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Osaka, 6/7 January: Having spent an hour in a big electronics shop, looking at digital cameras and agonizing over which one I should get, I walked over to Hilton on the other side of Osaka station, to meet my friends Noriko & Mariko. For some reason we always meet here for coffee and then walk over to a Tofu restaurant nearby for dinner...
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OK, dinner. We enjoyed the mostly-tofu-and-veg-but-with-some-fish-too course dinner in our
little reserved room, with a little round alcove set into the wall for flower decoration,
and a nice bunny cushion too. (The photo left is some fried tofu cooked in broth with mixed veg.) |
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We then decided to go back to Hilton "for coffee." By then the cafe was far less crowded,
and it was weird! I don't know if you have ever heard of so-called "host clubs" in
Japan - where young(-ish) attractive(-ish) men entertain female customers, who in turn
give them huge tips, either in cash or in gifts. (Basically the same principle as Japanese
"bars" and "clubs", where young attractive women entertain rich businessmen - only the
genders swapped around.) Anyway, Hilton cafe at 10PM was full of waiters who looked like
those "hosts", and their service was just like (what I imagine it to be like) in host clubs!
One waiter came over to try and sell me a Hilton teddybear, and while he was at it, he really
was kneeling on the floor (apparently they do that in those host clubs.) A few minutes later, another waiter came up and said
"this really is on the house" and put a plate of cakes on our table.
(At which my friends said "shit, had I known that, I would have ordered tea rather than
tomato juice - they should have told us in advance!" What an ungrateful bunch we were!) They
were very nice, esp. the one in the front: green tea cake with marron cream and azuki beans.
Oh, and the second time around, I got an extra piece (pineapple) on the fresh fruit plate with
my champagne too. (Of course they all remembered us from earlier on.)
We suspect that Deep Purple will be staying at Hilton again in March, so we'll be back there to check out if the "hosts" are still there and how they are getting on ;-) |
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Next Day I met up with an old classmate from Kobe, and we had a lunch in a Hawaian restaurant(!!) in Osaka. Mine was a "fresh seafood locomoco" (or something like that), whereby "locomoco" is a dish with "whatever + soft egg on top of rice" kind of dish. Interesting. (This had about 10 different kinds of seafood in it. Good value for 5 quid, I thought - but then again, eating out in Japan is a lot cheaper than in London anyway.)
To Part Four / Back to Part Two
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As I walked into the hotel cafe, I noticed a big Veuve Cliquot display outside.
Both of my friends were already seated and had
their cafe lattes (or whatever) in front of them, and as I sat down, bang in front of
me was this printed menu with "the special of the month: Veuve Cliquot" so I ordered that (I needed a drink
anyway, after too much thinking re digital cameras!)