip into an eight-hour one. But overall, we very much enjoyed ourselves here.

Nara Deer

On our final day, we went to Nara. In the park, thousands of wild deer live in close proximity to humans. Over time, they have become somewhat domesticated but are still free to roam and go where they please. You can visit the area and buy deer crackers/cookies to feed them as you wander around the park. This is an entire story and experience unto itself, so I’ll save that for a video, but it was both endearing and hilarious: Thomas got head butted and bitten multiple times as some of the more bold deer pursued his tasty cookies, and at one point I just threw the rest of my crackers on the ground and ran away. We also met a tiny deer who I named Brunhilda; she followed us around for 45 minutes—long after we ran out of food.

Kanazawa is next. We’ve never been to the other side of Japan, so hoping to have some more interesting experiences there.