Izakaya hopping in Osaka

This is a rose garden near our house. It is nicely maintained by a local group of ladies.

I couldn`t believe how many layeres this rose had.

We had to stop to buy tickets to a baseball game. Where? 7-11 of course. Now that is convenient!

This is our station. Settsu-Motoyama. It is very convenient to get to Sannomiya or Osaka, but the only problem is you have to climb about twenty stairs to get to the train platform. If you can`t climb the stairs, you can`t use this station. It is a pretty old station that hasn`t been made handicap accessible yet. Construction is planned.

This is Shinsaibashi on a Wednesday afternoon around 3pm. Thousands of people, all with a very unique style.

Ikayaki at Hanshin department store. This is like a squid pancake; one with egg, one without. Ikayaki is one of the things the Hanshin snack bar is known for.

Takoyaki. Balls of dough with pieces of octopus inside. It is toppped with okonomi sauce, mayo, and bonito flakes(katsuobushi).

Next we had some dessert. Gozasoro with shiroan. This is a warm cake with a sweet white bean paste inside. The drink is a blended green tea from Morihan.

Next, we stopped at an izakaya with friends. I had tofu with spring onion and tororo kombu, a type of seaweed. Also a nice slice of daikon with konyaku.

Agetako... fried octopus.

Next we stopped at this place. A izakaya next to a fish market in Namba.

I thought this was going to be a standard hot sake but....

It was flamed tableside for us then....

I noticed it had roasted fugu(blowfish) fins inside. It gave the sake a nice smokey taste.

Aji (horse mackerel) sashimi looked awesome. I went to grab a peice and I realized the fish was still alive, breathing, and flipping it`s tail. We ate the sashimi and then the chef fried the fish into chips. The entire fish was consumed. I could eat about five of these.

Grilled clams. They were very juicy and tender.

This is a hook that hung above the table. It is used to hang a nabe (boiling pot). The center of the table has panels that can be removed to uncover a heat source. This fish was pretty awesome.