Last night I spent hours trying to book a hotel for today’s arrival at tokyo, so this post intended for yesterday is now being written on the bullet train instead. I could have booked an okay-ish hotel earlier but tried to over-optimise and ended up wasting precious time. I’ve learnt that travelling without much prior planning requires a lot of smart letting go at appropriate times. Trying to maximise for everything eventually leads to an overall diminished experience.
We visited Osaka Castle yesterday. We’re both not into castles per se but enjoy strolling around parks, especially japanese ones. Nevertheless the castle is quite a sight:
It was also enjoyable to see people just having fun:
I couldn’t resist sharing this photo of golden retrievers wearing kimono of course:
Near the actual castle itself there was a building with some retail shops and restaurants. We found a shop selling takoyaki and okonomiyaki, but my partner was skeptical of their quality since it looks extremely geared towards tourists. They offer free rental of picnic mats and tables, so we took the opportunity to eat outdoors again:
It was such an unexpected surprise, to come to a touristy place and yet have actual fun. We dine outdoors because we have no choice, but it led us to have a relaxing picnic in great weather – something we would have missed out upon if we simply took the status quo of eating indoors. The food was actually good, or at least to my untrained tastebuds. The takoyaki had such a soft tender texture – they feel quite different from the ones we had in Singapore. Is this how takoyaki should be?
At dinner we wanted to go to this yakiniku place near our hotel that has a rooftop dining area. But after a lot of confusion in trying to communicate with the restaurant staff, we found out that it was only for a course (set) dinner that included all-you-can-drink alcohol. Near this restaurant was another place that also had a rooftop area which is also only reserved for course meals and all-you-can-drink. So it seems like a thing. Since we both don’t drink alcohol we had to sadly look for another option. After walking for quite a bit and almost giving up we found this cute little italian restaurant with a standing area:
Each time we ask if we can dine outdoors we get a little apprehensive because we’ve been rejected countless times. There are restaurants that would rather lose business than to keep coming outdoors to serve us even if there is an outdoor area. I think for this restaurant the standing area is more for drinks and snacks, but after some hesitation by the server – he had to ask someone – they kindly let us dine there. We weaved a sigh a relief because it was late and we were hungry. Again, it was another experience that we only had because we were forced to, but it turned out really enjoyable and great. You may think it seems a little weird to eat italian food in japan, but we like their take on western-ish food. It is like a whole other genre. But honestly we would have been glad to eat anything at that point.
Breakfast was way easier as there was a cafe with an explicit outdoor sitting area near our hotel. I have observed that smaller dining outfits tend to actually be glad when we are willing to dine outdoors because they have limited indoor seatings.
We’re now bound to tokyo. The last time I was in tokyo was 2018 when we spent a night there in transit to kyoto, and the last time I spent proper time there was 2008ish, when I was a radically different person. I wonder how I would feel about it this time. We think it is saving the best for the last, but is it?