A Robatayaki Indeed
I suppose I should look up the spelling, but it isn't that important. Last night we visited a Ganko restaurant down in Osaka.
First was finding our friend at their hotel -- the Plaza Osaka. Nice big hotel, and our friend said it was cheap on the Internet. But when we started walking to the restaurant, we passed a whole series of love hotels! I have to admit, the Cupie with a window filled statues of the seven dwarfs caught my eye.
The short shopping street we walked down had more sex shops than I am used to. There was one that advertised cheap tickets, which Mitsuko started into thinking it was Shinkansen cheap tickets. They had a front room with a set of flat-screen terminals and keyboards that the customers were tapping at, and the male attendants dashed right over and escorted us out. I realized that the other board had nine young ladies heads. I'm still not sure what was on sale, but I'm willing to bet it involved slippery surfaces and money somehow. Maybe you get to peek through the terminals first? Or is this an electronic version of the old peepshow? Hum, you could separate your peepers from the girls completely that way, and even use one set of girls for several stores! Talk about electronic enhancement. (Ouch, what if the girls are in another country? :-)
Anyway, then we wandered over to the restaurant. Central grill with a master who happily cooked up whatever we asked for, with a chopped off square (so three sides) bar around him. About 12 seats? Bunch of tables elsewhere, and there was a kitchen behind him too, but we grabbed seats at the bar. He had the long wooden paddle to serve us, too. So lots of fun. Surprisingly nice for eating, and the Japanese neighbors took having a couple of gaijin in stride.
What did we eat? Grilled squid (excellent!), tofu with negi and miso, steak and fries, deep-fried fugu, sashimi, etc. Just kept ordering and sharing. At 380 yen per dish, split three ways, why not?
First was finding our friend at their hotel -- the Plaza Osaka. Nice big hotel, and our friend said it was cheap on the Internet. But when we started walking to the restaurant, we passed a whole series of love hotels! I have to admit, the Cupie with a window filled statues of the seven dwarfs caught my eye.
The short shopping street we walked down had more sex shops than I am used to. There was one that advertised cheap tickets, which Mitsuko started into thinking it was Shinkansen cheap tickets. They had a front room with a set of flat-screen terminals and keyboards that the customers were tapping at, and the male attendants dashed right over and escorted us out. I realized that the other board had nine young ladies heads. I'm still not sure what was on sale, but I'm willing to bet it involved slippery surfaces and money somehow. Maybe you get to peek through the terminals first? Or is this an electronic version of the old peepshow? Hum, you could separate your peepers from the girls completely that way, and even use one set of girls for several stores! Talk about electronic enhancement. (Ouch, what if the girls are in another country? :-)
Anyway, then we wandered over to the restaurant. Central grill with a master who happily cooked up whatever we asked for, with a chopped off square (so three sides) bar around him. About 12 seats? Bunch of tables elsewhere, and there was a kitchen behind him too, but we grabbed seats at the bar. He had the long wooden paddle to serve us, too. So lots of fun. Surprisingly nice for eating, and the Japanese neighbors took having a couple of gaijin in stride.
What did we eat? Grilled squid (excellent!), tofu with negi and miso, steak and fries, deep-fried fugu, sashimi, etc. Just kept ordering and sharing. At 380 yen per dish, split three ways, why not?