Japan 2014 Summer Holiday

Monday 25 August 2014

Day 32 Depart Japan

Well it had to come so here we are at the end of my Japan 2014 holiday, left Higashihanazono this morning and now waiting to board at 19:55, spend a few days in Sydney then back home ti Queenstown. See ya Japan-you've been fantastic, can't wait for my 6th trip back next year.

Higashihanazono Station Osaka

JAL First Class

French champagne in JAL First Class

JAL First Class meal

JAL First Class dessert

Narita International Airport

About 90 kg's of luggage

Qantas Business Lounge Nairta

Boarding Pass

Sunday 24 August 2014

Day 31 Okinomiyaki

Woah, talk about leaving the best for last, my friend, okasan and I went to Namba to eat okonomiyaki Osaka style, now I've eaten this hundreds of times but never at any restaurants in Japan, from past posts I wrote that I had eaten Hiroshima style okonomiyaki and really enjoyed it, well the Osaka style is just as good. I was lucky as we ended up in a restaurant that would let us prepare our own once we were given the ingredients, why don't we have these type of restaurants in Australia or New Zealand, they're an absolute hoot, everyone is in good spirits and drinking heaps, laughing and eating with friends, what a great way to spend an afternoon.

Yukari Okonomiyaki Restaurant

Our table

Making Okonomiyaki

BBQ'd pork, lettuce & spicy hot miso sauce-oishi

Making Okonomiyaki

Nearly finished

Making Okonomiyaki

Adding the sauces

Final product

Day 30 Namba

After our last time at Gambanyoku we went to Namba and had chicken ramen for dinner, did you notice that there are apparently 25 hours in a day in Japan according to some signs.

These guys are open til 25:00

HIPS gaming building Namba

Namba

Ramen restaurant Namba

Chicken ramen

These guys are open til 25:00 too

Namba

HIPS gaming building Namba

Takashimaya Dept Store.

Dessert from Takashimaya Dept Store.

Saturday 23 August 2014

Day 28 Sumo Training

Well pissed off is putting it lightly, bloody organizer sends an email at 8:00 pm the night before telling us the sumo training was cancelled, we never saw the email til the next morning as we were getting ready at 6:00 am to go, I can assure you he felt the wrath and I'm not finished with him yet. So off to Tsukiji for sashimi breakfast. Had a look around some of the dept stores and made our way back to Haneda Airport to fly back to Osaka. For drinks we went to Asahi Super Dry Beer Hall in Umeda, the place was full of people around their mid thirties up to about the seventies, it was great, the atmosphere was really terrific we could only stay for about an hour and a half but I'd love to go back with a few drinkers and really have a ball.

Korean Matsutaki Mushrooms not as expensive as Japanese

Iwasa Restaurant Tsukiji

Sashimi for breaky

On the way to Haneda Airport

Asahi Super Dry Beer Hall Umeda

Smoked salmon & salad

German sausage & sauakraut

Around Osaka Train Station