Dotonbori

Dotonbori is one of the major tourist destinations in Osaka. Dotonbori is a single street that runs alongside the Dotonbori canal located in downtown Osaka. The street is famous for its many restaurants that feature the largest assortment of food you will ever find on one single street! My host family and I went on a "food crawl" around Dotonbori, and it was fantastic!

The Dotonbori canal.

A takuyaki stand.

My YFU Host Family

One of the biggest parts of a YFU exchange experience is the opportunity to stay with a native host family. Being with a host family has allowed me to experience and become a part of their everyday life. This is a great way to experience the cultural immersion in your host country, and it sure workedI was blessed with an amazing host family. My host family included my host mother, father, grandfather, brother, and sister. They all made such an effort to give me a great experience in Japan, and I certainly can't thank them enough!

(From left to right) Oji-chan, Takehiro, me, Oto-san, and Saki. My host mother, Oka-san, took this photo.

This is Heji, one of my host family's 2 dogs.

My host brother, Takehiro.

Takehiro, Saki, Oka-san, and me doing karaoke.

Oka-san and Oji-chan.

Me with Oji-chan at Osaka Aquarium.

Going out.

Back to Kyoto

One of the first places that my host family took me to was the city of Kyoto, right next door to Osaka. You can see my blog bost about that here: Visiting Kyoto

As I said in my previous post about Kyoto, it is a city rich in history. There are hundreds of old shrines and temples all around Kyoto. In my second trip to Kyoto, I visited one of the most famous temples called "Kiyomizu-dera". The present buildings at the temple were constructed in 1633, but the interesting thing is that not a single nail was used in building the temple. The temple takes its name from a nearby waterfall. Visitors can catch and drink the water from the waterfall, which is believed to have wish-granting powers.

Most of the buildings and houses around the temple are of a traditional style.

The gate to the temple.

The waterfall I mentioned earlier.

The view of Kyoto from the temple.

Japanese Food

If I had to sum up Japanese food in one word, it would be, "exotic". Now of course foreign food would be considered exotic to any traveler, but for me, Japanese food takes a fine balance between "exotic food" and "comfort food". I had eaten a lot of raw fish during my stay in Japan since it is a staple of the Japanese diet, so much so that it became a kind of comfort food to me. But that is just one example of what I had eaten in Japan. The pictures should illustrate this better.



Just your run of the mill sushi.



Tempura, basically just an assortment of fried things on sticks.

Good ol' ramen.

Taiyaki, which is a large cookie filled with red bean paste.

Yakisoba, which are fried noodles.

Okonomiyaki, which is similar to an omlet.

An assortment of odds and ends and I have no idea what they are (except for the rice, which is pretty obvious).

Soba, cold noodles.

Sashimi (raw fish) and chicken.

A rice-filled omlet. These are popular all over Japan.

Raw whole squids

Grilled beef. But not just any beef, REAL KOBE BEEF!!

Rice and fixin's.

Uuuuh....

More Tempura

Uuummm....

Takuyaki! This is a local specialty in Osaka. They are little fried balls of batter with octopus pieces mixed in them.

Beef stew.

More sushi!

Salmon eggs sushi.

Shrimp.

Squid.