After last night's adventure, we planned to have a leisurely day by going to the Osu area. This is a market area of sorts, similar to Nishiki Market in Kyoto. Various vendors sell food, clothes and other knick knacks in little shops that line the alleys.
The first thing we did was zoom in on Gaburichicken. Why is this shop so special? It sells karaage or Japanese fried chicken, and has won the Best Fried Chicken gold medal six years in a row. Who organises this competition and how do they decide on the winning entry? We have absolutely no idea. It's just the kitschy kind of trivia that appeals to us.
In case you want to know how to find it, it's right next to the giant waving cat.
You can eat at the restaurant but if you take the fried chicken to go, it comes in a cup. There are six varieties - one plain and the others with different sauces. We ordered one plain and one with tartar sauce.
It was very good. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with fried chicken, but we find Japanese karaage especially delicious, with its crispy skin and juicy thigh chunks. Andre loves Japanese tartar sauce - it's made with egg pieces and goes with everything, not just fish.
Next item on our food scavenger hunt was tenmusu. This is a speciality of Nagoya and is a piece of prawn tempura wrapped in a rice ball. Tenmusu is a snack food and can be found in many takeaway stalls at train stations, but the best one is supposedly at a shop called Senju, found in the Osu area. Andre did most of the food research for this trip, and he led us to the restaurant. Which turned out to be great because there's no way we would have found it if he didn't know what the front of the restaurant looked like.
It's tucked away in a nondescript row of buildings, and there are not English signs or pictures outside. Inside, a little old lady handles the orders while three others prepare the tenmusu in the kitchen. That's all they sell. As we sat and waited for our order to be served, locals popped in to take away boxes of tenmusu. We're obviously the oddities here.
A perfectly fried piece of prawn tempura, wrapped in rice and seaweed, served with hot green tea.
Next snack: one of our favourite Japanese desserts - red bean fish! We had some a couple of days ago at the Toyota Museum train station, but it wasn't very good. So we were delighted when we spotted this shop, which is the same one that we enjoyed tremendously in Osaka.
The batter is light and the red bean filling has a perfect consistency. Yumz.
More Nagoya food - some form of mochi with soya sauce brushed over it. The seller perked up when he heard we were Singaporeans, as he had visited Singapore on his honeymoon.
A little Osu church in the midst of the shops.
And one of the main attractions at Osu - Osu temple.
Where we spotted an unlikely character. That's right, your eyes deceive you not - it's a polar bear, looking at his phone, no less.
Andre couldn't resist and approached it for a selfie.
It even tipped its hat to Andre after.
A beary polite fellow indeed.
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