Things to do in Osaka, Japan

I'm going to skip some parts of my Japan trip because this post will have better quality pictures. I promise.

Osaka is a beautiful city. It might be a bias opinion but I prefer this city over Tokyo. (Trust me, I've been to Tokyo three times). Although the tall buildings of Osaka may makes it seem somewhat busy and city life, it is actually pretty calm. (Except please watch out for bicycles on pedestrians streets). I only had three days to explore so this is what I did. 

I stayed at Cross Hotel, which I do recommend because the rooms are clean and nice looking, and it has a great location. I would say this is better than ones nearby because of the location. Staying at Cross Hotel is near the shops and restaurants so you could never get hungry. Cross Hotel is on the top of the map so it has a good location as the back of it is the Shinsaibashi-suji shopping lane and to the back right of the hotel is the Ebisubashi-suji shopping street. 

This is a map which I used every time and this is how I navigated around the Shinsaibashi area, Ebisubashi area, and the Namba area.

Please ignore the repeat of the Sennichimae-Dori. This map is actually one whole. I just separated it so you could read the smaller comments on the map.

THINGS TO DO IN OSAKA:

1) Find the Glico man sign.

This place is very easy to find and I recommend going at night. This is a very touristy thing to do but this sign is one of the trademark of the Ebisu-bashi district. You could see it from the bridge. (refer to map). This is where I took the picture from. 

Here's a beautiful picture of it,

Can you see the glico man?

2) To find food, go to the Dotonbori street. 

This street is full of Takoyaki stalls and Okonomiyaki restaurants. These two dishes are the local speciality of Osaka so both are a must try food here. Takoyaki are cube sliced octopus in fried balls and it is chewy and best consumed hot. Okonomiyaki looks like pancakes but they are made of flour, vegetable, and few toppings of choice such as bacon or scallops. The alleyways of Dotonbori also contain a lot of restaurants. 

This is one of the alleyways. I'll tell you the one with the dragon on the building is a ramen stall. 

How they make takoyaki

TAKOYAKI

I went to two places of Okonomiyaki to compare and yes, they are quite different.

The first place I went was this. (I could not remember the name but this is the name in Japanese letters)

This an eggs and chicken side dish which is delicious.

Okonomiyaki

This restaurant's okonomiyaki was a little too dry for my liking. The thing that bothered me was they pre made the okonomiyaki so they just have to warm the food in the grill and then add the sauces. (Sauces are sweet soy sauce, mayonnaise, some seaweed and crab flakes). Although it was good, it did not satisfy my tastebuds. 

The second one I went to is called Mizuno which has been serving okonomiyaki for nearly sixty-five years. I recommend this restaurant over the first one I've went because of several reasons. 

This restaurant makes okonomiyaki in front of you so you could see how they made it which I thought was pretty interesting. 

However I suggest not going here during office lunch hours or dinner hours. Maybe like at a time where people do not come out for food. There will be a long queue if you go there for dinner at six p.m. so don't. 

Oh my god, look at the scallops.

On top are crab flakes.

Cooking it for you.

Look at these yummy okonomiyaki

3) Explore the Ebisubashi-suji shopping street, also the Shinsaibashi-suji shopping lane.

What I like about these two shopping street is that it is nearly connected. Shinsaibashi-suji ends at the bridge where the Glico man is at and after the bridge it is the Ebisubashi-suji shopping street. I could spend one day in this area looking at shops and food stalls. 

This is a popsicle-like milk tasting ice. 

This stall, 551 Horai, is along the street of the Ebisubashi district and it was summer and scorching hot so I tried one of these. It was delicious, I did not regret it at all.

Japan is famous for their crepe stalls so do try one

4) Explore the department stores such as Takashimaya, Bic Camera, or Tokyu Hands.

Takashimaya is sells clothes, home paraphernalia, furniture, and everything else. However if you are looking for Japanese clothing brands instead of expensive European high end brands, this is not the place for you. 

Bic Camera is a building that sells electronics. Lots of 'em. One floor could only be for camera, television, phones, or even computers. Plus Japanese are known for their good advanced technology. So I do recommend if you want to see new cool gadgets.

Tokyu Hands is only for kitchen appliances and other accessories to go along with it. So if you want to buy Japanese mortar to grind sesame seeds or other appliances, please go and enjoy Tokyu Hands.

5) SHOP FOR JAPANESE BRANDS THAT MADE IT TO THE WESTERN FASHION INDUSTRY.

It is way much cheaper to buy the brands in their home base than in other countries. In my country one of the brands that I bought is twice the price of the same brand in Japan. So if you want to explore the Japanese culture through fashion then you could either explore the Ebisubashi-suji shopping street or Namba Parks. 

Namba Parks  is a mall that has a garden on the floors thus the name parks. I went there to find a Japanese brand and I discovered some interesting brand. The clothes here will definitely be a little bit more pricey than the one on the Ebisubashi-suji because of the different quality of the merchandise. 

Comme des Garçons is a well known Japanese brand worldwide.

Overall for shopping Japanese brands, I think the ones in Namba Parks is a better choice because of the good quality of the clothing material. 

Now some of you might be wondering why Osaka Castle is not included and the reason for that is simple. It is because I did not have time to go there as I have to use the subway to go there. I would probably recommend it from friends' feedback and pictures though. 

Okay, I will end this things to do list here because this is what I did. 

I might post a short blog post about Kobe so stay tuned.

-x, eva

Japan Trip Day One

First things first before I write anything about my trip, I'm going to apologize for the bad quality of pictures and maybe some grammatical errors up ahead. I do not have a good camera yet so I took most of the photos from my iPhone. 

This is going to be my first post on this blog and I hope that you might find this blog interesting and will follow it. :)

My summer vacation starts on the 23rd of July. I landed in the Kansai International Airport and stayed at an airport hotel for the night. The weather can only be described as hot. It was even hotter than my hometown which is in a tropical country. The temperature was around 33-35 degrees Celsius. So if you are going to travel to Japan in this time of year, bring sunblock, sunglasses, a hat, and other summer wear essentials. 

For the whole trip we rented a mini bus (as I'm traveling with a group of people) and a driver. I know someone who lives in Japan so she became our tour guide slash translator. 

A small notice is I rarely see taxis in this part of Japan. But to travel to these cities you could use the JR (a train company) to go to these cities. 

Okay enough of that. 

Early in the morning (well, for me anyways) my road trip from Osaka to Wakayama city began. On the way there we passed a large outlet called Rinku. Apparently it holds some factory outlets for both international and local brands such as Nike,  Jill stuart. I did not get the chance to go in the outlet but I wish I did.

After an hour on the road we arrived in Wakayama Marina City which is place that contains several attractions to see. One of them is Kuroshio Market Since we arrived on lunch time, we went straight to the Kuroshio Market.

Kuroshio Market is a place where you could buy fresh seafood from the sea of japan and grill it outside to eat. They also have a special show to watch which is the tuna cutting show. As its name suggest you get to watch a person cut a living tuna. I did not get to watch this as I was too busy eating and wolfing down fresh seafood. Hehe. The famous thing that you have to eat in Wakayama is the tuna. They call it tuna "Maguro" and I did try this. I still remember the taste as it was delicious, soft and chewy. Here's a picture of tuna cutting.

Yep that's a real tuna head on the side. 

Other than tuna they have sea creatures such as fish, clams, oysters, shrimps, abalone and even whale. I AM NOT KIDDING. Japanese people do have a town that used to eat and hunt whales to survive. Its called Taiji which I passed by to go to another city. Don't fret they do stop hunting them regularly nowadays. 

Okay back on track, after getting my stomach full I went to a fruit market. (I don't think they have a name for it). This is straight across the Kuroshio fish market. Here you can see fresh ripe peaches that they sell in prices cheaper than in big cities. I went to Osaka and they sold the same peaches for 1,200 yen while in the fruits market it was only 600 yen for the same amount. So I do recommend buying the peaches. They were very juicy. As you bite into the peach some of the juice can drip down to your chin. It's that juicy and sweet. I am NOT exaggerating. 

This is not a picture of someone's butt okay?

Then the rest of the day is not interesting. We just went to hotel to sleep for the night. But I definitely will post about the hotel I stayed at later because it is so magnificent. Here's a peek. 

Before ending this post, in Wakayama Marina City there is still another attraction that I decided not to go which is Porto Europe, a small theme park. As it name suggest, the architecture is inspired by European designs. My reason to not go is I have actually been to Europe itself so I don't need to go to a recreated one. Sorry, no offense. It is a beautiful place though.

Sorry about the people. There was a show in front of them so yeah. 

Next post will be about day two of my trip with the hotel I stayed at and the famed Japanese Matsuri festival (If you read Japanese shoujo manga, you will probably know what this is) which is only held twice in a year. 

Thanks for reading. :)

-eva