Final stop: Osaka
Before travelling to Osaka, I was told by a few people that there wasn’t much to see but that the food would be worth the trip alone. I would agree with this. Osaka is about 30-40 minutes out from Kyoto and definitely worth the shinkansen train out but you don’t need a lot of time to see the city in whole.
2 nights were spent here and while enjoyed, I think a day and a half would enable you to get a feel for the city.
The main highlight for me was the food. On to that in a bit. The spots we headed to, liked and would recommend are:
Dotonbori Street. Definitely a must if you want to shop. We strangely didn’t do any shopping in Tokyo and left it to the last day to get our souvenirs. Osaka is no Tokyo but there were plenty of shops for us to stock up on make up and snacks.
Minatomach river place is a nice and calm area to just sit and relax in. It branches off the busy Dotonbori so is a welcomed stop.
Namba. This area was nice to just walk around. There is a big book shop in the area that you can wander in and spend some time in looking at manga and magazines.
Orange Street. This street is meant to be ‘hip and happening’. We went either on a day that everything was closed, or because it was hard core raining, no one was around so we only managed to pace through the long street and back to Dotonbori. If you can spare the visit, do as it is meant to be really cool.
Kuroman Market. Again we made the mistake of going at a time that not much was happening at. However this market is meant to be a great spot for local food stands.
Osaka Fish Market. As we missed the fish market in Tokyo, we vowed we would sacrifice our sleep and visit Osaka’s one. Unfortunately a press of a snooze button later, we missed the early start. Determined to still eat a sushi breakfast at the famous Endo restaurant, we still went along. So glad we did, despite the hour wait in the rain. The restaurant was small but cosy and the chefs were really friendly. The sushi was fresh and so delicious. My only hold back was one sushi roll that was called ‘sea urchin’ and was perhaps a bit too juicy for my liking. Definitely a must visit even if you can’t make the 6am start to see all the workers bringing their fish in for the morning’s sale.
Food to try:
There is so much to eat in Osaka. Personal favourites would be the okiniyamaki (stuffed omelette) and Takoyaki (stuffed balls of octopus). I can not believe how tasty these meals were and would happily eat them all day err day. Like the mantra goes- eat in Osaka till you drop! Word of caution though, when pacing the famous Dotonbori street for restuarants- do not be convinced by the people standing on the street who lure you in to their restaurant- twice we fell for this and the food was truly terrible (so terrible we had to end the night eating at Mcdonalds- something we NEVER do abroad). Instead spend your time looking at what you want to eat, check out the restaurant and what it is offering.
I would also say if you fancy Shibuya toast- you can only really get this in Tokyo. We spent the evening with a screenshot of said toast saunteering from cafe to cafe asking if they had it. We even went into a Maid’s cafe to enquire. Rather scaringly, the ‘maid’ waitress looked at us and said alluringly ‘yes I have the toast’ while standing and blocking the cafe door. We smiled politely and quickly made our exit. The story ended with confusion, laughter and basically no toast.
And that’s it for Japan. I can honestly say that this country has set the bar for me and will always be the comparator in terms of experiences and memories. Where to next- await and see!
Other blog posts on Japan:
The ant and carpet 
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