Day 13 (Part 2) - Osaka Food Tour & An Unexpected Surprise
After spending some time relaxing at the hotel, it was time for our food tour. We booked the "Eat your way through Osaka" food tour on Airbnb. It was advertised as a 3 hour walking tour. We met our host Chie in front of an H&M store in Dotonbori. She started the tour by walking us to a few Dotonbori landmarks, including our favorite... the Glico sign! But this time, she suggested a certain pose.
Next she took us down an alley so narrow I almost thought I would have to shimmy sideways to get through. We never would have gone down an alley like this on our own.
Chie pointed out tiny little torii gates that lined the alley. She explained that these were put here to deter drunk people from urinating in the alleys.
She took us to something that I assumed was a shrine, but was actually Hozenji Temple. I didn't realize a temple could be so small.
There was also a shrine directly across from the temple.
Next we made our first food stop. It was an okonomiyaki place called Okaru.
We had two different varieties of okonomiyaki. And once again, I can't remember what they were. The okonomiyaki we had earlier that day was a bit better, but this was still good.
As you can see, one of them had Kuidaore Taro on it, and the other had the woman the restaurant is named after, Okaru. The man making our okonomiyaki was Okaru's grandson.
Our next stop was Maguro Ittetsu, a very tiny sushi restaurant.
I mean, look how narrow this place is.
Each person was given a set of 6 pieces of nigiri.
This was seriously delicious. From left to right: big fatty tuna (otoro), medium fatty tuna (chutoro), regular tuna (akami), tuna throat (hon maguro nodo), Jellyfish w/ cucumber, marinated tuna. I had never had jellyfish before, so I'm glad I got to try it.
Next we went to Naruto Taiyaki Hompo, a taiyaki place. To get there, we went down some more dark alleys. As we were walking, I saw somebody out of the corner of my eye. This person looked very familiar from another DISer's trip report. I quickly noted my location in Google Maps, so we could investigate further when our tour was finished.
I don't care for red bean, so I'm usually not into taiyaki. But Pocky loves it, so I was happy it was on the tour. I was happy to see that this place offered taiyaki filled with sweet potato. I actually enjoyed it!
After the taiyaki, we continued walking. We came across one of the raccoon statues that are all over the place in Osaka.
Chie explained that it was a tanuki. Realization dawned on me when she said that. Super Mario Bros 3 is one of my all-time favorite video games. In that game, you can get a raccoon suit for Mario to wear. But it was called a Tanooki suit, and I never understood why. I mentioned this to our tour guide, and she got excited when I made the connection. Apparently she loved that game too, lol.
Eventually we made our way to Takoyaki Wanaka. Chi asked us if we wanted regular takoyaki, or if we wanted to try it festival style. The three women with us (I believe they were from Taiwan) were too full at this point to care, lol. Pocky and I said we'd go with festival style. So we got our takoyaki and went upstairs to a seating area with self serve water.
Festival style meant it was served between two rice crackers, almost like a takoyaki sandwich. It wasn't much to look at, and it was very messy to eat, but it was very good. The rice crackers added some much needed crunch to the typically mushy takoyaki.
Next we went to 551 Horai, which is apparently a very popular chain in Osaka.
Our tour guide explained that they have both quick service items and a full service restaurant. She also said the restaurant wasn't good, and to stick to the buns from the quick service area. So that is what she ordered for us, pork buns. These were your typical pork buns, but they were quite tasty.
Our last stop would be for some popsicles. We went to a place called Hokkyoku.
They had a variety of flavors. Pocky went with red bean, and I ordered yuzu.
Pocky loved hers. I should have ordered a different flavor, like strawberry or milk. The yuzu was kind of bitter.
And with that, the tour was over. We did take a picture with our wonderful tour guide, Chie.
I highly recommend this tour. It did take about 3 hours, and we probably walked about 1.5 miles. Pocky and I were reasonably full, and the other three ladies were completely stuffed.
At this point, we headed back towards the alley where I saw that familiar face. The place I was looking for was so small and nondescript that we had a hard time finding it. But then I saw him again. You couldn't miss him. The hat. The American flag shirt. The tight jeans. The boots. And of course, the long blonde hair.
It was Yuki!
@Sarahboo has written a great trip report about her 2019 trip. And if you've read it, you know exactly who Yuki is. I couldn't believe that we just happened to come across his tiny 4 seat bar. But we did!
I asked him if he was the famous Yuki. He said yes, he was Yuki. We sat down at his empty bar and ordered a couple of highballs. The whisky (they drop the e) pour on this one was pretty typical.
We started commenting on all of the American Rock 'N' Roll stuff adorning his bar. Yuki LOVES Rock 'N' Roll, and America. He asked us what our favorite bands were. Pocky said the Beatles, and I said Creedence Clearwater Revival. He put on a CCR CD, and we all sang along to some CCR. Then he put on some Beatles music and we sang along to that for a while. We were the only people in the bar the entire time we were there.
Pocky isn't much of a drinker, so she stopped at one highball. I kept going. Each highball had more whiskey than the one before it. We couldn't help laughing at the last one he poured me. He filled the glass halfway with whiskey. Then he added a splash of soda. Then he grabbed the whiskey bottle again and filled the rest of the glass with more whiskey. I wish I had thought to take a picture of this one. It was basically a full highball glass of whiskey on the rocks.
Yuki was matching me glass for glass. I couldn't tell what he was drinking. It came from a gigantic bottle on the top shelf of bar. We were both pretty well buzzed by the end of our stay.
Every so often, Yuki would ask us to take a picture. In different areas of the bar, behind the bar, etc. Here are a few of those pictures.
Eventually we had to call it a night. We had to wake up early the next morning, and if I drank much more I don't think that would have been possible.
We told Yuki we had to go. He told us he would miss us. We settled the bill, and I'm pretty sure he undercharged us considering how much I drank lol. We followed each other on Instagram. He walked us out and asked somebody walking by if they could take a picture of the 3 of us.
Yuki ended up posting this picture on Instagram lol.
We were sad to leave. I really wish we had found Yuki the night before, so we could have seen him one more time. It was one of our favorite experiences of the whole trip. Including the food tour, this was definitely one of the best nights of the entire trip.
And with that, we went back to the hotel and crashed. I slept quite well for once. Thanks Yuki!