May 30

05/30/2013

Not quite sure what happened with the google blogsite thing -- before it was only letting me do one page total, but it looks like it now does page by date, which is what I was after originally... so a slight change in format as we move onto today (5/30/2013)

Anyway, woke up very early and cleaned up the room/repacked all my stuff in prep for moving to the next hotel, which is a Ryokan. I figured that I would get breakfast downstairs at Hotel dotonbori again and then walk over to the Namba Walk underground mall area to see if the bread/pastry place is open for early morning commuters.

Breakfast was pretty much the same as yesterday -- this time I took a few photos of the selection. Good baked salmon, same cereal selection (I skipped it today), kiwi slices, orange slices, and leeche fruit. Also had some very good miso soup -- theirs had a lot more than broth in in (maybe some fried or baked tofu strands? not sure). Also some of their 'soft' scrambled eggs. Again, nothing all that special, but still a good offering. Japan just isn't big on breakfast "as such", and Dotonbori is most certainly a "stay up all night and party" part of town, so I'm not shocked about this.

Scrambled Eggs (soft) with something mixed in -- tasted really good

Baked or Grilled Salmon -- traditional and good quality

some pork products-- I skipped them.

And some salad type products -- also skipped

but I loaded up on the fruit, minus the bananas as they're just not apple bananas!

rice balls, yogurt and cereal

miso and rice station

left half was good - carb balls of some kind with cut up fried tofu wedges. Right side is basically spaghetti

I then walked out the front door and over to the Namba Walk to see what was open... unfortunately not much! Bread place was baking, but not open until 10am, or so the sign said. Not worth the wait.

Found another shop that had some pastry items though, so bought two and ate the while walking back to the hotel.

So after this initial breakfast and the "extra" run to the station's underground mall I headed back to the room and took a few pictures for the record of what it looked like. It was a fine room, but different from what we're used to in the US as its a bit smaller but has a lot of neat little nooks and crannies -- it really does work out well. Pictures below:

main part of room - side desk and bed

the bed

side desk from another angle, entrance hall

another shot of the same - side desk and entrance hall

bathroom and shower/tub

don't push any buttons!! OR ELSE!!! (Bidet attack for the unwary, but

I knew not to play with this armed device!!!)

from front door looking at bathroom door and rest of room via entrance hall

So with that out of the way I rested a while and then checked out of the hotel. They gifted me a nice set of the "evil munchkins" that guard their gates! Here's a picture of one of them.

Be nice, or he/she will come alive and do something!!!

Anyway, headed off to the subway (short walk, one subway stop, short walk to try and checkin at my next lodging -- which is a Japanese Ryokan called "Yamatoya Honten"

Showed up at 11:30, but apparently that was check-out time -- they were not ready for me :-! But they said they would keep my bags, so I left everything with them (more or less) and walked back up Dotonbori street to find some lunch.

I found an interesting looking guard in front of a kushikatsu place -- here's his photo:

So I went in and was seated at the bar. They were ready for me (the american) and had an english menu for me:

So I started ordering a-la-carte various kushikatsu. Pictures below, but they all look very similar when they "come out" as they're battered and fried. But each had a distinctive taste or texture based on the "base item" (eg: chicken meatball, shrimp, conger eel, scallops, etc).

part of my order of chicken meatball (left) and scallops (right)

view from my seat at the counter -- fry chef in the back, prep guy in the front

part of a beef one (I ate the top to demo what is undeneath)

I think this was a slice of sweet potato

scallops, chicken meatball, eggplant

Shrimp, Lotus Root, Chicken Meatball, Conger Eel

Conger Eel

Same eel, just rotated for a different view

All in all I had 16 "sticks", which was nice. Along with a glass of ginger ale the total was about $22US.

Of course, after all that protein and fried batter I had no choice -- none what so ever -- but to quickly find dessert! Fortunately right next door or so there was a downstair arrow for gelato! I forced myself to have a green tea and hazelnut cup.

Green Tea and HazelNut (half and half) gelato in a cup

Still had a lot of time to kill until 3PM, so walked around dotonbori street a little more, but it was too early to see anyone doing anything interesting, so no photos. Also took a long stroll down the "Shinsajbaschi-suji", a mostly dome covered street that runs perpendicular to Dotonbori and has tons of stores (fine clothing, etc) that I won't buy anything in. Also some interesting looking dessert places, but I passed (such self control)!

Unfortunately I have gotten an annoying toe-blister on a small toe (one in from right pinky toe) which

is not happy. Good news is I stopped (limped) into a convenience store and found a large quantity of Dr Scholls products [though all in japanese!]. Bought them and have applied to right shoe, which is helping.

It's also started to drizzle, but since its about 2:30pm I figured its time to head back to Yamatoya Honten and hang out in their lobby... which I did and eventually (around 3:15pm) was checked in.

When I was escorted to my room (by a traditionally kimonoed lady) she showed me my room and then poured me some nice green tea. I've been sipping it while typing this blog. Here are some pictures of my japanese style room in its "day" configuration. I have dinner in another room later tonight -- while I'm there they will come back and replace the center table with futon bedding and have it ready for my return post-dinner.

hallway after first door, showing sink and sliding door into main room.

main room from its sliding threshold

a better shot - day configuration (my luggage in the back right corner).

taken from above my luggage. Door on right is storage for night bedding.

Door on left is closed but was to hall I entered through.

Picture from hallway taken into bathing room. Whole room is shower, tub in back for soaking.

I've already taken a nice hot bath after showing off. There is also a community bath/onsen that I may try later after dinner.

Small bathroom with toilet to the right of the sink. Watch out, this one has dangerous controls on the side too!

Headed out to dinner at 6:30pm. Tonights dinner is here at the Ryokan and is a private kaiseki meal. Should be quite the experience. Since I'm staying at a Ryokan I'm honoring the tradition (and being a tourist) and will dress the part. All the rooms are supplied with Yukata's for the guest (traditional in-house or around-house clothing). Here's the photos and a video:

Entrance to private dining room - note signage on the right

Table when I arrived

"Formal" me

The Menu for tonight -- will have to get one of my friends to translate as other than

my name the rest is all in Kanji!

I had my friend the Sushi Chef translate for me (the menu above says):

1, assorted appetizer of month of June

fresh "junsai" sunomono

shrimp box sushi

"Yomogi"(name of a vegetable) cake

Miso souce on top of another vegetable

clam and snap beans? with sun dry tomato/ mayo sauce

1, sashimi

two kinds of fresh fish

1 grilled fish

paper wrapped flounder

1 porched fish

pie over blowfish and assorted seafood in soup

1 local item

kind of like Takoyaki

1 stam item

savory custard

1 sushi

box sushi osaka style

1 original item

shabu shabu kobe beef wrapped in lettuce

1 rice item

rice with black beans

1 soup

seasonal soup

1 pickles

three kinds of pickles

1 desert

month of june home made desert

What's that on the right? We'll find out later, but the small rectangular tray has some tako and ebi in it!

Crab done a number of ways, I think!

Closeup of first set

Into the well of the glass

Closeup of raw materials to the right ... ebi and tako... I sense tako and ebi-yaki in the future

They then brought out a fried fish (or was it crab body?) wrapped in paper

It unwrapped well -- and tasted great!

This was followed by some salmon sashimi and squid sashimi -- yummy

The fun begins -- cooking device lit

And heating up!

and my server adds the batter to make takoyaki and ebi-yaki!

I got to drop the raw tako and shrimp in

And cook them up, using a toothpick to rotate as I'd seen the Takoyaki vendors on

Dotonbori do the last day or two.

Here is a video of my "cooking" process:

I was also presented with this covered item -- pastry shell of sorts on top. Told to break it with spoon and eat up.

But my first takoyaki is done! Letting it cool off...

While the others simmer and cook

I break through the crust -- a tomato like custard with something below

ANd the other item that came out was another custard and fish like item

Which looked like this when stirred and eaten

A great salad then appeared with salad dressing to add.

And a pressed sushi -- I think it was saba, eel and maybe tomago, but not sure. But

tasted great.

Also a tempura fried pair of white fish

more detail -- with pretty salt on the side

After a bite -- but watch out there are bones!

I was really full, but didn't understand when she came and asked if I wanted to "rise" (she

meant "rice"... so rice with beans in the middle, soup on the right and fixings for the soup on the left. I only had room for a little rice, but drank the soup in full.

Here's a closeup of the rice with beans in it.

And the soup

And finally dessert - lime jello with fruit and sweet something on top

Fruit on the right with some cake or cheesecake.

Wow! The meal ran from 6:30 until almost 8pm! What a great experience. I feel really sorry for the lady who waited on me as she was very nice and polite but really didn't speak english and my Japanese is so limited that I think I failed to follow many of her suggestions/instructions. So I likely re-enforced that most gajin are barbarians! But it was very very very good.

I then stumbled back to my room, which was converted to "sleep" mode with a futon and the like.

Here's what it looks like in that mode:

Futon with odd comforter cover on it.

Passing out until Tomorrow!

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