Almost 30 years ago I had the chance to participate in a school exchange program to Japan. I spent my 18th birthday camping at the base of Mount Fuji! It was the 90s and pre-internet so I had never eaten Japanese food and I had no understanding of Japanese culture. I’ll never forget being with my host family at a sushi restaurant when, not knowing what it was, I ate a huge spoonful of wasabi. I tried so hard to ‘play it cool’ and not alert my host family that I was dying but obviously they figured it out really quickly.
I believe that my first trip to Japan was the start of my insatiable desire to see the world through the lens of other cultures. I have been wanting to come back to Japan for a long time (cancelled twice during Covid) and these days are exactly what I hoped they would be. Now I can’t wait to come back again with RobO, so I’ve given him notice that the first seat sale that I see I am booking (KerryV… are you on it?!).
In Osaka my flowers and food frenzy continued. The Mint Museum opens their gardens to the public for only 1 week of the year: peak Sakura bloom. According to their website, “For over 140 years ever since the lane was first opened in 1883, this annual event has been cherished by people as a poetical spring-time feature of Osaka”. I was lucky enough to score a free ticket on the complicated Japanese-only website. There are 140 different varieties of the trees which are carefully labelled. They also choose 1 variety to be the ‘flower of the year’. This year’s choice is called Ranran and is named in memory of the death of a giant panda. The flowers bloom in almost-white clusters like the fur of the panda.
Just before my time to go into the gardens the sky got very dark and it started pouring.
I took refuge in a nearby mall and found a great spot for an udon lunch.
My wanders also took me to Osaka castle for both day and night sights.
I had a very serendipitous experience while looking for a park. I was walking by a concrete, non-descript building when I noticed that there was a long lineup inside. As I watched I could see that people were receiving matcha tea and mochi balls but the process was an intricate art. It turned out to be the cafe outside of an art museum. It was a very powerful statement that there were no pictures on the walls or colour to distract: the art was the way they were serving the tea and sweets. After my treat I visited the gardens behind the gallery which were private and peaceful.
Osaka is a big, vibrant city known for its nightlife and food scene. The markets and shopping streets make Las Vegas feel like a library. To be honest, as a solo traveller I felt quite overwhelmed and preferred the less-busy side streets.
I spent one morning at the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, which was a stark contrast to the night streets. I was excited to collect a stamp from the shrine, which is foreshadowing to what I will be doing over the next week.
According to my research there were 2 must try foods here:
- Takoyaki, which are octopus filled batter balls. I had the variety pack, which included 4 flavours. YUM!
- Okonomiyaki, which is a type of savoury pancake. Also delicious, though would have been better to share as I got a little tired of the same flavour.
I had booked a special activity as an early birthday present to myself: a kintsugi class. Kintsugi is the process of repairing cracked or chipped pottery using gold. To do the full process takes at least a month because of the time that it takes for the lacquer (made from sap) to cure. In this workshop we were shown each of the steps, but we only did 2 of them: painting on a thin coat of the lacquer, the sprinkling it with 24 carat gold powder. After a few more days Josuke will do the final coating and polishing to our pieces.
I loved that kintsugi has many similarities to pottery: it requires full concentration so it is meditative and easy to enter flow-state, there are many steps along the process, and my hands were occupied and dirty so there’s no desire to reach for my phone. Josuke also drew parallels between kintsugi and life: we all have scars and cracks and it’s part of what shapes us to be beautiful. It’s part of our history.
I’ve had enough big city time, so it’s time to head to the mountains to do some hiking. I’ll leave you with some final pics from Osaka.
I’m missing the start of Expo by 1 day!
