Monday was all about sushi. Kuah and I woke up early and decided to walk to Endo Sushi at the Osaka Fish Market. We left the hotel a little before 5 am and headed out. Along the way we stopped in a Family Mart for some hot tea. The convenience stores here have both hot and cold sections of canned and bottled drinks. It’s wonderful to have a hot bottle in your hands when it’s cold out.
I was also lucky to find some New Years post cards in the Family Mart. I had planned to send post cards to Mira but hadn’t found any in the tourist areas. I guess postcards are just too old fashioned for Osaka. However, being New Years time when Japanese send New Years post cards to their friends we were able to find a couple of great ones. We did end up seeing a lot in Kyoto at the end of the trip.
From there we continued our 1.7 mile walk and ended up at Endo Sushi a bit after they opened. There was a line but we didn’t have to wait too long before we were seated inside.
The menu offered 4 different plate combos. Kuah ordered one of each. I didn’t think I’d be eating anything but I was lucky. The egg, shrimp and octopus ones were all cooked so I ate those pieces. Kuah enjoyed the rest of them, except for the uni. Reviews had said the uni wasn’t good so he had expected it. He thought the rest were really good for the price. I thought it was fun to have sushi at the fish market.
By the time we left the sun was coming up. We walked back to the hotel seeing the route in the morning light. Overall it was a little over 3 miles round trip. We were back at the hotel in time for the free breakfast so I had a bit of yogurt and Kuah had a flat white and eggs Benedict.
For lunch we headed to Misuji, another sushi restaurant. I loved the atmosphere of this restaurant. It had a lot of warm light colored wood which felt very welcoming. They must get more of a dinner crowd as it was really quiet at lunch.
We were sat at a counter where we could watch the chef work and interact with him. While this was fun I was worried that our normal sushi restaurant plan wouldn’t work. Since I don’t eat raw fish Kuah usually picks 2 things he wants. Then we each order one and he eats them all. So we ordered 2 set meals. The chef makes one piece at a time and then serves it. We didn’t even make it through one piece before the chef realized I wasn’t eating.
Using translation apps on our phones I let him know that I didn’t eat raw fish. He said that he could cook mine with a torch. I thought it was very nice of him to go the extra mile. And this meant that I would get to eat lunch with Kuah.
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- Kanpyo
This meal had one of Kuah’s lifetime best sushi bites, which was the tuna. I was happy that the chef cooked the sushi for me but it also made it more difficult. Some of the fish was quite strong but since the chef was making a special effort for me I felt that I had to finish all of it. Since I started perimenopause I have definitely been more sensitive to fish. But in a weird way. Sometimes something is fishy but I don’t notice it. Others something that isn’t even fish will taste fishy to me.
The most interesting sushi roll to me was the last one. It was made from a gourd called Kanpyo. The gourd is peeled and cut into long strips. Then the strips are dried. It ends up looking a bit like a fruit roll-up. It was a fun texture and different kind of sushi roll then I’d ever tried.
So, who was the winner of Sushi Wars? Kuah being the sushi aficionado got to choose and he enjoyed Misuji the most. Of course it was also more expensive. But not only was the sushi better it was fun to interact with the chef and watch him work.
Well, we ate a whole lot of sushi but balanced it with walking almost 11 and a half miles. Here’s a few other things we saw while wandering around the city.
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