Well today was a great day in Osaka… (and it did include fishing for eels)…

Yukiko took me to one of the areas of downtown. For lunch, we had Japanese pancakes – okonomiyaki. They’re not sweet pancakes… and are similar to Korean pancakes… It’s made of flour, eggs, cabbage, green onions, and squid. With mayonaise, seaweed, red ginger, sauce, and dried bonito fish flakes. It actually was really good. I wasn’t a fan of the fish flakes, but other than that it was delicious.

After lunch, we walked around a lot… we passed a Krispy Kreme place. And there was a line… A line just to get Krispy Kreme donuts! A 45 minute wait! No joke! I just started laughing. Especially when Yukiko asked if they ever have to form a line in the US at Krispy Kreme. Maybe I’m dumb and Krispy Kreme is known for it’s long lines, but I’ve never heard of it. We also did some “shopping”. Well… you know how I am with shopping… aka I hate shopping. But it’s different when you’re somewhere else. And let’s be honest, I caved and bought a few things. Some really sweet Japanese socks and shorts. P.S. I LOVE how they dress over here. It’s slightly bizarre… Like, the goal is often not to match at all. It’s weird. But I love weird.

The next thing we did… WE WENT EEL FISHING. What?! They have this indoor fishing place. We walked in to check it out, and we found out that you could fish for an eel! Yukiko had never done it before. And it seemed like a perfectly Japanese thing to do. So, we paid our coins and set of trying to catch an eel with a really sad hook. I caught one pretty fast, but then he got off my hook before I could put him in my bucket. After a while longer of struggling, I finally caught him back… for real this time (the same one of course… because I didn’t want to have to hook another one). It was worth it for the absurdity of the whole ordeal, but I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t realize that fishing for eels would bother me. But after I caught that thing, I was a little shaken up. I felt legitimately bad for the thing. I mean, eels freak me out anyway… but still. But how ridiculous! Eel fishing. Only in Japan.

After eel fishing we walked around some more… We passed by this shrine. Here’s a picture of it… Basically, all these white things are fortunes. You can buy them from this lady. If you like your fortune, you keep it. If you don’t like your fortune, you tie it to one of these bamboo sticks hanging down so you can have better luck with it.

We also had a seat at a little coffee place and drank green tea lattes. Yum! 2 things I love. Lattes. Green tea. So a mix of the 2, was perfection.

For dinner, we went to a conveyor sushi restaurant… Basically it’s this restaurant where there’s a HUGE U shaped table. Everyone sits along the outside of the U. And their is a conveyor belt thing that runs along the U. And they put plates of small pieces of sushi along the conveyor belt. So you just take whichever plate(s) you want. It’s pretty cheap, and the cost is per plate. So at the end, they just count up the number of plates you had and then you pay. It was so cool!

My favorites were the crab and salmon. I also tried Sea Urchin… You know… Just to say I’ve tried it. It was pretty weird. I wouldn’t

eat it again unless it was the only thing I had. Also, this is super weird, but they also had horse sushi!!! I did NOT eat it. If it had been cooked, I probably would have tried it. But 1. It’s horse. 2. It’s raw. That’s where I draw my line. So crazy!

So anyway. It was a great day. I couldn’t have asked for better. Eel fishing… sushi… sea urchin…

Lastly, we went to this electronics store because I needed to get an electricity converter – the Japan plugs are exactly like the US 2 prong plugs, but they don’t have any with the 3rd hole (at least not where Yukiko lives)… Anyway. It was by far, the BIGGEST electronics store I’ve ever been in. Imagine the biggest Best Buy you’ve ever been in. Then times it by 2… Maybe 3. Then, add 5 more floors. So crazy!

Oh, and there’s a ton of restaurants that advertise their pufferfish (called ‘fugu’ in Japan)… It’s illegal to serve in the EU (or used to be) because it’s so toxic if you accidentally eat some of

the poison from the liver. It paralyzes everything except for your brain until you suffocate and die. Supposedly it’s rare these days to be poisoned if you get it from a reputable restaurant or store. I’m not gonna lie, I’m tempted to try… just to say I have. I probably won’t. I’m a chicken at heart. And let’s be honest… I probably wouldn’t die. I would be the person who gets… a little bit of poison. Like the person who gets poisoned for a few hours, and it’s the most haunting experience they’ve ever had. But then I’d live to tell. And have a crazy and very long story. That would be my luck. Probably not worth it… even for the good story to tell. MAYBE if I really liked fish or something…