After exploring Osaka , dinner at Mr. Jack's unusual restaurant

First Blog Post: On the way to Japan Tokyo -Day 1

Second  Blog Post : On the way to Japan - visiting Fuji-san 

Third Blog Post: Tour to Mount Hakone and Ashi Lake

Fourth Blog Post: Tokyo Skytree and Model train shop 

Fifth Blog Post: Food in Japan and Kyoto grandmother's small cafe 

Sixth Blog Post: Kyoto temple trips - Kiyomizu - dera or The pure water monastery 

Seventh Blog Post:  Kyoto Temple Pilgrimage - Temple of the Thousand Buddhas, Bamboo Forest, Zen Temple, Golden Temple, and Shinto Shrine.

Eighth blog post: Last day in kyoto and Deers of Nara 

Ninth blog post: A train lover's best day 

Tenth Blog Post: From Kyoto to Osaka by bullet train, then back to Kyoto by tourist train

Came to Osaka, left, came back, ate something, and then fell asleep without even remembering what it was. I'll put the pictures I took of Osaka city that day on this slide. There's also a big shopping mall right above the Osaka Station. We were staying at a hotel near the river. Some of the pictures were taken there.

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In the city of Osaka, a beautiful river flows between many large buildings. This is the Yodo River, which empties into Osaka Bay. Some of the buildings here look like a bunch of matchboxes standing on end.

On the morning of May 25th, we met our tour guide. He was an Irishman who, like many others we'd met, had married a Japanese woman and settled down in Japan. It was raining heavily, so we were stuck in the castle park. During the wait, the guide started telling us the old story about how Japanese people work themselves to death, with very strict rules at their workplaces.

By then, I had already done my research, so I told him directly that Japanese people commit suicide mostly due to loneliness or when they lose their jobs, not because they don't want to work. They are very willing to work. This Irish guide seemed to run a couple of tours in the morning but was otherwise living off his Japanese wife's earnings and didn't do much for the rest of the day. I don't know whther they have social welfare here, but England and Europe does. So easy to take everyting asy for some.

  The Osaka Castle palace is truly beautiful. Large rocks were brought in to build the walls. These big, flat-cut rocks make up the walls. Since it was built in 1583, it's not that old. There's a small pond and a beautifully maintained garden with flowers.

From the castle park, we went to a Shinto shrine. The way people worship there is a bit unusual. First, you have to wash your hands and feet with water from a basin, which I remember had a tap. After that, you offer money by throwing coins, then ring a bell. Finally, you bow your head twice, clap your hands twice, and then put your hands together to say your prayer. 

In Osaka, there's a Korean sector called Ikuno Korea Town. It's completely like a ghetto, made up of small houses and shops all packed together. In one of the pictures, you can see drainage pipes on the roof. There are also roads and a train line running above the shops. I felt that London's Chinatown was more spacious than this Korean ghetto. However, if you want to eat Korean street food, it's a great place to go.  

I'm posting this picture separately because I've seen restaurants where they take fish directly from a tank to cook and serve. In Russia, they also sell live fish from tanks at the market for people to eat. Here, however, they sell small, live octopus, and will even prepare them for you on the spot.

  

Another thing I saw was the huge crowds at the game shops. Apparently, people play there from morning until night. Some of these games are a form of gambling. In Japan, you can't win money directly from gambling because it's forbidden. However, you can win certain tokens. There are two other shops near these game centers where you can exchange the tokens you win for an item. If you don't want the item, you can go to a third shop and exchange it for cash, which isn't illegal.

On the way, we also visited the tallest building in Osaka, called Abeno Harukas. It's about 300 meters tall. Looking down from there, the train lines look beautiful, almost like a model train set. There's a video of it on YouTube; you can check out the link at the bottom of the article. 

Our tour ended in the vicinity of a shopping center, on a crowded bridge in the middle of the river. In the distance, we could see a yellow Ferris wheel next to a shop called Don Quijote. This entire area is known as Dotonbori. It must have been around 1 p.m. at the time, and the crowds were incredible. It took us over an hour to walk back to our hotel from there, not because of the distance, but because of all the people. 

We had some tea and relaxed for a while until the evening. We had made a mental note of a place we wanted to try. They serve a dish called Tako Tamago, which is a quail egg stuffed inside a whole baby octopus head, and another dish called Takoyaki, which is various types of fried octopus. Since this restaurant specializes in these items, we decided to go there.

It was around 8:35 p.m. I saw what looked like one person acting as both the waiter and the chef. When we asked if there were two of them, they said they were closed now. I pointed out a few tourists eating inside and said, "There are only two of us, we won't eat much, and we'll leave quickly." But they still refused. We came back outside, and Ines pointed to the sign, saying it looked like they were supposed to close at 8:30. I said, "But the others are still sitting there, and they're still making food for them." I had read that some Japanese restaurants have small signs that say, "No entry if you don't speak Japanese.

So we started walking again. We found another nice little restaurant, and I went in saying "Konnichiwa." Ines followed behind me. The Japanese chef inside didn't seem to notice her. He just pointed his finger at me.

The Japanese chef, whose English wasn't very good, said, "You drink? No drink, no come."

"Yes, yes, I drink," I replied, and walked in. Ines followed behind me.

The chef then asked me, "She drink, no drink?"

I quickly said, "Yes!"

"Okay, sit, sit," he said, pointing to two tall stools. It was set up like the previous place, with stools arranged around a bar. 

       

We sat down, exchanging smiles with the two or three other people there.

The chef then explained the ordering process: "Okay, you go website order. One starter, one drink." (He meant we had to go to the website to order, and that one appetizer and one drink were mandatory per person.)

Ines told me she only wanted to order water and couldn't eat much.   

The chef heard everything. "No, no, no! Water? You go!" he said sternly.

Just then, an American tourist sitting on a stool next to us spoke up. "You guys have to drink here. He doesn't like it when people don't drink. I thought you were the one who didn't drink," he said, pointing at me.

Ines responded, "He'll drink anywhere. I just don't drink when I'm tired." The couple was from Texas.

I asked the man, "Why did you think I wouldn't drink?" He winked toward the chef and said, "He'll tell you himself." The couple then gave us a list of the food they'd eaten and left.

Fearing that Ines would get up and leave, I quickly ordered two sakes and two starters.

Ines got up. "I want to watch him cook," she said, and moved to sit on the stool where the American couple had been sitting. Normally, no one would challenge something she does like that.

Then, the chef spoke up. "No sit there. No sit there. No change, no change!" he said, his English sounding like someone who had just arrived in an English-speaking country.

Ines explained, "I moved there because I want to watch you cook." From that seat, you had a much better view of the cooking area. But the chef sternly replied, "No, you don't need to watch. Go back to the chair you were sitting in!

I was dying of laughter. No one ever talks to Ines like that. Just ten minutes earlier, I had been told there was no room for us at the other restaurant. The chef is barely visible in that picture above.

I asked for a cucumber salad, and it came with a fantastic sauce. It wasn't from a bottle; the chef made it on the spot. The top picture shows the front of the restaurant, and the bottom one is my cucumber salad. Ines ordered the edamame.

 

A young man who  was sitting on the other side spoke English well. He explained the menu. For my meal, I had tuna, which they call maguro here. I'd had the dish before, so I knew I wanted to order it. For Ines, I got gyoza.

In the meantime, the chef and I became great friends, especially after I finished my sake. He told me to call him "Mr. Jack" because that was the name he went by. While this was happening, Ines was like a heron, craning her neck to see what he was cooking. Eventually, Mr. Jack felt bad.

"Okay, you go there," he said, gesturing for Ines to move to a stool at the end of the bar. I moved to sit next to her, and then I finally understood why he hadn't wanted her to move earlier. There was a number on each stool. When we placed our order on the website, we had to enter our seat number, which would then show up on his iPad and a small monitor above. This is how he kept track of orders and prepared the final bill. It was a simple, efficient system that didn't require a waiter. A small Japanese or Taiwanese girl was helping out, as the place was extremely busy. Mr. Jack told me the upstairs was also packed with customers. I realized he must be quite famous in the area.

The tuna dish I ordered, shown in the picture below, is called takaki. This isn't sushi or sashimi; it's not completely raw. The chef beautifully seared the outside of the fish slices, leaving the inside a perfect pink—like a steak cooked between medium-rare and medium. It's truly an art form, and you can't get it that perfect without a lot of practice. He gave me his own special sauce to go with it.

For the gyoza, Mr. Jack gave us a different sauce. This is how he elevates the flavor of his food; he cooks with great care and precision. At one point, Ines noticed he made a mistake with a dish and immediately threw it into the trash.

Just then, a woman with a Spanish accent popped her head in and asked if there was room for two. Mr. Jack said no. She pointed to where Ines and I had just been sitting, where there were two empty seats, but Mr. Jack still refused. The woman started to plead with him. Ines was about to say something, but I stopped her. "This is his restaurant," I said. "He gets to decide who comes in. Maybe he knows who's going to appreciate his food and who's just looking for a place to sit." In the end, he didn't let them in.. 

A little while later, two young beautiful chinese looking women with big smiles came in and asked if there was room. He immediately let them in. I told Ines, "He's not a racist; he's just an eccentric person who's particular about who drinks."

Two Chinese women sat next to us. They had come to see a J-pop concert. One was a student living there, and the other had come from China just for the show. They ordered two massive German-sized beers and a large main course. Seeing this, I thought, "These are the real meals!" I used to think the videos of Chinese girls eating endlessly on Instagram and TikTok were fake, but these two were just like that.

I also noticed that many Chinese people visit Japan as tourists and students and are big spenders. People from Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines, however, mostly come to work.  

When the Chinese girls ordered their main courses, Mr. Jack turned to me and said, "Hey, you guys didn't order a main meal!" We looked at the menu—it was full of large ramen soups and big rice dishes that we knew we couldn't finish. With some help from the Chinese girls, I explained to Mr. Jack that we eat less at night. He started laughing loudly and said,

 "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have let you in!" 

It was clear he liked us, though.

After that, he told me why he'd asked if we drank. He said, "Indian people like you come in here and only ask for water!" I just laughed.

Ines then said, "You don't need to tell him to drink. He drinks anyway." I replied, "I was born in Sri Lanka but live in London. Many people in Sri Lanka drink a little bit as a kind of medicine with their meals, so it's safe to let them in." As I said this, Ines ordered a Suntory beer, and Mr. Jack's smile grew even wider.

I told Jack that he was more of an artist than a cook. "No, no, me no artist," he said. "I am cook and owner." I ordered another sake and two prawns, which were large, like tiger prawns, and called kuruma-ebi. He served them beautifully with two slices of lotus root on the side.

  We honestly felt like we should have ordered two full meals, even if we couldn't eat it all. But Jack didn't seem to mind. He even gave us a running commentary on the things he was cooking. Ines wrote it down, though I have no idea where her notes are now.

For dessert, I ordered a sesame ball dish. It had rice inside and was served with a jam-like sauce made from some kind of berry. It was delicious. The combination of the creamy sesame, the rice, and the jam was perfect. It would actually be a great breakfast. Plus, these types of things fill you up quickly.   

 We left the restaurant feeling very happy after paying the bill. Jack thanked us and waved before getting back to work. Ines said he was a real pain, but that she liked him. I told her I like people who are direct and say what they think, because they're easy to understand.

This experience strongly reinforced my belief that the Japanese are not as racist as some might think. They simply have a certain way of doing things, and you have to understand it. I have two more articles to write, and I'll need to expand on this topic in one of them.

In a comment on a previous article, someone suggested that my German wife, Ines, was with me, so I might not have felt the full effect of any racism. But the answer to that is right here in this experience: there was no such thing. I felt that Japanese people are very direct and say what they mean to your face.

These are the videos from Osaka.

You may have a different ideas. Pease comment if it is.

Ajith 10/08/2025