10 Food We Ate in Japan's Kitchen, Osaka!, Osaka, Japan

The spaciousness and height of the building gave us a first glimpse of the Kansai metropolis that is Osaka. We lugged our way to the nearest elevator situated by Lucua, a massive 10-storey departmental store that straddles a whole office building.

The glass panels of the elevator opened to a view of a sprawling megacity densely packed with skyscrapers as far as the eyes can see. As we made our way down into the subterranean network of fast-moving trains and colorful subway lines, it dawned upon us that we have traded the steep history and tradition of Kyoto with the bright lights and exuberance of Osaka.

There are thousands of sushi joints spread across Osaka, from the conveyor belt eateries to the private high-end restaurants. Tokisushi falls right in the middle of this spectrum. We stumbled upon this sushi bar after a solid shopping session at Shinsaibashi and ordered a 12-piece assorted sushi [¥1,050] platter of freshly prepared squid tentacles, salmon, horse mackerel, scallop and flounder among others. Feast.

A visit to Osaka is never complete without stuffing our mouths with takoyaki. These ping-pong shaped balls are made by frying octopus-stuffed batter in a special round molded pan. We tried the takoyaki [¥700] at Creo-Ru along Dotonbori and went with half a dozen of them topped with onsen egg and a generous sprinkle of scallion. The takoyaki really melted in our mouths while the scallion gave a nice crunch to the savory taste of the octopus. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).