Daimon Okonomiyaki Dojo, a late-night restaurant specializing in Osaka comfort food, has an unheard of 450 items on its menu.
The small restaurant, located near Takidani Station in Tondabayashi, sits just 10 people. It's owned by Yukimasa Tanida, 73, who sports dyed brown-orange hair and dresses like a stylish teenager, and his fashionable wife, Misuzu, 70, whose impressive, towering hairdo brings to mind Marie Antoinette. I ask Yukimasa where he learned to make okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancake).
"In prison," he replies, deadpan. "I'm just joking. When I was a young man, I was a bit of a ne'er-do-well. I used to frequent a local okonomiyaki restaurant in Kawachinagano. The owner was a stubborn, moody geezer from Kyushu who told me that I was wasting my life playing around. So he offered to teach me his secrets if I opened up my own restaurant."