Food trip in Japan

One of the things that I looked forward to our trip to Japan was food.  I super love Japanese food specifically uni (sea urchin roe), tuna and salmon sashimi, spicy tuna salad, seaweed salad, gyoza, Kobe beef, takoyaki balls and ramen.  Just typing the words here makes me drool already! Haha...  

Anyway on our first dinner, we had buffet at a restaurant called Rico Rico at Hotel Universal Port (just across Universal Studios).  Imagine eat-all-you-can Japanese food!  But most of us focused on one specific food that night -  Kobe beef!  Haha.... 

Anyway, I wasn't able to take any food photos that night except for a birthday cake served to 2 of our tour group mates who were celebrating their birthday.

In the succeeding days, we tried more Japanese food -

Bento box

Shabu-shabu

Soba

More shabu-shabu

Gyoza

I was also able to eat a lot of sushi, miso soup and my favorite Takoyaki balls.  Guess when I had the chance to eat Takoyaki balls?  Every breakfast at the hotel buffet!  I didn't know they could be breakfast food because I always ate them as snack food.  Haha...  (BTW, did you know what Takoyaki balls are made of? Minced octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger and green onion.) 

There was also one night when we had a Kimono dinner. Yep, we donned Japanese kimonos and slippers (btw, when you wear a kimono, always remember that the left side is always over the right side.  Doing it the other way around is for funerals).  

We did the Kimono dinner when we spent overnight in a city called Atami.  Our tour guide said it's the summer destination of the Japanese.  So think of rows of hotels by the cliff and overlooking the sea.  The place reminded me of Sorrento and Capri.    But I wasn't able to take photos because we arrived late in the afternoon, then left early the next morning.

So this was the traditional Japanese meal that was served during our Kimono dinner.  In addition to this, there was a mini shabu-shabu, rice and ice cream.  So little right?  So I got hungry that night. Haha... 

Among all the meals that we had in Japan, the most that I enjoyed was our food trip during our free day in Tokyo because we went to local restaurants that weren't for tourists.  A cousin of one my tour mates who's an English professor in Japan brought us to the usual restaurants they go to. 

For lunch, we went to a ramen place called Kin den maru - he said when translated in English means "gold legend round" which doesn't really make sense.  Kin den maru is just a few meters away from the popular Shibuya crossing (it's located in one of the side streets and it's no more than 100 meters away from the Shibuya crossing).

To order ramen, you have to select your order and pay in a vendo machine at the entrance. We had to make the English professor do it for us because we couldn't understand anything. Haha...    

A bowl of ramen costs 880 yen or about Php385.  I had the pork bone soup (forgot the Japanese translation) and some gyoza.  Super yummy! :)

Then for dinner, we went to a shabu-shabu place called Onyosai (when translated in English, it means hot vegetables).  It was buffet at about 3,200 yen per pax or about Php1,400.

The shabu-shabu experience we had at Onyosai was different from any other shabu-shabu I ever had.  For example, for the broth we had a choice of 2 from the menu (they had about 6 kinds of broth if I remember right).   Ok, now I couldn't even recall what broth we chose. Haha...  

The broth was contained in this YinYang-shaped pot.  

As you can see in the photo above, there's something being scraped off a bamboo tube.  The bamboo tube contains minced fish meat and we're making fish balls out of the meat.  

Then we had the usual shabu-shabu ingredients - assorted veggies, thinly-sliced beef ...

and thinly- sliced pork.

After you cook the meat, you dip it in a bowl of scrambled raw egg and / or sesame oil.  This was the first time I had raw egg in a shabu-shabu. 

You know how much food we ate that night?  To give you a perspective first, there were 5 of us.

Ok, here goes -  we finished 34 trays of sliced meat (the one in the photo below is just 1 batch! Haha...).   And in addition to that, we had platters of veggies and multiple servings of fish and meat balls!

The English professor told us that when we could feel we were 90% full, we had to alert him because for the finale, we'll have rice and noodles with all the leftovers.

The noodles was cooked in one broth.

And the rice in the other broth.

So imagine, after consuming 30+ trays of meat, veggies and balls, we still had rice, noodles and ice cream for dessert.  Burp, burp, burp!  Haha...

How fast are Japan's bullet trains?

When transportation between Osaka and Tokyo was via conventional service trains, it took almost 7 hours to travel between the two cities.  Today, with Japan's bullet trains, the same journey takes less than 3 hours.

We rode the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo and while waiting for our train, I tried snapping photos  but I couldn't catch the end of the train every time. Haha...

This is the best shot I ever got. 

According to our tour guide, the trains in Japan are super efficient that's why her strict instruction to us was to follow Japanese time on the day we were to board the train.  Haha... Each route is timed by the second and if a train gets delayed by even just a minute, the delay is declared.  Wow!

Japan's bullet trains travel about 300km/hour (the first batch of bullet trains travelled at 220km/hour).  But when you're inside the train, you don't realize the hyper speed because the ride is super smooth.  In fact I was asleep most of the time during the trip. Haha... You'll only realize that it's super fast when you look out the window and see you're rapidly passing by houses and fields.

I checked out the safety record of Japan's bullet trains and in the 45+ years since the bullet train's inaugural run, not one of the 7 billion riders has been injured or killed. Wow...  The only not-so-good record was in 2004 where an earthquake caused the derailment of 8 cars. But in terms of accidents caused by human error, zero. Amazing!

By 2025, guess what is in the pipeline for Japanese bullet trains?  Shortening the Osaka-Tokyo trip from less than 3 hours to 1 hour with a train prototype that holds a world speed record of 581 km/hr.  Whoa...

What to see at the Umeda Sky Building

The Umeda Sky Building is the 12^th tallest building in Osaka, Japan.  It’s a 40-storey tower with a height of 173m or 568 ft and was completed in 1993.

Source

Umeda Sky Building has a 360-degree observatory at the rooftop.  To go to the observatory, from the ground floor, go up the 3rd floor via the escalator.  At the 3rd level, you can take the see-through elevator that will bring you up to the 35th floor.  Here's a view on our way up inside the elevator.

When you reach the 35th floor, you'll have to ride a see-through escalator to bring you up to the 39th floor!  Yes, the escalator ride is that long and high.  If you're afraid of heights just focus on the view ahead. :)

When you reach the 39th floor, you can take the stairs or elevator to go the 360-degree observatory deck. 

When you reach the rooftop, you'll see a fenced area with these colorful locks.  I saw some kids playing in the area so I thought it was a playground.

Apparently, the area is called a luminous deck or Lumi Deck.  At night, the floor lights up like this.  

Source: Umeda Sky brochure

Couples can buy heart locks which they can hang in the Fence of Vows. Then they sit on the red bench and touch the outer dome of the bench.  The light pattern on the floor then changes to check the degree of the couple's love. When it comes to creativity, it's hard to beat the Japanese. :)

Source

If you want to witness the Lumi deck, schedule your visit at night.  Because if you go during the day,  you might also think that the area is a kiddie playground like I did! Haha... 

This is the Skywalk, the 360-degree observatory.   

At night, the floor also lights up like this.  

Source:  Umeda Sky brochure

It might be really worthwhile to schedule a night visit if you want to see the lumi floors.  :)

Anyway, here are some shots of the beautiful skyline of Osaka taken from the rooftop. 

BTW, at the parking grounds of the Umeda Sky Building, you may want to check out the hanging garden. 

And this matching cafe nearby. :)

Universal Studios Japan vs Universal Studios LA

If you've ever been to the Universal Studios Hollywood in LA, the attractions in Universal Studios Japan (USJ) are very similar.  USJ has also Jaws, Backdraft, Waterworld, Back to the Future, Shrek, Jurassic Park, etc.  I think the exclusive attractions at USJ are Snoopy Studios and Hello Kitty Fashion Avenue (I don't remember seeing these two in the US).

Since there were no maps in English that were available and we had very limited time to go around USJ, we just had to prioritize the attractions that were nearest to the entrance.

Some characters who greeted us at the entrance are Sesame Street characters.  

Ernie

I think this one is called Abby Cadabby who was added in 2006. 

The 4D attraction was near the entrance and so we lined up to see Shrek.  Unfortunately, we didn't know that the theater alternates Sesame Street and Shrek because all the signages were in Japanese.  When we got inside the theater for the orientation, that was the only time we found out that the show was for Sesame Street and not for Shrek. Haha...  The orientation and the entire show was in Japanese too!  We couldn't understand anything but the 4D effects were just amazing. The theme was imagination and there were scenes were there was fog, water and in one part, there were some kind of creepy crawlers on our seats!   

On the way out of the theater, you'll see a replica of 123 Sesame Street - the familiar facade of the apartment building where our favorite childhood characters gather at the beginning and end of each show.  Before going to school, I learned how to read and count not just from my parents but also from Count Dracula, Grover, Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus! :)      

123 Sesame Street

Near the 4D cinema, we saw this attraction that featured moving dinosaurs.  They are part of an exhibition called Monster Hunter.  It's also an USJ exclusive.  

 

Actually, I've no idea what Monster Hunter is - whether it's a movie or a show.  But while I was discarding some of the photos I took, my nephew saw them and exclaimed, "Wow, Monster Hunter!". I was so surprised that he knew Monster Hunter.  I asked him why and he said that it's one of his favorite games on PSP. Ok, so it's not even a movie but a game! Generation gap.  Haha.... And these are not dinosaurs but monsters! Haha...

 

Because of that, I had to retrieve the photos I just deleted! Haha...  So here are the main characters - the Monster Hunters.  My nephew said the shields, armors and weapons below are very powerful.  Of course, I still can't relate. Haha...  

The Monster Hunter exhibition in USJ is only temporary and I think it will only be until May. 

Along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, here are some familiar hand prints I spotted:
 

For souvenirs, the most interesting souvenirs I saw were at the exit of the Terminator attraction.  There were walls of framed memorabilia like this which contained original film cells from popular movies like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Ironman and even classics like Sound of Music.  This is from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  

Here's a close up shot of the film cells. 

This specific collection sells for 27,000 yen or about Php12,000.  I was so tempted to get the complete collection for Star Wars but after thinking it through where I realized you need backlight to be able to view the film cells, it was easy to walk away.  It was too high maintenance. Haha...

The store also had autographed posters by popular stars.  The most expensive ones that I have seen were signed by Michael Jackson, Madonna, Charlie Chaplin....  some were selling for over 1,000,000 yen (about half a million pesos)! Whoa...

One of the more popular attractions in USJ is the Spiderman 3D ride.  When we saw that there was no queue from the outside, we decided to go for it.  But surprise, surprise, there was a long snake-like line inside!   We lined up for an hour and it was tolerable since the line was moving steadily but I guess the queue was just really long because after an hour, we were nowhere near the entrance of the theater.   The day of our USJ visit happened to be the last vacation day of students from their spring break so USJ was just really packed.

Speaking of Spiderman, USJ offers kawaii (Japanese term for "cute" or "adorable") meals like this -

 

But nope, we didn't order any kawaii meal.  We wanted real food! Haha... This simple burger steak meal from one of the diners in USJ is about 1,800 yen or Php800.

One more difference I noticed between Universal Studios Hollywood and USJ is that characters in USJ are limited to mascots. 

 

In Hollywood, I remember seeing a lot of actor look-alikes loitering around like Lucille Ball, Nutty Professor, Charlie Chaplin, etc.  

But nevertheless, I was so happy to see my favorite cartoon movie character - Shrek - before we left.  That really made my day! Haha...