Horumon soba, Hello Kitty and lots of yaki

Sometimes you find the tastiest treats when you least expect them. A poky little noodle underneath a railway station. A man smiling inside. Lots of Japanese and a huge pot of simmering broth that certainly smells delicious.

And so we tried our first bowl of horumon soba. "It looks a little like corned beef" said Veruca, then took her first mouthful. Soft squidgy bits of brown and mouthfuls of pure fat greeted us at 9.30am. "What is this?" we asked the quiet chef. "Cow" he said, and rubbed his stomach area. We think it was lungs and maybe a few squeezes of artery fat. The fat was faaatttty. I ate one and shuddered. I could not do any more.

The broth was tasty though, and it certainly felt good for you (apart from the fat). Veruca was still a little traumatised. At least it was cheap at 310 yen per bowl. I think at that price, Veruca thought it was still far too high a price to pay.

It was a huge walking day today. We explored Kuromon Ichiba, the fruit, vegetable and seafood market. We spotted plenty of puffer fish (live and ready-sashimi-ed), live turtles and whale bacon too. At Dotombori, also known as Kitchen Alley, we revelled in the enormous collection of restaurant equipment including commercial stoves, takoyaki makers, lanterns, restaurant signs, noodle bar banners, aprons, pots, cookie cutters, turning slicers, mountains of crockery, plastic food models and more. I purchased a Hello Kitty waffle iron. I couldn't resist.

Lunch was at an upmarket chain plain called The. My rice bowl included salmon roe - full of briny goodness - and the sea urchin roe was super creamy and rich.

We walked down the covered arcade of shops along Shinsaibashi suji (the Hello Kitty shop never fails to amaze), saw the cool kids (hello fake tans, foils and mullets) at America-Mura and checked out the upmarket underground shopping mall at Crysta Nagahori.

An afternoon snack of takoyaki octopus balls- an extra crunchy variant methinks as there were definitely puffy bits that added to the texture. We added our own mayonnaise, brown sauce, seaweed flakes and bonito flakes, before sitting down on stools down the back and stabbing them hungrily with toothpicks.

Dinner at Ajinoya involved our longest wait - about thirty minutes - for okonomiyaki, the famous Japanese 'pancake' with cabbage. It was delicious and worth the wait though. Extra crispy, just the way I like it. And the place was popular too with a constant queue of people waiting to enter.

Dessert was a custard tart from the famous stand on Dotonbori. It was eggy and delicious :)