Andrew + Japan = Awesome

It’s been a long time coming, but Friday the 28th of September finally arrived, and with it came the day that I had booked to see Cirque Du Soleil in Osaka.

In my last week at Flower Town, I had a student tell me that they had been to a kushikatsu restaurant for lunch. I had never heard of kushikatsu, so I spent a good ten minutes of the lesson getting them to explain it to me. Basically, as I understood their explanation, you chose the vegetables you wanted on skewers, then deep fried them. It sounded fantastic to me, so I asked Mayumi to find a kushikatsu restaurant for when we went to the circus.

The circus started at 12, and we weren’t quite sure where to go, so we caught a 9.30 train from Sanda to Umeda. Then we transferred onto the subway line, and caught the subway to Cosmo Square (which you might recall me mentioning in a previous post, there’s nothing there except a big tower) which is where the circus was. Luckily there were plenty of signs and people pointing the way and we found the tent pretty easily.

I’ve been to Cirque du Soleil twice in Auckland, and this tent looked different. I wasn’t even sure it was a tent until we go closer, but I think that’s just the color.

We headed in and there were signs everywhere saying that any food and drink from outside the tent was not permitted. All food and drink must be bought on site. That didn’t stop a whole load of people eating bentos during the show though!

As expected, the show was amazing. Lots of acrobatics, lots of asian themes. East meets West and all. It was every bit as action packed and stunning as the other shows I’ve been to. It’s definitely something I’m glad I paid out for.

After the show we caught the subway back to Umeda and found the kushikatsu restaurant. This place was fantastic. We went in and they sat us at a table. The table had a deep fryer set in the middle of it. Right there on the table, in front of you, was a deep fryer. We had 90 minutes to eat as much as we could, so we headed up the the food area and selected some items to fry.

There was a whole selection of food on skewers. There was the things you’d expect, beef, lamb, chicken, pork, shrimp. And some things you might not expect, potato, kumara, bread, mochi, chilli peppers. And then some things that made me think, what am I doing to myself? Brocolli, sausages, mushrooms.

So we selected a few skewers, and went back to the table. There we dipped the food in an egg mixture, then coated the food in bread crumbs, then thrust them into the deep fryer. A few minutes later we pulled them out and enjoyed the deep fried food.

I can’t stress enough how much of a fantastic concept this is. Everything tastes better deep fried. And having a deep fryer in the table, genius. We ate our fill (they even had desserts, but you didn’t deep fry those), and then left. After wandering around Umeda for a while (and seeing a totally awesome water fountain) we caught the train home, and both managed to fall asleep. Luckily I woke up just before Sanda so we didn’t end up stranded in Shin Sanda.

All in all, a great day. Circus followed by deep fried brocolli. If only every day was like that.