After meeting them both in my hotel foyer we caught the bus to the centre of town where we followed our nose (and Ryan's astute sense of direction) through some narrow streets and up several unknown flights of alleyway stairs to a place neither of us had been to before but all agreed it was too cute and cosy to walk away from. We were welcomed with a very melodic greeting from the kitchen staff as we brushed through the hanging cotton drapes from the doorway, before walking through the intimate restaurant filled with ankle height tables and patrons drinking sake sitting delicately on their soft bright cushions. The three of us decided on seats up next to the kitchen bar so we could watch the action and dangle our bare feet in the dugout beneath us. Thankfully my comrades were able to order a round of drinks using sign language and a few Japanese phrases, as an English menu was going to be as available to us as a pork chop during Ramadan in a Muslim country.
We clinked our large glass mugs of red berry sour cocktails and soon began catching up on news from home and stories from their holiday to date, and how at home they felt in their beautiful little holiday apartment in the heart of Tokyo. Always one for keeping his finger well positioned on the proverbial pulse, Ryan bought me up to speed on cheap optical deals rife in Japan, the delights of gobble-on-the-go tuna sushi sandwiches and then some more informative stories on food and local delicacies. Our bowls of steaming Udon noodles and wooden chopsticks were gracefully place down before us and we made quick work of the tasty broth of goodness before handing the remains over to our male chaperone for polishing off, boys do come in very handy sometimes!!
Berry good cocktails with dinner......and then some Cassis with style
After dinner we eventually found a little candle lit bar with a cosy old Hollywood ambiance. The walls were covered in framed black and white photographs, waiters wore crisp white shirts and thin black ties while wooden tables, chairs and hat stands filled the room. A few rounds of Cassis (Ryan and Fiona's holiday drink of choice) and I was converted. It tasted like tangy orange juice but contained some potent muscle relaxing alcohol - I will be forever indebted for this tasty introduction! Feeling very content and ready for some sleep the three of us headed back to the hotel for some hotel-issued kimono style bathrobe dress up photos and a good night's sleep.
The best hotel bathrobes i've seen to date
Holding down the master control button beside our beds I reveled in the ability to electronically draw back the curtains, letting the morning sunlight blaze into our pitch black room. The clock was ticking on our mini holiday and we had decided to visit the Osaka Aquarium that day, so we appointed Ryan as Chief Navigator and followed him blindly through the city chomping down on our tuna triangle sushi sandwiches for breakfast. YUM!!As Fiona pointed out, sometimes when you watch Japanese animation its easy to get lost in the fictional characters and their abstract forms, but after seeing the underwater inhabitants at the aquarium we're now not so convinced most of those characters are pretend. Many of them resemble the crazy crustaceans we saw. It was such an impressive display of marine life ranging from teeny tiny florescent fish, naughty little otters (doing things not suitable for children's eyes), playful dolphins, big scary whale sharks and (the most mesmorising for me) the many different little tanks of translucent jelly fish.
Getting the last hole punched into our fun-pass ticket we boarded Osaka's towering ferris wheel for 20 minutes of glass cage viewing. It was a beautiful end to the day after such a wonderful 24 hours with such good friends, good sushi and sweet Cassis.
Saying goodbye from the train
1 comment:
Aww, can you write about ALL my holidays! You have a very keen memory my ginga ninja!
x foi
Post a Comment