It’s our last full day in Osaka. After having various adventures in Osaka, Himeji, and Kyoto, we decided to have a bit of a lazy day.
…. we still woke up insanely early, though.
We take our time getting ready for the day and decide that we are going to see Osaka Castle. The guide books for Japan say that it’s not as magnificent as Himeji (some say that it’s not necessarily worth the trip) but we figured to check it out anyway.
We hop on the subway and make our way over. It was a terribly hot and humid day, so we tried to walk in the shade as much as possible. We get to the grounds at bask in the beauty that is Osaka Castle.
Osaka Castle before you cross the moat
They started construction on Osaka Castle back in 1583 and was completed in 1597 with multiple restorations over the years. Osaka Castle is a very famous castle in Japan, as it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the 16th century.
Up close and personal at Osaka Castle
Admission to Osaka Castle was 600 yen per person; which is higher than the admission to Himeji Castle. With admission still being fairly reasonable we enter the facility. They direct you to the 8th floor of the castle and ask you to start there and make your way down.
Personally, I was not a big fan of Osaka Castle and even Jason stated his disappointment. It was created more as a museum, and the interior was completely redone and did not portray any original parts of the castle. There was, however, a lot of information regarding the history of the emperors and various clans during the era when Osaka Castle was occupied.
If you plan on doing both Himeji and Osaka Castle, go to Osaka Castle first. After spending time in Himeji Castle, Osaka Castle seemed to lack lustre and wonder in comparison. If you’re a huge history buff, it is still very worthwhile to check out. My honest opinion is just to save your time and money and to check out something else instead.
Once we were done at Osaka Castle, we have a quick little snack in the park and decide to “get lost” in Osaka. We hop on the Osaka Loop subway, and decide that we were going to ride the entire loop to see the city. After a bit of chatting on the train, we talk about how close Kobe is and decide that today is the day we eat Kobe Beef. We hop off at Shin-Osaka train station to reserve our seats to take the Shinkansen to Kobe. The guy at the ticket booth said that since it’s such a short trip that we didn’t have to book tickets and just to hop on. I was slightly disappointed, as I’ve been collecting our train tickets from all of our trips. We grab a quick late lunch at a ramen place in the train station, and then we were on our way.
Miso ramen at the Shin-Osaka train station.
Selfie of me being excited for Kobe Beef on the Kobe Local Subway line.
From Shin-Osaka Station, the trip to Kobe was a bit less than half an hour. Once we arrived we realized it was way too early for us to eat (considering we just ate ramen about 40 minutes prior), so we hop on the Kobe Subway and start wandering. We get off at the station that was fairly close to the restaurant that we wanted to stop at, and start walking. Jason wasn’t feeling to well, so we took it pretty easy walking around and contemplated whether we should head back to Osaka or stick it out in Kobe. The trip itself was short and it wouldn’t have been a loss cost wise seeing that the trip was already included in the cost of our JR Rail Pass, but Jason said that he probably would regret not taking the opportunity to eat Kobe Beef and stuck it out.
Now, you might be thinking “But you can eat Kobe Beef in Edmonton”. Yes.. you can eat “Kobe” sliders and “Kobe” beef in Edmonton, but it’s not real Kobe Beef. Only within the last year has North America started importing beef from Japan (due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease). With that being said, with approximately 3000 cattle of what is considered to be Kobe beef I doubt that so many restaurants would have so much of it readily available (and for as cheap as they are selling these entrees for).
“Canada – The Great Kobe Beef Myth”: http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/010512/canada___the_great_kobe_beef_myth_.aspx
“The Great Kobe Beef Lie”: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2012/04/12/foods-biggest-scam-the-great-kobe-beef-lie/
… one of the many reasons why Jason stuck it out.
We wander Kobe for a bit and find ourselves at the Port of Kobe. The view from the port was very calming, and we sat at the end of the dock just watching the waves crash on the rocks. We both agreed that this was a great way to spend our last lazy day. The tide started to get higher and after being spritzed enough times in the face with fresh salt water, we decide to walk around and started to make our way to the restaurant.
Selfie of Jason and I at the Port of Kobe
One of the many views at the Port of Kobe
After much wandering around, we finally find Steakland. It was setup in a teppanyaki style restaurant.
Steakland in Kobe
Our waitress takes our drink order and helps us with the menu (though she looked like the most unhappy person ever. I have never seen an unhappy person in Japan yet until her). When inquiring, she told us that there are only 2 items on the menu that are real Kobe beef, and the rest is just regular Waygu beef (also from Kobe). Jason ordered 200g of Kobe Beef while I ordered 200g of the Special Kobe Beef. Our chef comes out and displays the raw Kobe beef and asks how we would like them cooked. And then, he’s off to work.
Cooking Kobe Beef
The one thing that I did appreciate about this place is that the chefs weren’t doing anything fancy behind the grill like they do at Japanese Village. They were literally just there to cook and even explained part of the cooking process. Less cheesiness = win.
We are served both steaks at medium-rare. After our first bite, you could definitely tell the quality difference in the type of beef that was being served. Even the comparison between Jason’s Kobe Beef to my Special Kobe Beef was night and day. We slowly ate our dinner, savouring every bite. The entire time we were eating dinner, I thought to myself “If my dinner tastes this good, I wonder how good the super high quality Kobe Beef is?”.
Even though the restaurant did not provide the best quality of service due to our extremely miserable waitress who probably just wanted to throw herself in front of a moving train, the food definitely made up for her lack of customer service.
Though Jason toughed it out at dinner, he was still feeling quite sick so we hail a cab to the train station and then catch the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka Station. Once we arrive to Shin-Osaka, we discover that the subway we need to take is not in service (or we assume it’s not as they wouldn’t let anyone on) so we hail a cab to head back to our hotel.
Once we arrived to our hotel, we hit up the public bath, do some pre-packing for our departure the next day to Hiroshima and Miyajima, and call it a night.
Things I Have Learned in Japan Thus Far
1. An interesting discovery (for me, anyway) is realizing how far away the Shin-Osaka Train Station was from our hotel. We usually pay about 230-270 yen each for the trips from Shinsaibashi Station to Shin-Osaka Station and takes about 10 minutes tops to get there. When we took the cab, it probably took us close to half an our with the cab fare totalling around 2500 yen (over $25).
2. Under Armour clothing is very much worth its money; wore Under Armour pants and shirt during our outing and I wasn’t ready to kill someone from being too hot and sweaty. Don’t get me wrong, I was still hot and sweaty but Under Armour clothing made it a LOT more bearable.
3. Kobe Beef is absolutely amazing. I’ve always had a lot of pride in our Alberta Beef but man… this may have ruined steak for me. The last time Jason and I had beef remotely this good was when we ate Beef Wellington at Gordon Ramsay’s Steak in Las Vegas earlier this year, and I was raving about that for months!
4. I have been loving the Shishedo products. Contemplating bringing some home depending on the price point.
Next Blog Post: Hiroshima and Miyajima.
Jet Lagged and Hungry 