New Years Eve in Osaka

This time around Phil and I saw in the New Year in Osaka!  We'd both been to Osaka before, briefly passing through on our way to or from another location, but over the winter holidays we decided to spend a few days in the city - shopping, drinking and eating to our heart's content.

As soon as we arrived in Osaka we checked into our hotel and wandered down to Dotombori for a gander at the local nightlife.  The arcades of Dotombori are exactly like you picture Japan to be - busy and bright!  We grabbed something to eat and drink a little 280 izakaya (where everything on the menu costs 280yen or 3.20AUD) upstairs on the fourth floor of rather nondescript city building.  After eating our fill of fried chicken, edamame and these little cheese-stuffed delights plus drinking enough umeshu (plum wine) and beer for a small army, we headed back to our hotel to chillax for the rest of the night.

The next day we visited the Kaiyukan, or Osaka Aquarium, hoping to see the whale shark baby that they have there.  The aquarium was amazing and we got to see heaps of water animals like dolphins, seals, walrus, otters, tropical fish, Amazonian river fish, turtles, octopus, giant spider crabs, stingrays, sharks and of course the whale shark.  Strangely enough, we also ran into some colleagues of mine from Tokushima there too!

Jellyfish at Osaka Aquarium

Later that night, Phil and I went on the giant ferris wheel and had okonomiyaki for dinner (Phil's first time).  We caught the train back to Dotombori for a nightcap and then walked the couple of  kilometres back to the hotel to catch some zzz's.

We awoke to New Years Eve and decided to do some sighseeing around Osaka despite the rainy and overcast weather.  Unfortunately, most of the tourist destinations we travelled to were closed and so we ended up shopping in the arcades instead.  For lunch we decided to try "fugu" or Japanese pufferfish - a delicacy so poisonous that people die every year from eating pieces of the fish they've tried to prepare themselves at home (only licensed chefs who've undertaken strict training are allowed to prepare the meal for restaurant consumption).  A quick google later to find a recommended restaurant (and read up on the side effects of neurotoxin poisoning)  and a phone call home to our parents in Australia - just in case - and Phil and I were sitting in Zuboraya drinking sake and ordering a set course fugu lunch.  We ended up trying fugu sashimi, fugu stew and in my opinion the tastiest way to eat fugu, deep fried.  Eating the fish gave us slight tingles on the tongue and a surge of adrenaline that comes with realising you are still alive after a larger-than-usual mouthful of the stuff.

Eating fried fugu at Zuboraya Restaurant in Osaka

Fugu finished, we headed to the Umeda Sky Building to watch the sun set on 2011, spending a good few hours at the top of the skyscraper taking pictures and reflecting on the year that was. We headed back to the hotel after this to change and get ready for our night out, where we'd planned on heading to popular local nightclub, Joule.

The last sunset of 2011 from the rooftop of the Umeda Sky Building

Joule was rammed with people when we arrived at about 10pm.  We bought drinks (a challenge that involves first buying drink tokens from this little machine before lining up to get the attention of the barmaid) and danced for a bit and got ourselves front and centre for the countdown.  As the time approached the dancefloor flooded with people and pretty soon it was jam-packed with Japanese and foreign party-goers alike.  We counted down backwards from 10 - in Japanese - and stood as hundreds of balloons fell from the roof above us.  And the song the DJ played to usher in the New Year?  Baby by Justin Beiber - I shit you not!

Trying to get off the dancefloor proved difficult and after getting stuck a few times in the worst crowd crush I've ever experienced (here's looking at the bold guy who managed to cop a New Year's grope), we were pretty keen to bail on Joule.  We made it outside and to another small bar by 2am, spent a few hours and lots of yen drinking here before loading up on junk food at the local conbini and staggering home to go to sleep!

Phil facing up to a ninja

Phil about to tuck into his fried rice at a Horumon Restaurant that we stumbled into (google it if you don't have a weak stomach!).

New Years Day passed in a blur of movies and delivered pizzas, as did the 2nd.  And on the 3rd day of January 2012 we hopped on a bus to come back to inaka life in Tokushima.

Our movie tickets - yes, that's 1800yen or about 24AUD a ticket!