What you can eat in Kyobashi, Osaka - Hot Dog

It was my sister who told us about Kyobashi's Hot Dog or 'furankufuruto' in Japanese (or Frankfurter in German?).  She told us that it is really famous but does not know why, other than it is often mentioned on TV or magazines in Japan.

My sister and her husband live in a town on Keihan-Line, the railway network linking between Kyoto and Osaka, so we often change trains at Kyobashi train station to get to downtown Osaka.

The shop that sells famous Hot Dogs is actually a kiosk, on one of Kyobashi Station platform for Keihan-line. They are selling them for 110 yen (including tax) per stick, which was about 60p in UK at the time of the exchange rate when we were in Japan. I heard that commuters are cueing up to buy it, hop on and eat it on the train going home or some salaried-men eat it with a can of beer on the platform waiting for their train to arrive on their way home. Sounds like a good plan, except I don't eat meat so I don't eat this famous hot dog. Emily and Maria did though, on the New Year's Day this year, after we came back from Osaka Castle for new year blessing.  Imagine, the first snack you eat to start off a new year is a hot dog on Kyobashi train station!

Well, I have done some research.  Apparently the shop sells 700 sticks a day on average! It is 13cm long, 2cm diameter and weighs 60g.  The shop started selling hot dogs almost 40 years ago. It is seasoned really well so that you do not need to put ketchup or mustard and eat it on the go.

It is meant to be smoky and crunchy...

Ever since my sister mentioned about the hot dog, Emily and Maria were wanting to try this, especially Maria as she thought it was actually a corn dog, only to discover it wasn't though...
However, I think they enjoyed it. At least they can say they tried this famous Kyobashi's hot dog, on the New Year's Day in Japan!

Our train arrived. We hurried to get on the train and sat down. Maria was wondering if they were allowed to eat it on the train. I said, just do it, so they did. The smell of smoky hot dog started permeating within the train carriage, but before you know it, the hot dogs disappeared into their stomachs.

It is rather eclectic to eat a German frankfurter on a train on the New Year's Day in Japan, isn't it.  There are many many such eclectic things you can eat or do in Japan.  Japan is an interesting country.

That's all forks!