Not literally. This food was freshly made. But leftover metaphorically. There are things I didn’t manage to post from our trip to China and Japan at the end of last year, and this is one of them. Winter in Kansai is a lovely time. The leaves turn colour between mid-November and mid-December. Along with this autumn glory is typical winter food. Walking in Osaka’s Nakanoshima, an island in the middle of Ajigawa, we were chilled by the cold breeze. I suggested oden for lunch and explained to The Family that it is a soupy one-dish meal made by boiling many ingredients in dashi. She thought it could be right for the day.
We found a shopping arcade in the basement levels below a hotel. Osaka is surprisingly full of what you could literally call an underground food scene. Several eateries there had good reviews. We chose one which advertised oden. There is sufficient variety that we could have two bowls which looked quite different. I had the default meaty one, but The Family scrutinized the menu and found one with more vegetables and tofu, which is the traditional ingredient.
Afterwards we had a choice of walking to the metro station underground or go back up to the surface. Fortified by the warming meal, we decided to brave the blustery surface. And it was good that we did, because we came on a beautiful carpet in the lobby of the hotel. The profusion of maple and ginkgo leaves and the warm orange-gold of the body told us that this had been laid out for the season.
Don't hold your breath 
