I have a few annual traditions here in Japan. Climbing Hanamiyama, or Cherry Blossom Viewing Mountain, every spring in sakura season. Photographing the lotus blooms in the summer. Cooking steaming pots of nabe on chilly nights in the winter.But my favorite tradition is my annual pilgrimage to the Osaka Ramen Expo (Japanese site) held every weekend in December.Bampakukoen Ramen ExpoStarting in 2013, festival organizers have brought the Ramen Expo to life each December in Bampakukoen ...
Osaka
A Weekend in Osaka
When I first visited Japan seven years ago, I crammed as much as I could into my trip. I think I came to Osaka, the second-largest city in all of Japan, for about two days. My memories are hazy, partly from drowning my brain in rum during my recent years living in the Caribbean and partly because the breakneck speed of my trip back then means everything sort of runs together in my mind now. All I remember seeing was massive restaurant signs in Amerika-mura (the "American" neighborhood...note the ...