Japan 4th Day (Part 2) - Osaka

This post should actually be called "The Search for the Nakata Ume" because trying to find the onolicious only-can-be-found-in-Osaka-ume recommended by Leslie's friend "Uji" really was like an adventure story.  That's not his real name by the way, but I'll forever call him Ume Uji for sending us on the wild goose chase we ended up having.

After visiting the Fushimi Inari shrine on the morning of our 4th day in Japan, we hopped back onto the train to get back to Kyoto Station where we needed to transfer to a bullet train to Osaka.


These kids were waiting at Kyoto Station. Looks like they were on an excursion themselves.


Here is where we waited to catch the train headed to Shin-Osaka.  Leslie's backpack was much like the kids' red caps . . . easy to spot.


I bought this cute "Small Musubi" set.


It had a nice variety.


At Shin-Osaka we caught yet another train to Namba.


!!!!!!!


Here is the Doguyasuji Shopping District where restaurant people buy their stuff.  Guarantee to find our ume right?  WRONG!


Had cute characters.


Choke wares.


Choke bowls.


Mochi pounders.


Choke hashi. But no ume.


I have a Hello Kitty figure that I have dangling from my camera.  One of our side quests while in Japan was trying to find a similar one for Les.  Jamie found mine in a vending machine, so we visited many arcades in hopes of finding one for Les.  We neva have luck with that either.


These guys were eating something on the run.


Ume here?


Here?  Nope.


We soon found ourselves in Dotonbori, another shopping/eating district which is north of Doguyasuji.  This mechanical crab above a crab restaurant is a landmark of Dotonbori.


There were a lot of fugu puffer fish around.


But no ume.


This Glico runner is also another symbol of Dotonbori.




Here is Kuidaore Taro, a mechanical drum-beating clown, another famous Dotonbori figure.




We walked quite a bit westward and ended up in an older-looking not-so-crowded part of Dotonbori. 


We saw these weird looking posts . . . but still no ume, so we headed back again to the more popular area.


There were a lot of these tako-yaki stations.


This one had a line.


Ume?


We decided to take a break from our search and entered a tiny restaurant.  I had an oyako donburi and Les opted for the curry rice.


After lunch we came upon Kuromon Market.  We were sooo hopeful!


Ume?


Ume?


Ume?


We didn't find it in the Kuromon Market either, but we did finally find six of these small containers at a vendor just as we pretty much had given up and were heading back to the train station.  Wow . . . success!!  Almost brought a tear to my eye.


I must tell you that later when we went to Tokyo, we kept noticing um everywhere we went. I even wonder now if we got um here too.  For sure I'll be checking!