They say Osaka is Japan’s kitchen.
Today, we woke up early and took the train to Osaka. We planned to see the castle and everything, but then we were like, why do that if we’re going to see Himeji castle anyway. So we decided to skip that.
We took the express train to Osaka. Even though we were passing through the countryside, it didn’t look very country to me. It looked even more populous than my hometown! We passed by many factories and stuff. The train wasn’t full at all, and it was one of those seated trains even though it would take 30 min to get to Osaka and we’ve taken the train for longer for 30 min in Tokyo.
Anyway. We got there, and the first thing we did was leave the train station. We started to walk toward the Kita ward, which is the business/financial district that is directly south of the train station. Masa mapped us to the “original takoyaki place” and we had takoyaki.
I didn’t really know what takoyaki was, and I didn’t expect to like it, so I got the one with just octopus and egg or something. They were making the takoyakis right in the front window. There was no sauce that came with it; they said that the sauce was baked into the batter itself.
Okay. Then we walked to a random picnic bench area that seemed to be like an empty parking lot, only it was fenced up. It had 6 vending machines around it, and we bought a peach soda to drink with it. We also drank the miso soup that the takoyakis came with. It was so freaking cold but whatever 🙂
The takoyakis were honestly a bit of a disappointment. I could see it in his eyes. I think they would have been better with a sauce drizzled on top. We were right across from a luxury mall. Honestly blew my mind there was a patch of undeveloped land next to the train station. It was fenced off so it couldn’t even function as a parking lot. We got a bit of sun and it was nice. We started walking south, and finally we walked through so much un-lit stuff that we couldn’t take it anymore. The sidewalk had many small metal sculptures on pedestals though, that was cool.
We took the train more south to Shinsaibashi shopping streeet, and WOW it was crowded. It was a nice respite from the cold though. Lining the narrow walkway was a mix of high end stores (Gucci) mid end (Nike) and small convenience stores, random drug stores, and tons and tons of food vendors and restaurants. It seemed to me that this used to be a normal street until it gained so much business that they made it pedestrians-only.
Then we crossed the bridge to go to Dotonbori, and it was similarly crowded. We could see the Don Quijote ferris wheel on the outside of the Don Quijote building! Dotonbori was a splash of red, there were red signs everywhere. They say red is the color of desire and appetite. We saw huge renditions of the famous ingredients each restaurant was using: crab, puffer fish, octopus, etc etc etc. we even saw a massive chef head! It seemed like each restaurant was trying to outdo each other with their crazy decorations. Then we got to our destination: Mizuno.
We waited in line for a while, and we chose what we wanted to eat while in line. They took our order in line too. The first floor was counter style seating, where they cook in front of you. The second and third floors were more private dining, with separate tables, and each table has a grill. We noticed that to churn out the maximum number of people, they were making the pancakes before the customer went inside the restaurant. We were able to sit down inside and I went to wash my hands.
There was even a sink at waist level when you sit down, tucked right under the stairway. It honestly looked so inconvenient to use lol. We were seated at the left end of the counter, closest to the door. I of course got a lemon chu-hi and we had our two okonomiyakis.
They were AMAZING. The one on the left was a normal okonomiyaki, and the one on the right had soba noodles cooked into it. They each had a lot of seafood, lettuce, and bacon in it, and they topped it with copious amounts of Japanese mayonnaise and the okonomiyaki sauce.
After eating our fill, we saw takoyakis being made literally everywhere. Osaka has a reputation of being a little more international and seedier than the other cities. We saw one of those Turkish ice cream swooper people at their ice cream stand, there were a few of those randomly peppered throughout the streets. It was funny to watch them do their thing.
Then we walked along the riverwalk, and it felt a little like Chicago. It was pretty cold and there were less people here but still many many restaurants lining the sides of the river. Then, we walked back up across the bridge to Shinsaibashi. We went to Americatown, or Americamura, which is like the bastardized version of America that Osakans think Americans experience. The streets were pretty narrow and filled with people walking around, it was very lit. We didn’t go through the hypebeast part where Supreme and similar brands had shops. In Americamura, we saw some restaurants sell stereotypically American food, and some cool stores.
The first store was saw was Alice on Wednesday. The door was tiny! We went in and it was so dark, the first room was like a dinner party decoration, it was so cute and beautiful! It was super crowded though, and there were people standing around the whole long table. They sold books, jewelry, stuff like that. The second room to the left of the first room was decorated in tea-party style and the checkout stand was there. It was much brighter here but still very crowded. We GTFOed without walking around the table because there were simply too many people.
Then we saw Americamura, which seems to be the store this little district is named after? It was filled with used goods probably from Goodwill in America. That’s what it felt like. The racks were filled with bundles of Levi’s jeans, many LL Bean shirts, leather jackets, old varsity jackets, and a whole wall of doc martens. I guess they think that doc martens is all Americans wear. The stairs leading down to the rest of the shop were decorated with doc martens in a rainbow arrangement on the sides of the stairs.
Then we saw a store called strawberry fetish! lol. It sold strawberries on sticks with sugar coating. Then we passed by this store that had cute screen-printed and embroidered designs. We bought a panda shirt and something else. They had really cute stuff, exactly what you’d expect or hope to get in Japan. Then we went into the big department store. Then we got some matcha ice cream!
It started to get dark so we walked more south. We were hoping to go see the historical district of Osaka. First we ran into the complex or cluster of a bunch of big dept stores and I really wanted to go to Takashimaya.
They sold the Baton d’Or i was looking for. Baton d’Or is the fancy version of Pocky, made by the same company, but using premium fruits and other ingredients. As a result of this, the expiration date is only about a month or even a few weeks after the sell-by date. But they have real chunks of fruit, thicker and creamier layers of the cream, and they use better dough for the stick part of the Pocky. You can only get it from 2 locations in Kyoto and 2 locations in Osaka.
We went to the basement of this store and Masa picked up a croquette. We went to the dessert section and I got in line. I threw a bunch of matcha ones in the basket and a few berry flavors. There were no strawberry ones left! All in all, it came out to $40 for 6 boxes of fancy Pocky. It really hurt my wallet, but Japan was such a once-in-a-lifetime trip that I was not about to give up on my dream of trying Baton d’Or.
We got bored so we just kept walking south toward the historical district. The malls were interesting since they all had different Christmas illuminations.
After leaving the last department store in the row, we realized this would be a great chance to buy jeans. Japan is a great place for high quality jeans. We first walked allllll the way back up to Shinsaibashi, and we visited EVISU. Masa tried on a pair of jeans, and we saw you could custom design the painting on the back pocket. So he chose his design, and then they measured the length they had to hem it to. Every pair is quite unique. He wrote part of his last name on the back pocket and requested a picture of mount fuji on the other. The jeans would be ready in an hour.
While walking around, we saw that the main street of Osaka had been beautifully lit up by these sakura-inspired lights in the trees. Then we hit two more jeans shops but they weren’t as special as EVISU (Momotaro and Studio d’Artisan). Then we picked up the jeans at EVISU and the design came out beautifully. It was half a grand for one pair of jeans. :'(
We went back to Dotonburi for dinner. We went to this place known for its curry. It was really good! But not super duper mindblowing or anything. We also stopped by this Starbucks (the 4th time we stopped in a Starbucks in Osaka) and amazingly enough, they had the tumbler I was looking for! It was super cute, made for the new year, and had little shiba inu dogs and Japanese dolls printed on it. We also bought a Japan winter edition mug, as well as the Osaka mug. We had a lot of stuff with us: Masa’s clothes, my special pocky, and our Starbucks haul. We went to LIME for drinks after dinner. This place is known for being a cool aquarium bar. We saw a lot of people in the street so we thought there would be a massive line, but LIME itself was surprisingly empty.
After descending the staircase, we sat in the waiting room that had some pool tables in it and we saw other couples waiting to be seated too. Then we got seated in this large booth, and they pulled the curtain around us because it was a private booth. We saw many tables full of people, and they seemed to be part of large groups like maybe a company or something? They were getting druuuuunk. We were a little far from the fish tanks that this place is known for.
In the entrance way there was a massive fish tank embedded in the wall with a few massive fish in there, and on the other side of the hostess counter, there was a small fish spa you’re supposed to put your hands in to get rid of the dead skin. We ordered our stuff, and it was actually really convenient that we were in the booth with no waiters to see us because we had a button we could press to see them. We ordered a lychee drink and a berry drink, and both were DELICIOUS. They were some type or mojito or sangria. Then we got some wagyu beef for $20, just on a beautiful platter. The seasoning was sauce or salt, and it was so delicious and simply perfect.
Then we each got another drink each and i actually got a fish tank drink. They froze little bits of fruit cut in the shape of a fish onto the glass, and poured the fruity drink in!
It was such a beautiful and classy night. We paid our bill and took the train home. It was one of the last trains, so when we got into the subway station, the subway officers actually told us to BOOK it if we wanted to make it!
Back at the hotel, I watched more Maid Sama and we got ready for bed. We slept at the APA hotel tonight again, and i stuffed a blanket/sheet/bed wrap thing under the door so smoke couldn’t get in. :/
