There is this noodle store called yi lan that can found near the Nagahori-gawa canal in the Osaka Shinsaibashi area that serves the most yummy pork soup based noodles. Everything about it is perfect and the additional egg was really good! Cooked with hot spring waters, the egg is cooked inside out rather than outside in. Yummy!

After dinner, I took a stroll along the Dōtonbori street and there were just so many good food to be found. Fresh seafood and the famous tako pachi (octopus balls) with a crazy long queue.

The rest of the evening was spent shopping. There are so many departmental stores as well as little boutiques in the area. This place is probably the harajuku of Osaka. I also went to the Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street which is the longest straight and covered shopping walkway in Japan! 2.6km long with lots of shops on either side. It was a real shopping excursion for me! Which is probably why you don’t see much photos taken after my dinner

There are countless sake that have “masamune” as the second half of their brand name, but the very first one is said to have been Sakura Masamune from Nada in Hyogo prefecture. Sakura Masamune is a very old, famous and prestigious brewer, and eons ago their founder visited a friend that was the head priest at a hermitage called Gensei-an. There, he looked up on a bookshelf and saw a book of scripture by the Rinzai sect Zen master Rinzai Masamune. In a moment of inspiration, he realized that the characters for “masamune” could also be read “seishu,” which is a homonym for the legal term for sake. And so, the first of hundreds of meigara bearing the term “masamune” was born.

I learnt a lot about Sake brewing from this 400 year old establishment. Sake is not just science but an art as well. While most things have been modernized, many traditions have been kept and the process is still rather labor intensive. I got to play around with the traditional equipment of sake making and you can hardly imagine how huge those barrel were! There are a string of ropes and knots tied at the entrance of the brewery area to show that you have entered into the realm of the spirits as the Japanese believe that Sake is the drink of the Gods and sake brewing used to be done in the temples.

After the factory tour, you could sample the different sake, shop for gifts or try out their sake ice-cream. There were many cute balls hanging around and I found out that it was a tradition brought down from the past. A ball of green would be hung up at the main door to tell others that your home is brewing sake. When the ball of leaves dries up completely and turns brown then the sake is ready.

A day of shopping and sightseeing at Kobe’s Habourland. There were so many tiny shops and cafes at the Mosaic area facing gorgeous seaside vista. And not too far off there were departmental stores and quaint restaurants. There was even an indoor canal garden!

My favorite part of the place has got to be the pier area called Takahama Quay. It really reminds me of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Warf! There were flocks of sea gulls everywhere and I had a great time feeding and snapping photos of them.

Across the street was another mall called Seagull Harbor. How aptly named! It’s a really peaceful and scenic environment. I can see why this is one of the hot spots in Kobe for marriage proposals!

Nankinmachi is also known as Kobe’s Chinatown. It’s amazing how there’s a little Chinatown in almost every country! The Chinatown here is bustling with excitement and you can find all sorts of Chinese food stuff here!

I managed to see these little cocoons of silk worms which were really interesting. Quite a number of interesting shops to do a little shopping here as well