Thursday (3/13)

I got up, checked out of my hotel in Hiroshima, ate a bento box lunch while I waited for my train to Osaka. I got to my hotel around 2.



I emailed a writer of blog I read that lives in Osaka, and got a response. He suggested a few places to visit, and mentioned a place called 新世界 (Shinsekai), and said that it was probably the worst neighborhood in Japan, but it has the best kushikatsu.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back (aka boring). I went to Den Den Town (kinda like Akihabara), and walked up and down the streets a few times. Then on the south end, I noticed a sign for Shinsekai, so I figured I was getting hungry, I should try out this kushikatsu. I found a little hole in the wall place with plastic sheets for doors, and gave it a shot. The guy looked a little nervous when I walked in, and made a little gesture that I took to mean "Can you understand?", and I responded that I could understand a little, so he tested me by asking what I wanted to drink. When I answered in Japanese, he finally looked a little relieved.

They gave me a little sheet, asked if I could read it, and most of it was hiragana or katakana, so I said it was fine .. I think that would have been the hard part .. if I didn't know how to speak Japanese and they had to explain the menu to me. I ended up getting a few skewers of kushikatsu (which I believe is beef .. not sure), some tamanegi (literally ball onion), ebi (shrimp) and anago (sea eel). It was all really good.

Then it was getting dark, and I was a little lost, so I started to find my way back to the JR station. I ended up taking the train back during rush hour, but fortunately, I get off at a popular stop, so I didn't have to push through people to get to the door.

Well, tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Probably just wander around some more. I'll probably go to Amemura (America town) to check that out.