After Elizabeth nursed Escher, we headed towards Dotonbori, which is sort of the Times Square of Osaka. We wanted to get a hot dinner, and because it was a tourist attraction, we felt like we wouldn’t be let down. The main strip was located only a few streets away from our apartment. We exited the apartment building, then we headed down the sidewalk, and turned down a road, which would lead us to the riverwalk.
When we arrived, we saw a pedestrian dominated street, which felt like we were on the midway of a state fair. Almost every restaurant had an elaborate sign, such as a giant octopus or a huge three dimensional hand reaching out of the wall. For the signs that weren’t decorated with large sculptures, they were illuminated with neon lights and LED screens which helped them stand out from the competition.
Like most of the other places that we visited in Japan, there were lots of young people gathered around in a corner holding an open alcohol container. The most popular cuisine for the area was takoyaki, which is fried octopus balls. They are prepared by having the calamari cut up into small pieces and then put into a batter similar to cornbread, then baked into the shape of a ball about double the size of a golf ball which sort of resembled a pan for cupcakes.
While I did eat some octopus while in Nikko, I didn’t really want to try it again, even if it was sort of a sin to not try a dish that is the signature of the street. It is probably the best place to get takoyaki, but I figured that I would be able to live without it. There were vendors that were lined up on the street with no line, then other places where it looked like there were probably 50 people lined up for their octopus balls.
While I was taking lots of pictures of the different signs and sculptures, Elizabeth was trying to narrow down places to eat. I was tempted to just stop at one of the stands selling chicken kabobs right on the sidewalk, but I figured that I would wait until Elizabeth found the right place for her, before I ate anything. Even though, we saw mostly takoyaki places, there were a few spots that served sushi or ramen. You’d think that it would be easy to just pop in and find something on the menu that would be fine, but she is very spiritual about her food decisions. After we reached the end of the road, we turned left over a bridge to the next street. Below the bridge, we found another takoyaki place where a huge crowd was gathered around. Then we arrived an empty street with a few restaurants here and there, but it mostly felt like we were off the beaten path.
We managed to find a quiet ramen restaurant, which was pretty much empty. We walked in and sat at a bench table. A waiter brought us a menu which was in Japanese and English with some photos of the dishes. The longer we looked at the menu, the more we noticed that there weren’t any vegetarian options listed. We flagged down the waitress, then tried to ask her if there were any vegetarian options. She looked at us confused, then she called back to the kitchen window, which was located in the wall across from our table, supposedly to see if someone in the back spoke English.
A young man popped his head through the window, then he kindly told us that they didn’t have anything without meat. I sat there a little frustrated, but I told Elizabeth that we would just go someplace else. We ended walking back to the main drag, then ended up finding the entrance to a restaurant called Sushi Zanmai, set back a little bit from the street. We walked up a ramp to find a life-sized statue of a Japanese man, whom I was assuming was the original proprietor of the place greeting us at the door.
We walked up to the host podium, where a hostess found us a table right away. The restaurant was fairly large in size, especially compared to the hole in the walk ramen restaurant that we were just at, but the restaurant only seemed to be half full compared to the crowd who were out on the streets, waiting in line for takoyaki. Most of the restaurants that we found ourselves in throughout our trip were little hole in the wall places, which looked like they had been operating for decades, decorated with dark lighting, worn wooden furniture, fade paint and old photographs. However, this place sort of felt like a Denny’s. It had the feel of a chain restaurant which carbon copied all of its locations with generic furniture and decor. It was complete with the padded fake leather booths and particle board tables.
The waiter brought us menus, along with a sushi checklist. I am typically a fan of getting a few different pieces of sashimi to compliment a sushi roll. I made a few check marks and also ordered some hot sake for us to share. When our food arrived at the table, it didn’t seem like anything special, but it tasted satisfactory and served our needs. After we finished eating, we continued back down the street to take a few photographs of the signs, making our way back to the apartment.
The apartment was cool and the bed was hard, but after watching a little bit of television, we managed to get to sleep for a few hours, before Escher woke us to be feed.