Takoyaki and Hiking

This post has two parts: the takoyaki part and the hiking part. I’ll go in chronological order. One a random weekend, a group of us girls decided we wanted to have a sleep over takoyaki party. It was my first takoyaki party. For those who don’t know, takoyaki is the staple food of Osaka. It’s basically balls of batter with octopus inside. You cover them with sauce, mayo, fish flakes, and seaweed. Sound gross, but they are pretty addicting! You can buy takoyaki from any vendor on the street, but another popular option is to have a takoyaki party. So, five of us JET girls got together and made takoyaki. It was fun! We chatted, drank plum and yuzu wine, and ate takoyaki until we were about to burst haha!

Homemade takoyaki.

Itadakimasu!

The following day, we woke up early and met more of our friends to go hiking in Takarazuka-shi. I’m not particularly an athletic person, nor do I enjoy hiking that much, but this was different because there was a unique allure. The hike was in the mountains along a river and old abandoned railroad track that involved walking through pitch black tunnels. You had to bring a flashlight (or torch as my kiwi and aussie friends called it haha) in order to see.  In any case, the hike was beautiful! The tunnels were so much fun! It wasn’t that strenuous of a hike either. I’d recommend it to anyone.

It was a nice area!

The first tunnel.

Emerging from the dark.

This river was full of rocks. It was cool!

We had to walk over this bridge...It was scary!

At the end of the hike.