Osaka

Rikuro Cheesecake: buy four, eat two hot outside the shop

Osaka has a completely different energy from Kyoto and Tokyo. Louder, warmer, and significantly more interested in feeding you. Kuromon Ichiba market is a covered lane of vendors and we ate our way through most of it. The Glico sign and the Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Street are Dotonbori at full volume. America-mura is the neighbourhood where everything is for sale and the aesthetic is whatever you want it to be.

Rikuro Cheesecake is worth a separate mention. We bought four. Two of them we opened right outside the shop while they were still warm, which turned out to be the correct decision. The other two travelled with us. At Ichiran Ramen in Osaka the tagline was no pork ramen. Udaya was excited because pork is something he avoids. We waited twenty minutes in the queue. As we got close I asked him what he would do if it was beef. He said if it were pork he could actually eat it, but beef was the problem. The ramen was beef. He ate it anyway, and made the correct face about it.

Osaka closed out Japan properly. A lot of ramen, a lot of 7-Eleven hauls, a lot of steps, more fridge magnets and snacks than any reasonable person should carry. I left for Seattle next, then London, then home. The magnets and snacks went to both places.