Osaka Markets

Today was our last day in Osaka, but we decided to take it slowly and have a relatively quiet day. I had read about a food market not too far away with delicious cooked food, so was keen to have a look.

We set out with good appetites to have a look around. There were all sorts of weird and wonderful foods on offer. Some were cooked and ready to eat, there was lots of sushi and sashimi and plenty of regular market produce to cook at home.

Our first stop was an onigiri burger, which I had read about. These burgers are part sushi, part burger with nori sheets, sushi rice and a filling of fried spam, egg omlette and lettuce. You can then choose to add another meat or fish to the filling. We decided on the slow cooked miso pork. It was surprisingly delicious! Ella and Angus loved the one we bought and want to make these when we get home.

Next was okonomiyaki, one of the traditional foods from Osaka. It is a type of pancake filled with shredded cabbage and then filled with other ingredients of your choice. I chose shrimp and octopus and it was cooked right in front of me. Topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayo and bonito flakes, it was very good.

We were quite full from eating and tasting at the various stalls, so had a wander around looking at all the food. Various pickled and dried vegetables, sweets, skewers of giant prawns, massive spider  crab legs, fish of all sorts, waygu and Kobe beef, giant oysters and scallops and fugu or puffer fish. These fish are poisonous if not prepared correctly. Surprisingly, there was a massive line for the sashimi and cooked fish, with a few of the stalls selling out by 1pm. Angus was fascinated by the Fugu.

Ella and Angus were keen to finish with ice cream, so we found a stall selling different flavoured soft serve and vanilla ice cream in a melon. Ella had white peach and Angus had the soft serve in a piece of rock melon. They were both very happy!

Our final taste was another Japanese sweet, which was like a thick pancake filled with either custard or red bean paste. The kids wanted custard, so that's what we had. I was expecting  a sickly sweet flavour, but it wasn't. The pancake wasn't really sweet at all and was beautifully light and fluffy. 

With full bellies, we then had a walk around the area by the market, which we hadn't previously explored. We found the Osaka zoo and some nearby gardens and sat by a beautiful lake for a rest and a cool drink.

Walking out of the garden, we were fascinated by the signs that all showed images of cats, and the random man walking with an owl in a pram. Only in Japan!

Afterwards, we found a local shopping mall to explore and the kids were excited to find a toy shop. Many of the toys were the same as what we have in Australia, but there were lots of new things to discover. Angus was very happy with his purchase of a 3-pack of Bakugan toys using the sending money he had saved up for Japan.

The shopping centre also had a brilliant supermarket in the basement, so rather than go out for dinner, we thought a night in with each of our favourite foods would be nice. Angus chose pasta, Ella a bento box with rice, corn salad, a cheese croquette and hamburger like patty, Clint various chicken yakitori and me sashimi. We then got a few different vegetables and salads to go with it. My absolute favourite is one with seaweed, lotus root and soy beans. Yum!

Another quiet night at home playing Jenga, chess and reading. Perfect after a lazy 15km day.

Tomorrow we catch the shinkansen back to Tokyo for our last 5 days.