Fresh off the boat

Vending machines on one street corner, shrine on the opposite. I’m definitely in japan! I’ve come from the harbor to Shinsekai, a street in Osaka full of food, arcades and market stalls. I bought some tea from the market. The lady brewed each tea in front of me to allow me to sample them and after I bought some roasted tea she had me pick a raffle ticket and I won a small pack of the same tea! Somewhat lucky I guess…

The atmosphere here is so different from China. People are smiley and polite. Everyone smiles and say konnichiwa, even the smartly uniformed traffic officers. An old lady helped me find which ticket I need to ride the train although she didn’t speak any English.

As I write I’m in a small okonomiyaki restaurant. Its a speciality of Osaka, a cabbage based pancake, mine is absolutely delicious with some smokey squid amd mayonnaise. There is a counter with a grill where the chef cooks right in front of the customers. He is a skinny middle aged man with a bandana rolled up tied around this forehead doing everything with great care while a bubbly woman who speaks English bustles around serving drinks. There is a small CRT in the corner playing some colourful daytime TV. I watch the chef scraping the griddle and am reminded of my own burger van career. I watch the locals to learn the correct way to eat as the pancake is placed on the griddle in front of me and I’m given a small spatula.

I’m loving japan so far. I was worried I’d find the people cold and sycophantic but they are actually very warm and welcoming while being much more polite than chinese and russians, at least here in Osaka. Everything is going smoothly!

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It’s day 2 in japan. I got up early to visit a Shinto shrine. This required a lot of research as the etiquette is very complicated. There are rituals of bows, claps, offering giving and bell ringing as well as hand and mouth washing rituals.

I was worried that I’d got some of the ritual wrong and upset the spirit bringing bad fortune but today everything went swimmingly. I went hiking in the mountains. I had no map so from the train station I just walked towards the mountains I could see. At the foot of the mountain was a small shrine at a beautiful waterfall. The paths meander all over these lush mountains, fording streams and following ridges. I had a fantastic afternoon hiking in the shade of the bamboo.