Osaka (Osa-Can't Be Bothered Making A Clever Title)

The second major stop in our Japan tour was Osaka. Bright lights, delicious food and some incredible temples and shrines, it had it all! Not that the rest of Japan has or is going to offer any less.

Hotel Onsen

After a slightly rushed and stressed morning of cramped subway trains and missing the bullet train (they were just TOO fast!), we made it from the bustling Shinjuku to a slightly more manageable Osaka.

Given that the morning was a bit rushed and hot, we were delighted to find that the hotel had a spa! They were considerably hotter than the other one at 40 degrees, but VERY welcome. So welcome that it was used almost every day, a great way to soothe tired legs after a run or a days walking. We probably spent a little too long there on our first day before heading out for an adventure.

The Great Adventure

Following on from a relaxing Onsen we set out to find out what Osaka had to offer. We made it all of 30 meters from the front door, stopping in a basement bar that we thought was called Dricks. Turns out it was just a spelling mistake and that was the drinks menu sign!

Either way, after having a quick beer, we decided to have a couple of plates of food. Fast forwards to many large beers and Shochu’s later, we’d tried half of the Izakaya menu (Japanese tapas). The food was fantastic and the chef/barman was too.

GREAT start to the city!

Adventuring - Take Two

After a more sedate start to our second day, we went for a little shopping and lunch at a closeby multi-story center. Settled on an Indian place and had some much needed sustenance before facing the day.

Refreshed (as we were going to be), we had a look around before heading out to the Nagai area for the teamLabs Nagai Botanical Gardens art/museum type exhibition. It was incredible, with lights and sounds changing depending on where people were walking. A few of the exhibits focused on displays to show where people were and the connections between us all. There were a lot of really interesting ideas around this and seeing how the artists added to the gardens, rather than changing any of the gardens, was really inspiring.

Since we had a big night the previous night, we ended up having a movie night for the rest of the evening. Very needed.

Shopping Th(p)ree

On the third day there, I went to a small coffee shop near the Osaka Markets for a morning coffee and ended up getting a ‘happy hour’ deal that also included three of the most pristene toast slices and a perfectly cooked boiled egg. All for 530 Yen! Ridiculous. I really don’t think that we’ve found Japan to be as expensive as rumoured: transport, food, drinks, etc are all much cheaper than we thoguht before coming out here.

Whilst walking around the market, there was a stall selling Creme Taiyaki, a waffle shaped like a fish with a custard filling. De-licious! Apparently this is a local-to-Osaka food though there are similar ones elsewhere that we’ve found.

Wandering around the area there were many more incredible temples to be found and explored. One in particular had the most amazing mix of old structures and new, whilst also having a mix of locals, tourists and people using the shrines for prayer and ritual. Donating a coin or two and bowing and clapping before your chosen shrine is something that I’ve found myself doing more and more at these places, along with collected as many stamps as I can in my makeshift Goshuin (a book used to collect stamps and seals from various temples and shrines).

After finishing up the market shopping trip, we went to Namba for a night out with a friend who lives in Japan. We went to have a look about Dotonbori and the neon lights, including the famous Running Man. After going to a restaurant that served the Osaka-based traditional takoyaki and Okonomiyaki (Ok, om, nom nom!), we went to a rock bar and finished up at Space Station at about 3am! Yikes.

Day Floor

The fourth day was a late start (not surprising!) so breakfast (read: lunch) was a close-by cafe on the river side where we had a bento-like lunch each before finally heading to Osaka Castle for a look around. The day was hot and there was less shade than we’d have liked, but the Castle was incredible! A multi-layered area that the castle was built on meant that there were lots of stairs, walls and other areas to traverse and look around. The castle grounds themeselves were stunning and it was really nice walking through the plum gardens (that also have apricots now too).

To finish off the day we finally braved a local (across the road from the hotel) ramen shop that used the dreaded ramen vending machines! These were compact type of vending machine that minimal pictures and a lot of text on each of the buttons. One button equated to one bowl, so you really had to be able to work out what each button meant before pressing… Or you could have a rough guess. Guess which option we chose?! Thankfully the place was a highly rated ramen store anyway so it didn’t really matter what we ordered, everything thing was delicious.

Final Day

The next day we packed up the place and got some much needed souvenier posting done (these backpacks can only hold so much!) before going to a Frech-style bakery where we had some pastries and hotdog for breakfast! This hotdog breakfast tradition is something I didn’t expect but am quite happy with! Following breakfast, we dodged the crows again through the Osaka statoins and got sorted out for our long Shinkansen trip trip to Kyoto, the long, long train to Kyoto (15 minutes via bullet train).

Osaka was brilliant, would have liked to spend some more time there as I don’t think that we got to look around enough but the food culture was excellent and, as always, there were plenty of places to chill out with a (very) cheap beer!