Osaka is the big city in the region, with a variety of shops and restaurants comparable to Tokyo. In many ways Osaka is the Chicago to Tokyo’s New York. A midwestern city with it’s own regional accent, foods and a baseball team that historically wasn’t very successful (though the Cubs broke that last year) all Osaka is missing is deep dish pizzas.

Architecturally, Osaka (like many Japanese cities that were bombed during the war) is undistinguished with many concrete and glass skyscrapers. The real interesting parts can be found in the shopping streets and alleys.

Tsutenkaku tower is a iconic Osaka landmark, a postwar recreation of a tower built in the 20s.

This is a shot from an old shopping district in the heart of the city.

The giant wire frame fish is an ad for a local Fugu (poisonous blowfish) restaurant

Kushi-katsu (stick fry) is a classic Osaka dish. It consists of various meats and vegetables impaled on a stick, coated in a batter and breadcrumbs, then deep fried.

Later in the day, I walked down to the major shopping district by the Dotonbori canals.

This area is home to some fantastic large size displays, similar to Times square in NYC. Like in Chicago, there are frequent tour boats that go on sightseeing trips though the canals.

Osaka is a fun town, lots to do and see, but a little more laid back than Tokyo. The food is excellent and it’s close to other major tourist destinations in Japan. Highly recommended if you travel to Japan.

Same

ANA is always the best airline to fly with if you’re going to Japan. It’s not always the cheapest option, and the seat amenities aren’t spectacular but the food is always good

I’ll post up some more photos, unfortunately the real photo I wanted to take was of the glittering lights on my second flight-a small prop powered plane that flew me from Tokyo to the Northern town of Niigata in the darkness and cold of night.

It was a beautiful sight that was understandably difficult to snap a shot of. The plane was flying low enough for the 1 hour long ride that you could see the individual headlights of the cars below.

Some notes on the town: The pastry that CM Maridah is eating midway through the video is an aebleskiver. It’s cooked in a special griddle and filled with jam.

Lots of businesses in the town close in the early afternoon on weekdays so unless you’re coming on the weekends you may want to get there early.

Don’s has several spacious dining rooms where they cram in dozens of vendors.

They also have live music, like this dude. I’ve realized that I should probably get a steel guitar at some point.

Lots of artists/craftspeople at the market.

Some awesome custom mugs by Tikitony

Some cool vintage carved Tikis

After the event, there some hanging out on the beach to get taken care of! The high winds made sure that everyone was getting a good sandblasting

Close to the beach the sand was a little less intense.

If you guys have a chance to check out the Tiki Marketplace, I’d highly recommended…I’ll definitely be there!

It would be incorrect of me to say that finding the restaurant Bahooka several years ago was solely responsible for my descent into tiki madness, but it wouldn’t be far off. This now defunct tiki bar/restarurant was like a portal backwards in time for me, to an era where you sipped a sweet “umbrella drink” and wore a hawaiian shirt for your night out on the town.

Built in the waning years of Tiki, Bahooka nonetheless stood for decades as a living monument to the Faux-Polynesian crazy of the mid 20th century. The architecture, decor, everything about the atmosphere was like lightning caught in a bottle. You definitely had the feeling like you were eating at a one-of-a kind place-because you really were.

When first going inside, you are struck by the fantastic interior, festooned with dozens of large aquariums, giving the inside a ghostly blue hue. Japanese tin signs and various nautical nonsense covered the walls. I told myself “even if the food is terrible this was perfectly worthwhile”. It turns out the food was actually pretty decent! I never liked ribs, too messy and bone-y but the sweet BBQ sauce they baked the ribs with at Bahooka still make my mouth water. Served with a side of baked sweet potato, ham and fried stuffed shrimp, it was perfection.

Even though Bahooka is gone now, it had enough time to incept my mind with the possibilities of Hawaiian shirts, Tiki Torches, Mai Tais and much more.

When I went in the afternoon, there were a lot of people there, hanging out, being young and playing games. It was kind of a shock to see an arcade with, you know, people in it.

The selection of games was good, evenly divided between video games and pinball which suits me just fine. As far as pinball goes they could have a few more classics like Black Knight 2000 and Tales of the Arabian nights, but still room to grow.