Before Matt & I got together, I found out the only 'Japanese' food he's ever had in his life was a chicken ramen from Wagamama (big sigh). Call it sheer determination or true love, but the last three years have been spent well teaching him the wonders of Japanese cuisine. Now, he's a total (real) ramen convert and loves tonkatsu. Not a big fan of sushi or sashimi but that's just a seafood thing... Baby steps, my friends.
After a jam packed week and a half in Tokyo and Kyoto with pit stops to Arashiyama and the likes, I had planned for a leisurely three days in Osaka. I'd figure we would be tired from the traveling and eating through the remainder of our holiday seemed perfect for that – where better than the foodie capital of Japan?
Presenting to you our very lazy and leisurely itinerary in Osaka, filled with street-strolling and plenty of food.
初日 • THE FIRST DAY
We hopped on the inter-city train from Kyoto which took only 40 minutes, after the morning was spent watching the second wave of the Gion Matsuri (more on that in a later post but it's a yearly procession and considered one of Japan's largest and most celebrated festival!), we arrived in the evening just in time for some feasting.
見る• SEE
Namba & Dotonbori - you may have seen this on my Instagram already, the equivalent to Kyoto's Gion Matsuri was Osaka's 天神祭 / Tenjin Matsuri, famous for its river procession whereas Kyoto is known for the main land processions. We caught the very end of it while walking to dinner and it was really fun seeing the lights and the buzz along the river.
Namba and Dotonbori are made up of a web of streets lined with restaurants, shopping and nightlife. The atmosphere doesn't rival Tokyo, but is still amazing with some places open till 3am and walking through it smells amazing.
食べる • EAT
Home to takoyaki and okonomiyaki, we stopped by the nearest street food stall for some appetisers. These are affordable, coming at around ¥200-400 for 6 takoyaki and slightly more for a huge okonomiyaki. You can literally find these anywhere along the main roads and they're all equally good!
Osaka is also close to Kobe, where of course Kobe beef is from. But we weren't making a day trip there, so I was searching for places in Osaka and found out about Matsusaka beef, alongside wagyu, kobe and hida, which is supposed to be one of the best cuts in the country.
Matsuzakagyu Yakiniku M - this had rave reviews on Google (lol), and some of our friends have been there so we decided to try it out. Admittedly it's more catered towards tourists but I was very impressed by the food, no compromise there! They have many different sets to choose from, including tasting platters, full cuts of meat etc. We chose a few bits (more affordable!) to sample along with their famous garlic rice, and found that sitting well with our takoyaki earlier. The beef had amazing marbling, and melted amazingly on the tongue... like meat candy.
It's not the cheapest place but how often would you come to Japan, right? Our bill came up to around ¥10,000 which I thought wasn't too bad considering the tasting set was more than double that!
Book online for a reservation as it fills up pretty quickly:
The Glico Running Man sign - a smaller version of NYC's Times Square, the heart of Namba and Dotonbori displays sky-high billboards with this one has lasted longest (over 70 years). My favourite one was the giant spinning beer cans adjacent to it... very fun to walk around at night, taking in the lights that seemed to illuminate endlessly.
2日目 • DAY TWO
Another famous shop-front with a giant crab - there's two on Namba and I just wanted a picture of it. It moves as well!
Day two was all about food and I made it my mission to eat as much udon as I could stomach (I am the #1 udon fan amongst family and friends and eat udon for breakfast.)...
食べる • EAT
We got up pretty early which meant not a lot of eateries weren't open just yet, and I need more than a cup of coffee to sustain me. There were also 24h restaurants to choose from but mornings don't feel particularly great when you're starting with a huge bowl of rice and fried chicken, ya know?
Hanamaru Udon - This was actually a fast food chain udon restaurant. How amazing is that? Pick your basic udon bowl (plain) and add any toppings you like for extra... I had a very basic udon with a simple soup, and tempura at the side. Fills the tummy for about ¥600, which is amazing value considering everything else in Japan is pretty pricey.
I loved walking through the side streets to get to the city centre. This was an area with lots of love hotels, which was.... interesting.
遊ぶ • VISIT
It was a very relaxing day because we booked tickets to Universal Studios (!) the next day so I knew I wanted to do something that wasn't physically taxing because I ain't fit, y'all. Matt is an animal lover (he truly is) so off to the Osaka Aquarium we went!
Located near Osaka bay, the aquarium houses 15 tanks within an 8-storey building, and you spiral down each floor around the central tank with two whale sharks!
(Osakaku Station on Chuo Line) 1 Chome-1-10 Kaigandori, Minato Ward, Osaka
The highlight of the aquarium is the lookout window in the café, and it was golden hour when we were there:
Nearby is the Osaka ferris wheel, which was such a sight to behold when we emerged from the aquarium.
An early night as we needed to be up for the big day...
3日目 • DAY THREE
I made it to Hogwarts! Basically the main reason I
I would say skip USJ if you're not a big fan of theme parks or rides, and you could be off to a nearby city for a day trip. But being the Potterhead I am, I really enjoyed it.
I won't spoil the rides but I loved all of the ones in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - I'll save this day for another post if anyone wants to read all about how I was The Chosen One at Ollivanders too ;-)
Slytherin reppin', according to Pottermore. I wanted to get robes but nearly fainted at the merch prices. They were insane! I left with a very cool mug of the Maurauder's Map though...
The rest of the time was spent hopping on rides: avoid Backdraft and Terminator (lol honestly) though. I went on a rollercoaster alone because Matt isn't a fan of coasters, and I sat next to a 7 year old kid who loved life and had her hands up the whole life. She knows YOLO like no other.
The park opens at 10am (times usually vary between 9-10 for crowd control), and the best days to go are apparently Wednesday and Thursdays! We went on a Thursday and I think the crowd was bearable. The heat was crazy though...
Universal Studios Japan
Universal City Station on JR Yumesaki Line
食べる • EAT
Universal Studios was not the greatest in terms of food choices, as you can imagine. In search for a good curry rice, we found one right near our AirBnB and holy moly it was amazing. Like most small eateries, you purchase your food from the vending machines and pass over the ticket stubs at the counter, and you'll be served with a piping hot plate of flavoursome curry.
It wasn't too spicy or salty, which seemed the case in a lot of restaurants so I would highly recommend this place. The tonkatsu batter was light and crisp, and the meat was tender to taste and came in bite-sized pieces. Mmmmm. Simple but so wholesome to the tummy.
A typical diner with only 10 counter seats and is also cash only, we were lucky it was pretty empty and they gave me extra curry because I finished it all (told you it was good). This was one of our cheaper forays too, at about ¥700 including meat.
Koji Labo 俺たちのカレー家×ラーメン
14-13 Nanbasennichimae 542-0075 Ōsaka-fu
Other great places we visited:
Don Quixote - A mega-storey all purpose store selling souvenirs, snacks, household goods and everything you can think of with a ferris wheel on the top of the roof (!?! I know) where I got most of my matcha snacks
Kasuya Hozenji - Another small udon diner famous for kitsune udon
Pokémon Center in Daimaru department store - Matt loved it and so did a crowd of people
Kuromon Ichiba market - This was 5 mins away from where we stayed, lots of restaurants, seafood stalls, eateries
A lot of our time was spent walking, so bring your comfiest shoes and stomp around the ground. I gave Osaka Castle a miss because we had seen so many temples and shrines in Tokyo and Kyoto already and found it less time-pressured this way. We also enjoyed the food more because we didn't have to rush off to the next place on our list...
Shopping in the pharmacies was something else too, if you were following me on Instagram stories, you would've seen the photo where these girls piled their shopping trolley like they were curing famine, except with face masks, foot masks, all sorts of potions and lotions... Japan is great for skincare and I did do my share of looting too but I'll save that for a rainy day :-)
Work has kept me busy for the past two weeks and I have oodles of to catch up on, so let me know how y'all been? It's gradually getting colder and I'm scared already! Don't leave me, summer...
PS I'm part of a cool project Laila & Vix (I'll call them the dynamic duo) are doing called #TheBlogRace which Laila wrote about here if you want to read about it, so stay tune for some cool content - I'm hoping this will bring some respite on my busy work days!
14-13 Nanbasennichimae 542-0075 Ōsaka-fu
Other great places we visited:
Don Quixote - A mega-storey all purpose store selling souvenirs, snacks, household goods and everything you can think of with a ferris wheel on the top of the roof (!?! I know) where I got most of my matcha snacks
Kasuya Hozenji - Another small udon diner famous for kitsune udon
Pokémon Center in Daimaru department store - Matt loved it and so did a crowd of people
Kuromon Ichiba market - This was 5 mins away from where we stayed, lots of restaurants, seafood stalls, eateries
A lot of our time was spent walking, so bring your comfiest shoes and stomp around the ground. I gave Osaka Castle a miss because we had seen so many temples and shrines in Tokyo and Kyoto already and found it less time-pressured this way. We also enjoyed the food more because we didn't have to rush off to the next place on our list...
Shopping in the pharmacies was something else too, if you were following me on Instagram stories, you would've seen the photo where these girls piled their shopping trolley like they were curing famine, except with face masks, foot masks, all sorts of potions and lotions... Japan is great for skincare and I did do my share of looting too but I'll save that for a rainy day :-)
Work has kept me busy for the past two weeks and I have oodles of to catch up on, so let me know how y'all been? It's gradually getting colder and I'm scared already! Don't leave me, summer...
PS I'm part of a cool project Laila & Vix (I'll call them the dynamic duo) are doing called #TheBlogRace which Laila wrote about here if you want to read about it, so stay tune for some cool content - I'm hoping this will bring some respite on my busy work days!
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