Greetings from Osaka

Osaka, Japan’s third most populated city (after Tokyo and Yokohama), is affectionately known as “kuidaore no machi,” which translates as "the city where you'll be financially ruined by overindulging in food and drink.”

It could happen: the basement level of each major department store in Osaka houses a food hall filled with fish, produce, breads and sweets from hundreds of different merchants; and the top floor of each department store is filled with dozens of small restaurants, each offering a different style of Japanese cuisine.

On our first night in town, not even two hours off the plane, we stumbled into a small, darkened alley to dine at Sushi Marumine, where there are only 8 bar seats and two small tables.

We had the most casual, most comforting, series of fish and seameat-based sushi morsels, including blowfish, which we survived to talk about.

If you know your Japanese cuisine, you know that the blow, or puff, fish has a terribly toxic liver — even the smallest hint of puff liver is 100% toxic to humans. But the Japanese pride themselves of living on the edge, so they ask sushi masters to serve them other parts of the puff, or blow, fish. The white flesh was delicious, but trying it was a rite of passage as the fear of keeling over dead from liver contamination was a significant dinner topic.

Sea urchin sushi…..

They told us at Marumine that we were the first international travelers that have ever dined there; it is, essentially, a hangout for neighborhood locals.

If you want to dine here, you’ll need a reservation, but you need to be able to speak Japanese to achieve this mission.

Sushi Marumine, 6-2-20 Tenjinbashi, Kita-ku, Osaka City, Prefecture 5300041. Tel: 0663516866.

We walked several miles back to our hotel after dinner. There is virtually no crime here. No fear of being mugged as you walk on darkened streets.

And the night scenes are colorful:

My initial thoughts about Japan (we have been here twice before) is that it is so edgy, so other-worldly from anything we know, that you feel as though you are part of an arcade game here, dressed as an avatar of yourself, moving cautiously across mined streets — overflowing with throngs of people, bicyclists who ride anywhere they like and in every direction possible.

In fact, crossing a busy intersection today, I nearly got knocked over by a man dragging a small suitcase who accidentally tripped me with his suitcase.

The street crowds are so dense that I kept losing friends I was walking beside as we kept being separated by throngs moving at us in the opposite direction.

Japan may be 17 hours ahead of California in time zones, but it’s a quarter-century ahead in culture, fashion, and food fusion.

Take Ista Coffee Elements, for example. It’s a coffee-cocktail bar. It may be the only one of its kind in the world. There are only eight seats at the bar and the only thing they make are coffee-based cocktails. You don’t want coffee — don’t go.

We tried six of the several dozen coffee-based cocktails. My favorite was called “Double World,” which won 1st prize in a major Japanese cocktail competition. Think of it as something between an espresso Martini and an espresso Manhattan.

The ingredients include: Tanqueray No. 10 Gin, two homemade vermouths and Bulleit Bourbon. Here’s what it looks like being made:

Here’s what it looks like being served:

It is truly one of the best Martinis I’ve ever had.

If you decide to visit Ista, you need to be there at 5 pm sharp because the eight seats fill within 10 minutes.. and then you have to wait until someone relinquishes their seat to be served.

If you plan to go, consult ista.store.jp to get the address and store hour details.

Here are some images I like for their intrinsic edginess:

In one department store, I found these non-organic cantaloupes….

How much is that per cantaloupe in US currency?

$72 a cantaloupe!

I guess what they say about Osaka, the “kuidaore no machi” city may be true… all this eating may actually bankrupt you, especially at this price.

Jim