Burger Quest : Kuma Cafe

Hawaiian Beef Burger.

Early this summer A and I where on a quest to find good burger shop around Kansai and we started our quest at Kuma Cafe located in front of the famous Osaka Aquarium.

I ordered Hawaiian Burger and it was 1500yen. It was too big for me. It has a big beef patty and big slice of pineapple and of course French Fries.

The place is really comfy and spacious. We also had a chance to met and chat a little bit with the owner and chef Paul who is really nice and friendly.

So if you are around the area and looking for a good burger you know where to go 🙂

The 48 Waterfalls of Akame

Akame 48 waterfalls is located in Nabari City Mie Prefecture and considered to be the birthplace of Ninja and home to giant Salamander.

After several failed attempts since last year, together with C, I finally made it there at the end of summer.

It’s about an hour train ride from Osaka by Kintetsu Line and another 10-15 minuted ride from the train station to the base of the waterfall.

C found a cheaper ticket by Kintetsu , which includes an round trip ticket from either Namba, Uehonmachi or Tsuruhashi station to Akameguchi Station. A round trip bus ticket to from Akameguchi Station to Akametaki. An entrance ticket to the waterfalls area and the Salamander Museum.  You can also get some discounts from the omiyage shops around the area.

To know more information about the place check out the website.

My Photo Collection is here.

Maishima Incineration Plant

As I mentioned in my other post, there are two building or facility that has some weird design in Maishma, this one is the Incineration plant.

It burns garbage from Osaka City, Yao City and Matsuhara City. Tour here is more famous than the Sludge Center and the facility are more tour-friendly too.

Again the tour itself is in Japanese but you can request English and I think Chinese audio when you make your reservations.

Let’s start the tour.

The red color represents fire.

With the tower. Inside the tower are 4 big exhaust pipes.

Unloading area for the garbage.

A miniature version of the inner part of the facility.

A miniature version of whole facility.

The “garbage picker”. The facility have 2 incinerator which can burn up to 450 tons of garbage in day so that would 900 tons/day.

The office and monitoring area.

Our guide explaining to us how the garbage are being incinerated.

It is an amazing facility. People asked why would you go there? Why not? I think it is vital how our rubbish are being disposed and how our tax money are being used. The facility operates 24 hours but other than the smell of the incoming garbage trucks, there is no smell at all. The air filtering system is amazing.

Also the facility does not use any gas, oil to burn the garbage. It uses a sort of air combustion technique . They also use Thermal recycling meaning no energy is going to waste. The heat from the boiler rooms are utilized for floor heating, water, gas reheating and for preventing explosion in the hammer crusher. The same energy is also used for power up the plants operation on a daily basis and the remaining power is transmitted back to the local power company.

Details on how to make reservations are here(sorry only Japanese).

Curry Quest : Mitsukawa Steakhouse’s Curry

Lately, I have discovered that there are lots of curry places in Osaka and they are really good.  In this past months I’ve visited several of them and planning to visit more soon.

But first let me start with the store around my neighborhood.

Mistukawa has been in business for about 82 years in the same location. They are actually considered as one of the local family in Daito City. It used to be a meat shop but later on , they added a restaurant and a bar in the 2nd floor. Currently, the bar is gone and is also converted into a restaurant.

This is one of the first store T and I visited when we moved here in Daito City. After 4 years we decided to return and give it a try again and this time I found out that they also have curry. In a span of 2 weeks we visited this place twice and plan to visit again soon.

This first time I ordered their Special Curry (Beef) and omg it was amazing. There were several chunks of beef on it and it just melts into your mouth. The spiciness is just enough that it does not overwhelms the meat. It was really good.

The second time, the owner and chef (3rd generation) recommended dry curry with beef too. It was spicy too and good but I liked the Special Curry better.

If you ever visit Daito, I highly recommend either their Steak or curry here.

They are close 3rd Monday of the Month and every Tuesday.

Lunch Time: 11:30-15:00

Dinner Time: 17:00-21:00

You can makea reservation by calling: 072-872-0298.

Maishima Sludge Center

If you have been to Kansai International Airport in Japan, you might have noticed two very distinct towers along the way.

One is color blue and that is what I’m going to blog about.

This building was designed by the late Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

So what is this building?

This is actually Osaka’s water recycling facility for underground water. Thus the color blue, it is suppose to represent water.

Touring the facility is free but requires a reservation. Tour is mostly done in Japanese but you can ask an English audio guide during the reservation

Let’s take a tour of the facility.

A wall painting of the facility

The staff working so hard :p.

The tour was only within the building but the weather was really nice and we had a really nice tour guide that he decided to take us all the way to the rooftop and show us around there too.

A view from the rooftop.

This tower actually contains 4 or was it 6 exhaust pipe.

After walking around the rooftop we went down on the base of the tower and continued our tour there. I’m not sure if this is still part of the official tour but hey I’m not complaining.

A storage area for the Sludge.

The base of the blue tower.

The back area of the facility.

This facility only recycles Underground water for Osaka City not Osaka Prefecture.

The by product are now being research to be used for pot making but some are actually used as construction material so nothing is thrown away.

It was really a very educational tour around this facility.

If you live in Osaka City, this is where your monthly payment goes for underground water treatment and of course your tax.