Japan 2026: Day 5 – Travel Day & Osaka-Shinsekai Food Tour

(This is a write up of our trip to Japan this summer).

Day 5 (5/29): Travel Day and Osaka-Shinsekai Food Tour.

Early to bed and early to rise may have assisted my health, but wealthy and wise were not in the cards. We had a little time to kill before our train to Osaka, so Cole, Amy & I (Harper slept in) walked to the green space a little to the north of our Airbnb which, I believe, was part of Waseda University.  Lots of yellow “keep out” tape where I think they were trying to re-grow some grass. Plenty of cool warning signs. (I have a growing collection of warning sign pictures from our travels.) Also that morning, I finally took the opportunity to get a soda (Kirin lemon) out of one of the ubiquitous coin-op vending machines. They are *everywhere.* I got to wondering what the logistics of stocking and retrieving money from those things might involve.

We packed up and took a cab to the Tokyo Station. There was a little trouble navigating the ticket system to get on the Shinkansen. I think our confusion stemmed from the fact that you have to get a base pass – maybe for the week? – plus an actual trip pass. But, a very friendly and helpful attendant took us back to the ticket machine and helped us work it out.

After that, we were able to get the train station bento boxes that the YouTubers always seemed to recommend. The Shinkansen is *really* fast. I’m a little sad I didn’t get a picture of the outside because the bullet train is shaped like a bullet! I don’t have a good sense of how fast it was going when we were on it. Definitely 100+ mph. Wikipedia suggests it was probably more like 150-180. We were unable to get a seat on the window facing Mount Fuji, so we completely missed seeing the mountain at all. At one point, headed south, we thought to look – but it was quite a way to the west with some other mountains in the way. After the route bent us to the west and it would have been to the north, we didn’t think to look until too late. In any event, we made it to Osaka in a couple of hours. Just as fast and more comfortable than flying, I suspect.

From the airport, we took a taxi to our new Airbnb. It was another three floor affair – a landing on the ground floor; kitchen, living area, bathroom/wash room, and bedroom on the second floor; and two bedrooms with a half-bath and balcony on the third floor. The stairs were so steep that Cole took to going up and down them like a ladder. The balcony was off of the room Amy & I picked (partially because of the balcony!) Harper took the downstairs bedroom.

 

After getting settled with a beer from the inevitably close 7-11, we were ready to walk to our food tour – this one was a “street food tour” where our host was Anna. There was some initial difficulty finding the meet up spot because we were using the wrong exit from the subway station as a reference point. The tour was in the Shinsekei area of the city. This area was apparently inspired by a mix of Paris and Coney Island. The Paris section had a large tower (Tsutenkaku Tower). Our group skewed pretty young. There were a pair of twins from Los Angeles who were business bros. (We determined that their father is a guy named Steve Roach – professor of jazz at Sacramento State). There was a young couple from northern California. And, there was Mahalia, traveling solo from Atlanta.

 

 

Tough to remember what all we had. Definitely kushikatsu (meat skewers) and Takoyaki (octopus balls). There was also a place that was like an outdoor Korean grill (but Japanese) where you grilled thin slices of meat on a grill at your table.

My favorite spot was probably Johnny’s Karaage Bar Stand which was a fried chicken joint which offered wasabi salt for seasoning. Because tipping isn’t really a thing, I bought the bartender a beer which is apparently acceptable and appreciated. Anna was impressed I knew about the “curse of the Colonel” concerning the Hanshin Tigers. (I had recently read the Wikipedia article – the baseball team won a championship in the 80s. One thing led to another and the KFC colonel near a canal was tossed in. The Tigers had a long stretch without success, so they attributed it to the colonel.) It was a good time, as those tours always seem to be.

When it was finished, we walked back to the Airbnb, stopping at the konbini for some coffee filters. (Our place had a maker, but no filters.) The bed was a little cozy for my tastes – but that was partly because we hadn’t quite figured out the AC that first night and it got a little toasty. The bed was right up against the wall with an outlet sort of half obscured by the mattress. I plugged in my phone there. (Gross but mildly amusing: one of the nights, I knocked the plug out of the socket, so my phone didn’t charge. My phone was on the mattress underneath my back when I woke up. I plugged it back in and got a notice that there was moisture detected in the charging port. I had apparently generated enough sweat to render charging my phone hazardous to its operation until it dried out enough.)