Link to the Vlog is at the end of this post
I’ve
always been really fond of Japan since I was little, mainly because of
influence from my grandparents on my mother’s side. I grew up watching Ghibli
studio and had many Totoro dolls all over my room. This is my 3rd
trip in Japan after Tokyo in 2009 and Hokkaido in 2013. This time I’m going to
the Kansai area, around Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nara.
[
July 12, Sat ]
This
time I flew with the new budget airline – Peach Air (The full review on the
airline will be up soon). They serve Japanese food inflight! But has to be
purchased separately. There’s Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, and they even serve Asahi!
Click on the pictures to enlarge
We
arrived late afternoon and got out of customs really quickly. The staff at
Kansai Airport was really nice! There was this old man who was taking care of
the line for immigrations. He was chatting with us, asking how the flight was,
and telling us to enjoy our trip in Osaka! Already I can feel the friendliness
and politeness of Japanese people, this trip will be a very pleasant journey.
We
had to take a shuttle bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, and then take the
Airport Express from there. The train between the Airport and Namba 難波 Station
runs in 3 different lines: local (which will take forever), Airport Express ¥900 (12 stops, around 45min), and the Rapid ¥ 1,400(Alpha/Beta, Alfa has 6 stops, Beta has 8
stops, takes 30 min).
The
hotel we were staying at was Royal Daiwa at Kitahama Station. It was right
outside the station exit 6 on the left hand side. 6 nights was around ¥50,000 for 2 people, so it’s not bad! It’s a business hotel,
so there aren’t fancy accommodations like pools, spas, or room service. There
is breakfast in the morning on the 2/F. Upon check in, they also give some free
items for women to use like shower caps, hair clips, and scented bath powder
(rose, lemon, mint etc)
Royal Daiwa at Kitahama
After we checked in, we headed to Nipponbashi 日本橋 station to walk
around the Dotonbori 道頓堀 area. That’s the famous river that runs through Osaka
City, and during the summer there is a lantern festival. At night it’s super
pretty! On the riverside it’s relaxing and quiet. There are also boat tours
along the river.
If you walk from Nipponbashi 日本橋 to Namba 難波 station (East to West
direction), you will run into Don Qijote on the right hand side. It’s a 24hr
store that sells discount items from cosmetics, snacks, to clothes and
electronic accessories. You can find almost everything there! It’s famous for
it’s vertical ferris wheel, but I never saw it running while I was there.
One road to the right of the river seemed like a more “adult”
area. There were lots of cafes and bars with guys and girls standing outside
trying to get you in. It’s nothing illegal; they just drink with you and talk
to you. But there’s not much other than those cafes on that street.
One road left to the river (walking towards west) is where all the
food is. There is that famous crab restaurant Kani Douraku かに道楽. You can also see lots of restaurant signs that are
3D and poking out, which is what Osaka is famous for! I saw a large hand
holding onto a piece of sushi, a giant octopus, and also a puffer fish. We ate
at a Japanese grill place that’s across from the big Forever 21 store. I’ll
introduce that later in this blog post, since we had it on the second day as
well.
One thing I found is that Suntory makes a
lot of alcohol beverages. It looks like a normal juice flavored fizzy drink
(peach juice/grape juice) but it’s actually 3% - 8% alcohol! This peach drink
is something I drank every single day if I could get my hands on one.
[
July 13 (Sun) ]
It was rainy today so we couldn’t stick to
the places we wanted to go to, so it turned into a day at Umeda 梅田, full of
shopping and arcade gaming. Since we will be here for a while and we plan to go
to Tokyo in a few months as well, purchasing a subway card makes more sense.
The Icoca card is the main card used in the Osaka area. It’s ¥2,000
for the first purchase, and comes with ¥1,500 credit and ¥500 is the deposit.
You can use it for the JR (Japanese rail), subway, and all buses around Japan.
You can also use it in certain convenience stores and on vending machines. The
only place you can’t use it is Kyoto buses, it is the last mass transportation
service that hasn’t adopted IC cards. You can recharge cards at most ticketing machines, or the fare adjustment machine inside gates.
Full guide to IC Cards: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2359_003.html
The Icoca card is so cute! The mascot is a Ducky :)
Our first stop is the Grand Front Osaka; it is a new massive mall
on top of Osaka’s main train station – Umeda. Grand Front is like a usual
department store where items are pricier, so we only had breakfast and then
proceeded to Hep5 afterwards.
Hep5 is a young and trendy mall where teenagers
and young adults hang out. Its signature is it’s red Ferris wheel and 2
gigantic whales hung from the ceiling of the entrance. Shopping is from B1/F –
7/F. It’s mainly women’s clothing/accessories around the price of ¥2,000 - ¥3,000.
The famous Cecil McBee featured in most Japanese magazines also has a store
there. 8/F – 9/F is an arcade gaming center called Joypolis. There are fighting
games, shooting games, rythem games, plush machines, and many many sticker
photo machines. You can even rent cute outfits, like cat, maid, or school girl
outfits for taking sticker photos (Purikura).
Hep5 Whales
This is the 9/F Sticker Photo area. Guys cannot enter this zone alone, but couples are ok!
We had the most fun playing Mario Cart, basketball, and this crazy
air hockey game. The games here are around ¥100 - ¥200 per game. For racing
games, you can challenge in store players or other players in the Osaka city
area.
After Hep5, we went to Namba Parks. It’s a park famous for it’s
canyon like outlook. Most of the stores are lifestyle type of stores so it’s
very family oriented. I mainly wanted to try Nana’s green tea on the 5/F. They
serve green tea drinks/desserts ranging between ¥500 - ¥800, and it is super
tasty.
Namba Park, Canyon Street
Nana's Green Tea
We went to the Japanese grill in Dotonburi are again for dinner.
It’s called 山內農場(Yamauchi Noujou?).
It’s on the 2/F in the building right across from the big Forever 21. The best
dishes they serve are the fried chicken, sizzling pork belly, and grilled beef.
It’s only opened at night from 5pm – 12am. The menu has pictures on it, so don't worry about language barrier!
This is what the entrance to the building looks like
I also went to Matsumoto Kiyoshi, which is a famous
cosmetics & drug store near the bridge. I bought a lot of make up there
from Canmake, Kate, and Rimmel (can’t get Rimmel in Hong Kong!!). And I also
got tons of back pain stickies. Japanese ones are super effective. It was
around ¥3,000 for 35 pieces.
Matsumoto Kiyoshi Location
That's it for day 1 & 2!
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