Osaka is a pretty developed city, though there is not a lot of attractions in comparison to other cities, it does have a reputation of "food capital of Japan". And we decided to stay here for a few days, and do daily trips to the city of Kyoto (15 min train).
One of the first things we wanted to do is to watch live sumo, as there was a tournament during that time. Unfortunately, the reserved seats were sold out very quickly, so we gambled to show up early so that we can get in on the non-reserved seating (there are 100 of them). On our first day, we woke up early at 6am and try to get seats, but by the time we arrived, all 100 seats were taken. It was a bit disappointing, oh well.
Then we visited the iconic Osaka Castle:
As well walked around the city in the Dotonbori area:
As I mentioned before, the city itself does not have too many attractions, but the food is quite exquisite.
4 different "flavours" of takoyaki, this is really good.
Okonomiyaki (kind of a savory pancake), which is a very famous dish in Kansai region (where Osaka is). Many of my friends consider this as one of their favorite foods. I have to admit that I like it, but not "super" like it hehe.
Ramen, yes, I think I found my favorite ramen place, but I shall devote another post just for ramen.
They have matcha soft serve, which was very excellent, but I also tried the black sesame one, and it is equally good.
Other than the excellent food, one of the highlights about my stay in Osaka was to catch up with a good friend of mine. During my undergrad days, we were housemates for 1 or 2 terms.
For a while, he has been working in Japan as a teacher, and though I have seen him when he visits Toronto, we rarely do one-on-one catch up. So that was very neat, because we were able to easily "continue" our friendship from where we left, by sharing stories and struggles about our lives, on what God is teaching us. It is encouraging to hear that he is helping at a church by teaching bible study to a group of younger Christians.
He also shared with me about the "differences" in community he has experienced in Japan. In Canada, it is very common hangout at someone's place for fellowship, and usually a lot of great conversations can potentially happen. But in Japan, houses are not big, so most people hangout outside (like in restaurants), so he feels that it is challenging to grow as a community. So this is an example on how culture, society, and city-lifestyle can affect how members of church community "implement" fellowship. It triggered me to think more about what the core values of fellowship are. But now that I think about it, as I was chatting with him, we were two people with same mind and goal to "catch up" (sharing with each other about our lives, listening and spurring one another towards love, encouraging each other), so I hope that we were in the right track of doing fellowship.
This reminded me on how grateful I am to have meet great brothers and sisters, and that even if I don't keep up with them regularly, there is the assurance that God is actively working in their lives as they serve the Kingdom, and this is a deep connection that we all share.
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