The best Katsu Don I had while in Japan. Good sized meal, with a side of pickles, served with unlimited salad which the waiters bring around every 5 minutes or so.

Tonkatsu (Fried pork cutlets), the best part of this dish is the dish of sesame seeds you can grind at the table to accompany the Tonkatsu saunce they serve with the food which really brings out the flavour of this dish.

Address:
Ganko Nara City
19 Higashimukinaka-machi
Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan

Service is efficient – there a little bell type devices on each table when you want to call the waitresses over, and the meals come out relatively quickly.  We waited about 5 minutes for their Takoyaki, and then another 3 minutes for both Ramens to come out.

Takoyaki

Nothing special here – wished I had tried the soft shell crabs instead!

The Volcano Ramen $11.80

If you want a bit of a kick this is the one to try. Visually it’s a vibrant dish with the hot red chilli sauce balanced out by the lightness of the pork and chewiness of the seaweed and a rich Tonkotsu base.

The Ajisen Ramen $10.80

The soup is packed with richness, the noodles are chewy and the pork slices are tender.

The best part? The massive spoons that you can slurp the soup off!!

Ajisen Ramen

1002/85 Liverpool St

Sydney NSW 2000

(02) 9267 8816

Miyajima is amazing by night, the lights that reflect off the water onto the Otorii and the Itsukushima Shrine gives a sense of magnificence to the otherwise fading red gate.

Having previously booked a Japanese style room at the Miyajima Morinoyado, we decided to retire early for the evening and had our Shigemori meal set delivered to the room.  

The Morinoyado is a great value ryokan for a night’s stay at Miyajima, it cost us 17,010 Yen for the room including dinner for two. 

The hotel itself is located very close to great views of the Otorii gates. The rooms are well sized with a separate bathroom, toilet and sleeping area. There are two public onsens available and also a large dining hall for large groups.

Alternative accommodation options are to stay in a hotel in Hiroshima and travel to Miyajima in the day. The only thing to be aware of are the times for high and low tide, as the famous Otorii pictured in tourist brochures is only surrounded by water during high tide. The rest of the time you can actually walk right up to the gates!

Admission into Himeji Castle including the nearby garden (Koko-en) is 720Yen.

The castle is a short walk up the main street from Himeji station. Bicycles are available for hire for free at the information booth at the station.

Personally the castle itself is not really all that interesting, however that being said I much prefer food & shopping over gardens and buildings, so perhaps if you are interested in the cultural differences of how western and eastern castles were built this may prove fun for you.

As you face the castle from the station you’re looking North. The best view is from Otokoyama, a small hill to the West.

The tourist guides suggest that you allocate ½ a day to see Himeji. We managed to walk around the castle, up through the many steps to the top, back down, and around the nearby Koko-en garden in 2.5 hours.

We even had time to stop by the nearby café for a bite to eat before picking up our luggage and catching the Shinkansen Hikari Railstar 565 to Hiroshima.

Whilst it was good to see this famous tourist site, it wasn’t as grand as what I had expected. Perhaps it was the proximity of the Castle to the city itself which made it such a non-event. Worth seeing as a first timer, but if you don’t have the time it is something you can skip on your trip.

Locals around town… 

Magazine Delivery

Late Friday night?

After stopping off at a gaming arcade and observing locals line up for open time at Pachinko Parlors we were so hungry by the time we ended up at Naniwa Gyoza Stadium. More of a food court with many Gyoza carts serving different types of dumplings, the area was strangely located on the 3^rd floor of the Namco Building – a big gaming arcade near the Shin-Osaka station. Instantly you feel like you have entered a scene from ancient Japan. The décor is made from wood with lanterns decorating many walls and a gate like type entrance separating the smoking and non-smoking dining areas.

The dishes are relatively small from any of the shops in the stadium, with the steamed dumplings being the favourites at the table.

Like a food court you can order from any cart and they bring the food to your table when it’s ready. After finishing our meals and returning the trays to the relevant shops we head off for our next stop.

About a 12-minute walk from Namco Building, Umeda Sky Building is a glass structure the stands at 173 metres and is two towers connected on the 39^th Floor by the ‘Floating Garden Observatory’. Best part of this attraction is the lift ride that takes you to the top of the building and onto the sky deck. 700Yen gets you entry to the outdoor skywalk that has great views of Osaka. From here you can also see the garden that is situated at the base of the building, waterfall and all.

The Takimi lane (Takimi Koji) of restaurants at the basement of the Umeda Sky Building is also worth seeing while here. An indoor food court, it replicates downtown streets of the Showa era.

Next stop was shopping time at Yodobashi back near the station. It was here we discovered an exciting thing called ‘Sweets Museum’. Located on the 7^th Floor, on arrival we discovered this was actually an entire floor dedicated to desserts! Needless to say, being such foodies we had to stop and try some.

We wanted to spend the evening at Shinsaibashi, just to check out the lights and the night atmosphere there. Heading there it was obvious that Japan had a massive night culture, with the majority of young people in the area decked out in what seemed like club gear. The bridge that is Shinsaibashi was crowded, with neon signs lighting up the street.

A midnight shopping store, Donki is located along the canal that runs underneath the Shinsaibashi, bridge, easily identifiable from it’s roof top ferris wheel – great place to take shelter from light rain late at night and also check out the trend in cosmetics in Japan – also very cheap!

Transport Tip: With the JR Pass, this is based on the conversion rate against the Yen. Some companies revise this daily while others monthly – best to call a few and see where you can pick up the best deal. The JR Pass can also be purchased for a 7 day period at approx $300AUD.

The JR station is located directly outside the JR Office at the Airport so getting to our hotel (Swiss Nankai, Osaka) was quite easy.  This is a great place to stay as it’s a short walk away to Dotonbori and given we were arriving late into Japan we didn’t want to have to trek around all night for food.

Transport Tip: For a budget way to get from Kansai Airport to the Swiss Nankai Hotel, take the Number 4 train from JR Kansai to JR Tennoji. Change trains to JR Namba, and take the main exit when you get out. Follow the Namba Walk, pass the Wave Hallway through the Chicago Gallery to the Nankai Subway station. The hotel is located on top of the Nankai station. With luggage it takes about 45 minutes to arrive. Alternatively, take the Rapid Express subway from Kansai Airport to Namba Station for 890 Yen which takes about 35 minutes.

The one thing I noticed immediately about Japan are the amount of vending machines everywhere – in trains, in the underground tunnels, on a line on the street, even in isolated tiny alleys. It’s a society of instant gratification!

After dumping our luggage off at the hotel, we headed off to Dotonburi to experience ‘Kui dao re’ – the Japanese term to ruin oneself by extravagance in food – and indulge we did! Given it was a Friday night Dotonbori was vibrant with locals and tourists.  Neon lights lit up the entire street with massive sign boards above hundreds of restaurants that littered the street.

Dinner consisted of Takoyaki from the popular Otakoya, easily identifiable with their Takoyaki stand out front opposite Kinryu Ramen. It was the biggest, juiciest and most delicious Takoyaki I have ever had!

This was followed by ramen from Kinryu, which was purchased from the vending machine out front. There are no menus, pictures of the different bowls of ramen are placed above each button with prices underneath to make the whole purchase decision quite simple. A ticket is deposited once you select the ramen, which has to be handed over to the cook who then makes the food and calls it out for you to collect once it’s ready. Takes about 4 minutes – and the ramen soup is so good!

Being quite full, taking a stroll down the streets of Dotonburi seemed like a great idea – absorbing as much of the atomosphere, the lights, language, smells and movement of mechanial signs and people on the streets. We visited Matsukiyo – a popular cosmetic shop throughout Japan where they sell relatively cheap but good make-up.

This lead us to a small stand on a side street that sold dried fish and oysters. The oysters were great, but the fish was so sharp and tough we could not physically eat it all.

After experiencing our first night of Kui dao re we returned back to the hotel to rest up for the night.

View from our Room at Swiss Nankai Hotel