Last winter we were thinking about where to go for our summer vacation. I’ve never really had a desire to go to Japan but while looking at airfare to South East Asia with a layover in Narita, I figured heck, why don’t we just stay in Japan. The airfare was less and the flight was quite a few hours shorter. We were worried about the language barrier and for good reason. While we were there, we encountered very few people that spoke english. The experience and amazing food made up for that but Japan probably won’t be on our list to revisit for awhile.
A city and food tour consumed our first 2 days. We spent a couple days shopping and sightseeing on our own and the last full day was spent at Disneyland. We will not go back to Tokyo in the future, other than spend day to experience DisneySea. 
The food in Tokyo was very good. Our tour guide took us to lunch at a wagyu Korean BBQ restaurant and there was good food at the Tokyo fish market.
On the morning of day 6, we travelled via Shinkansen to Osaka. When we arrived at Shin-Osaka Station a little over 2 hours later, we took a taxi to our AirBnB. We were all very hungry at that time and we stumbled upon a sushi restaurant in the middle of Kuromon Market.
It was at this point, our food experience went to the next level…well, many levels! We ordered uni, yellowfin toro and amaebi. We’ve never tasted quality and freshness like that before. Of all the restaurants in Osaka, we returned to that restaurant 3 more times. And all three times it did not disappoint. Our last meal before heading to the airport for home was sushi at this place.
We stayed very close to Dotonbori and wandered in frequently for snacks and dessert, which also did not disappoint. One online reviewer wrote. “Dotonbori is like the San Antonio River Walk on steroids”. He is absolutely correct.
We all enjoyed the trip very much and it was great to experience a completely different culture and feel of an Asian country. We have been to South East Asian countries and Hong Kong, but Japan has a very different “feel” to it. It may be the language barrier. I enjoyed visiting the markets the most. It was remarkable to see all the fresh seafoods and meats available for bargain prices.
A few days after returning from Osaka, Melanie and Emma began their 3 day drive to Baton Rouge. They left Weds. morning and arrived Friday evening. I flew out to meet them Friday evening. We checked out the city and campus a bit on Saturday then moved her into her dorm on Sunday. The heat was pretty grueling but just about everyplace indoors there cranks up the A/C.
I had not been back to LA since the boys and I fished the marsh 5 years ago. A couple of our favorite local dishes are charbroiled oysters and crab fingers. I did find both in BTR and they were excellent. In my opinion, Dragos oysters were better than Acme’s. Both were still great.
Saying goodbye to our youngest child was so hard. But, as the saying goes, “If you raised them right, they’ll be ready to leave”.
Michael will head back to school on Tuesday and Matthew leaves mid September. After that, we will be empty nesting. How the years fly by when your having fun. What an incredible journey so far.
