What you can eat in Kyobashi, Osaka, Japan

Toward the end of December is always the busy month for Japanese pubs and restaurants where many  workers go out for 'Bo-Nenkai' (literally meaning forgetting-the-year party) with their co-workers or friends to forget the woes and troubles of the past year to end the year with high notes (with lots of drinks involved!) whilst looking forward to the new year.

One evening, my sister's husband, Kenji, was away for one of his many such Bo-Nenkais so Emily, Maria, myself and my sister decided to go for a quick bite to eat on our way home from downtown Osaka for shopping.  We were originally looking for some restaurants in Umeda, Osaka but every place we tried was fully booked for Bo-Nenkai groups, so we gave up and decided to head home to my sister's house in a suburbs of Osaka. We changed our train at Kyobashi Station to get on Kyobashi Line and thought why not try if we could find somewhere for a bite to eat in Kyobashi.

We walked through some arcades and alleys with lots of restaurants and pubs, tried couple of places and eventually found a place called Ponpokorin.

Walking through alleys with lots of restaurants and pubs in Kyobashi

Ponpokorin serves drinks and traditional Japanese foods.

The ground floor was busy but we managed to get a table upstairs. I forgot that people can smoke everywhere in Japan including restaurants and pubs. As we were seated, smell of cigarette smoke from nearby table hit you for the realisation but we did not care as we were too hungry and thirsty.

We ordered drinks for 'Kampai' (or Cheers) literally meaning bottoms up.  We were getting to feel like having a nice girls' night out alternative to the Bo-Nenkai that Kenji was having elsewhere.

When you order drinks in Japan, you are always served with a small dish of accompaniment to alcohol to start with.

A wee vegetable dish with a beer.
Chopstick bearing the name of the restaurant.

We then perused the menu. There were so many choices and things we wanted to eat.  We ordered Tuna sashimi. As this restaurant serves fresh fish and sushi, the sashimi was really delectable. A slice of sashimi was really fresh and almost as if it really melted in your mouth, and nothing fishy in taste at all.  I am blogging this in early hours of Saturday morning yet I am already salivating for the mere thought of this sashimi!  I wish I could eat it right now!

My sister ordered Mozuku, a type of stringy seaweed in a Japanese style sweet and sour broth sauce. It was an interesting dish.

We like unagi (eel) sushi so we ordered these too. Freshwater eel was grilled and served brushed with tasty sweet eel barbecue like sauce. It was soft, fluffy and flaky. This was really yummy.

We should feel guilty about eating freshwater eels however as I have now discovered that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment has officially added Japanese eel to the endangered category of the country's Red List of animals ranging from threatened to extinct!

We also ordered Age dashi -dofu (or Fried Tofu with tasty sauce).  I love tofu.

Agedashi tofu garnished with grated ginger, horse radish, chopped spring onions and bonito flakes.

Also ordered mixed tempura that came with huge king prawns! Yum.

Also ordered fried potato - why not, everyone loves fries!

Emily and Maria were intrigued with this crab croquette so this was ordered too. It came as creamy mushed potato with lots of crab meat encased in a crab shell and enveloped in fried breadcrumbs. Yummy too.

My sister earlier ordered a glass of Umeshu (a Japanese liqueur made from steeping plum in alcohol and sugar) on the rocks.  Emily and Maria tried and liked it too.

We further ordered Tekka-maki, sushi roll with tuna and Asari (clam) miso soup to finish off our meals!

It was such a great night to the extent that we forgot some people at other tables were smoking.  There are hundreds and thousands of restaurants like this in Japan. With all these dishes and drinks, it only came to just under 10,000 yen which is probably equivalent to £50ish in Sterling Pound at the time of this blog being done. Such a great value when Sterling is strong against Japan!

As I type this, our cat Yuki, decides to sit on my lap, blocking my view to the keyboard on my laptop. I hope you can make out what I am typing. I also notice Yuki is eyeing up at the picture of tekka-maki.  I'd better go now before she manages to move her bottom onto the laptop or she may demand feeding her a plate of sushi. She really loves food...

That's all forks.