Osaka, Asuka, family…
This week I am enjoying Osaka very much. I took the bullet train from Tokyo Station to Osaka. I always enjoy taking the JR Shinkansen. This time mount Fuji was visible and it look really nice. You can watch it on the right side of the train for some minutes.
In Osaka, I have been to my favorite places, among them, my favorite place for Okomiyaki, visited my friend Maedasan who owns a shop of soybean base products at Tenjinbashisuji, and like always it was great to see him and get some nice soy pudding (which he makes the best). Got very nice tempura at Shin Osaka station. I also ate nice Sushi at one of the train stations. I went finally to Komeda Cafe to get breakfast, which is basically white bread with butter and read bean paste called " Ogura", you can google it. It is very simple, but the way the bread tastes in Japan is amazing and the texture is so so fluffy, you have to try it whenever you come to Japan, and I love the "Ogura" with butter and toast so much. Also visited my favorite coffee shops and got some nice beans to brew when I get back to Germany. Sanwa coffee and Lilo coffee roasters are two of my favorite among few others.
I stayed at Aki's mama house, like always she was really nice and very easy going. I met Aki on Monday afternoon when she arrived from Germany and me coming from Tokyo. We have met some friends and ate lots of different food and visited so many places in Osaka some for the first time and some others I always love coming back whenever I am at this great city.
This is my 5th time in Japan, and like always I have a very strong connection to this country. I am still figuring out why is this conneciton so strong. Since the first time I came here, I knew I must live here at least for a while at some point of my life. Of course it would be very hard to get the language and although I speak a bit of Japanese already, this language takes years to be able to speak it properly, it is complitely different structure compare to my native language, Spanish. Nevertheless I have not lost hope that I will manage to live here at some point. It is a project I really want to persue, and that is why I am trying to study Japanese slowly on my own time. This time I have managed to communicate a bit more with Japanese people. My knowlagde of the language is really really small, but I am slowly being able to build some basic sentences, which makes me really happy and keeps me motivated to keep learning.
On Saturday we went to the small town of Asuka to see temples and burial sites that date back to the 600 AD. We rented some electric bikes and drove across the town, we saw a minimum part of it cause there are many places to see, but I am a so happy to the parts we did see. It was really special and also we got some of the most delicious lunch I ever had in Japan at local place. I just love their food and the culture.
Back in Osaka we were at places like, Osaka Namba, Dotombori, Umeda, Abeno, Tsutenkaku Tower and Shinsekai, Settsu, Lala Port, Amerikamura, among others. I got a nice haircut as well, this time not in Nagoya (I could not go, because of time) but at a really nice barber shop around Umeda, in a very local hipster neighborhood. Of course, as well, I took a lot of photos with my Xt4 Fujifilm camera and I am looking forward to look and edit many of them.
I can go on an on about my trip and the little things I did but I would not be able to finish writing here all down. What I can quickly share is that among the many things we did, I was so happy we had dinner with Akiho's family (Mum, sisters and their husbands and kids), like always very nice to see them and how the kids are growing everytime we see them more and more.
Tomorrow I am going back to Germany and I cannot believe my 10 day adventure this time has come to an end, at least for this year. I am looking forward to come back next year, hopefully during cherry blossom season. Since years we want to do it but never made it, so lets see if next year is possible.
Take care and see you next week here.
