The food market – many foreigners come here, just to stroll around and perhaps taste some of the local food.
Would you like a white strawberry – not sure of the weight, but the box will cost you about AUD $56.25
Pre-packed lunch boxes, which reminded me of bento, which is a Japanese packed lunch either bought from a bento seller or created by a worker’s wife, for her husband or child at school.
Traditional bento meal
Japanese butcher stall – it all looked very attractive, but I lost my appetite as I worked out the cost. The top one with a price of 255 yen is per 100 grams, which equates to AUD $32 / kilo. The bottom right at 280 yen = AUD $35 / kilo.
I moved on a few stalls and checked the competition. The meat shown at 1200 yen equates to AUD $150 / kilo . . . . it was interesting to check out the food, and the meat displayed was very different to the meat in Australia – even though some of it might have come from Australia – all in the eye of the beholder.
The Japanese meat was very thin with lines of fat running through each slice. I don’t know if it would be eaten raw, à la beef carpaccio, because it looked so delicate that it might disappear if you tried to fry or grill the slice.
Further in to the market and more stalls.
Fish stalls, mainly shell fish, which is not my favourite fish food.
1500 yen is about AUD $18.75, but I don’t know if this was the price of a single crustacean or per 100 grams – the 1800 yen equates is AUD$22.50.
We came out of the market and were bamboozled with adverts, and the noise of hawkers shouting on behalf of their restaurant, and loud music from everywhere.
Staff are constantly advertising to encourage pedestrians to enter their restaurant – just the type of restaurant that I didn’t wish to visit for lunch.
Across the way from the smiley guy was a large octopus to encourage one to visit – we didn’t.
Perhaps a restaurant that specialises in one eyed crabs . . . we avoided this one as well
It didn’t matter how big your crab was, I wasn’t interested . . .
I definitely didn’t want a blow fish meal . . . not sure if the sign to the left of the blow fish is for a hot dog or a nail brush.
As we walked through this ‘mad house’ of restaurants you might find yourself on TV via a very large screen capturing shoppers and general foot traffic – Maureen was ‘captured’ with our guide, Toichi, who is on Maureen’s right.
As we came out of the market area and left the encouragements to eat in various restaurants behind, we arrived at Dotonbori canal, which is considered to be the heart of Osaka.
As we crossed the Ebisu Bridge I snapped the canal.
The Glico running man. He’s doing well considering, because he has been running since 1935.
If you think he is advertising running shoes or a running vest you’d be wrong. He is the logo of a confectionery company that manufactures sweets and ice-cream, so he is most probably running off the snack he had last night.
The company was founded in 1922 and the snack was an energy product that had glycogen added (which came from oysters), to it was advertised that each treat would give you enough energy to run 300 metres, which is why their logo is a running man.
There were plenty pf people around when we were there, but the crowds grow in the evening. The bridge that can be seen is the Ebisu Bridge.
If you go back to the photograph that I took of the canal you will see the ubiquitous Ferris wheel to denote a shopping area. It was built in 2005, but has been out of action for some time, but is now operating again – approx. AUD $7.30 per person and a rotation takes about 15 minutes.
The link will take you to a piece of film called Osaka at night, which is about 4 minutes long, but you can jump ahead for various views of the city taken from the Ferris wheel.
The oblong wheel is also known as the as the Ebisu Tower – Ebisu, is the god of tradesmen, fishermen and luck (prosperity), which is featured on the façade of the Ferris wheel.
silverfox175 