Japan - Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo 9D8N

Day 2: Osaka - Dotonburi, Osaka Castle, Umeda

It was a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon!

Had ample of rest the night before is a good way to start the day!

First off! Must be brunch!

Was walking along Dotonburi street and we smell something heavenly. We follow the smell and ended up at this Ramen shop:

薩摩っ子.

大阪府 大阪市中央区道頓堀1-8-26

Price range: 900 - 1800 Yen.

Its located on the main street of Dotonburi, not far from the Giant crab. Supposedly around for 47 years.

Dig in!

I am soooo glad & grateful & thank god we followed our glutton's instinct and decided to try this.

This is now ranked top of my list for Ramen. Its the best ramen i EVER had.

Although we had this for breakfast, we finished the entire bowl. both of us. ;P But i guess ramen is a very subjective dish, some like it salty, some more particular abt the soup base, some prefer thick noodles etc.

For me, it was ranked top because on the whole, it taste perfect. Flavourful soup base, tonkotsu that melts in the mouth, chewy noodles. i am salivating now while i type. ..

can i fly back now? withdraw all my savings and spend a few months in japan? plss?? :(

dream on.

**

We are lucky because when we book for our trip, we were not expecting to see any cherry blossoms since mid April could be a little late, however, due to the weather condition, the bloomings were slightly later this year.

Osaka Castle is one of the most popular hanami spot during the cherry blossom seasons.

Costs us 230 Yen from Namba to Higashi Umeda station and change to Tenimachi line and arrive at Tenimachi 4 Chrome station.

Take Exit 1B. Its a 10 mins walk to Osaka Castle.

Thirst quenchers! Lipton honey milktea is nice!

Park entrance
Beautiful weeping willows.

Still full bloom!

Hokoku Shrine

Osaka Castle

It was a beautiful afternoon! walking around with the locals and enjoying the colors of spring. Dont think it is considered as crowded given its a Sunday afternoon.

We spent about 3 hours having relaxing walks in the park and castle, taking small breaks in between. Any time less than that may be abit short to explore the entire area.

It is free to enter the park up till the bottom of the castle. However, if you wish to go up to the Castle, entrance fees is 600Yen.

Box sushi. 1000 yen for this box. nice but nothing fantastic.

**

From Osaka Castle, we walked to Temmabashi Station (天満橋駅). It was a longgg walk, about 20 mins, under the hot sun. Will recommend to actually walk back to Tenimachi 4 Chrome station.

200Yen from Temmabashi station to Umeda Station. Next destination is Umeda Sky Tower.

Enroute to Umeda Sky Tower.

We lost our way :( Took us about half an hour by foot to finally reach Umeda Sky Tower.

Greeted by lovely flowers.

It is free to go up to the Umeda tower, however, to access the open-air viewing gallery, admission is 700 Yen. Personally i think the experience of the glass lift from Level 2 to 38 floor is enough already.

In fact, i think this place is too inaccessible, so if you don intend to visit the open air viewing gallery, i would suggest you give it a miss.

View from 38th.

After the slightly disappointing visit to the sky tower, we need to look for food. Anyone realised we haven ate much for the whole day? hahaha.

While trying to make our way to this Oden place we had on our list, we chanced upon this little playground. Took many nice picture at this place. Our little find. :) right behind the Umeda Sky Tower.

Its quite hard to find the right words to describe how beautiful it is...

Spent some time at the little park then went around the area with no plan and aim and ended up at....

Fukushima 6 Chome.. haha. Apparently theres a section near Umeda named Fukushima.

Finally found the Oden place! but it was closed! And we went the wrong direction in search for way back to the subway station.

Famished. Passed by a few Izakaya, but they dont have English menus for us (usually we wouldnt be bothered , will just take the Japanese menu and point to picture, but as there were no customers in those places, soo...) and most of them were not open yet. It was about 5+ pm?

After some aimless walking, we spotted this place and decided to give it a try!

i was attracted by this picture outside the shop. I am sucha sucker for tamago. A pity, the actual item is somewhat different from the pic. lol.

You have to order & wait for your food. Some food they will cook on the spot, while otherslike the Oden, we will have to use the microwave available to heat it up.

The overall taste of the food was not too bad. Not fantastic but comforting after a long aimless walk.

And after feeding our grumbling tummy, we decided to head back to Namba.

This time, we managed to find the right way to the subway! Maybe cause we can think better with a full stomach. haha.

**

Back in Namba.

Something we bought from vending machine to quench thirst.

We decided it was still early to head back to hotel so we decided to check out the Izakaya at Dotonburi area. Picked the following out from the lot amongst the side alleys of Sennichimae.

海鮮BAR WA風 難波店

They do not have English menu but we decided to be adventurous!

Had a hard time trying to decide what we want from the full Japanese menu, but it helps that we can read Chinese. It is like knowing half Japanese.

And we ended up w these:

Shisamo
Chicken Soft bone. very yummy.
Sapporo beer for the uncreative & Chi-Hi w Soda for me! Chi-hi is a type of sho-chu. You can choose with or without soda. It have v fragrant fruitty after taste, definitely my pick for alcohol :)

A cosy bar with 2 levels, serve little bites to go along w your drinks as well as main courses like pasta.

***

Temple located in the alley of a buzzling shopping district? U gotta be kidding me.

But i kid u not, Osaka is full of lovely surprises. Open your eyes big when you walk along the district, you will never be sure what you will find.

The temple is another 5 minutes walk from the izakaya, located at 法善寺橫町. Really beautiful by night, definitely must check it out.

Hozenji 法善寺. For a moment it feels as if i was tranported to olden Japanese era.

You can use the water from the spring the 'bathe' the buddha. Its supposed to bring you good luck.
Meoto Zenzai Cafe 夫妻善哉.

This shop sells Red bean soup and is rather famous. We didnt try because it costs 1200 Yen for 2 bowls :( But if u are interested, it is located just next to 法善寺. Not able to miss it once you are in this alley.

Eateries & izakayas are aplenty in the alley.

Its our second night in Osaka & we have yet to taste their famous Takopachi!

Thus we decided to go hunt for one before we end the day.

Theres dozens of Takopachi stores in Osaka. You will be spoilt for choices. Not tempted by those with long Qs at the main street of Dotonburi, we went to the back of the street and found my voted no. 1 takopachi!

I dont think this is famous? Because i tried googling for this but the results that came out are those thats situated on the main Dotonburi street :(

Nevertheless, i still want to recommend this! It is located along the river, BEHIND the buildings on Dotonburi street.

I think he turned around 100 times for each ball. seriously. thats why each ball is soft and fluffy!

Cute chef who wanted to pose for me when i whip out my camera.

One box of 8 pieces cost 400yen.Lotsa spring onions!
Each piece is warm and fluffy. slightly charred on the outside, but mushy in the inside!

No wonder Takopachi are famous in Osaka, the standard of any random store there is wayy better than singapore's standard. SG ones are usually v hard and not fragrant, more of like using mayo, sweet sauce to make the balls tasty.

**

If you are not an early sleeper, go for a walk at Shinsaibashi at night. Other than the usual stuff mentioned yesterday night (H&M, Glico neon sign), you will be able to see those guys dressed in black suit standing on their street touting business for their girls. very interesting lol. bright neon lights, cool looking japanese guys etc.

But lets say if you are not interested in those, you can always pop by Don Quijote which is their discount store (somewhat like our mustafa), selling almost ANYTHING you will need ranging from costmetics, to costumes and even branded goods. The best thing is they closes at 5 am!

Japan - Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo 9D8N

Day 1: Osaka - Namba, Dotonburi, Ame-mura

Despite all the negative support from our friends and family, we decided to go ahead with the trip that we have planned since last year.

We departed on 15th April 2011 (Fri) night, took ANA flight at 10+PM to Haneda. I have heard that some flights taking off from KL one week ago was not even 1/

4 full. Well, i wish that were true, that would mean more space so that i can slp on the plane. But, our flight was more than 3/4 full. -__-

After a 6 hours sleepless flight, we finally arrived at Tokyo Haneda airport at 5.30 AM in the morning.

First thing we needed to do, is to head to a JR office to exchange ou

r JR pass. Thanks to advice from Tripadvisor, we understand that the JR office in Haneda only open at 11 am, that means we will be stranded in airport from 6 am to 11 am.

Thus we decided to head to Shinagawa station (JR station opens at 9am) to change for our pass at our own cost. Costs us 400Yen via Keikyu line.

These tickets are magnetic. So you can slot them into the machine.

Using the machine for the first time can be quite challenging.

We pass by a few JR office, but this is the one that you can change ur pass at. Its some walk from Shinagawa subway station.

Note:

The office at Tokyo Station opens at 7:30, and the one at Shin-Yokohama at 5:30. However, we were told its more convenient to go to Shinagawa as there is a direct JR line to Shin Osaka. But if you are heading to Tokyo central, i guess the other 2 options will be better.


The office was opened by the time we reach, but for some strange reason, they can only do the exchange from 9 am onwards.

So we decided to explore the vicinity.

It was spring. Not hard to find beautiful flowers everywhere. :)

Most of the shops were closed cos it was still early in the morning so we pop into a convenience store in search for some snacks.

Yakitori.

Very yummy. Opens up my expectation for the food i am going to eat for the next one week. :)

Loiter till about 9 and we went back to change our JR pass. At the same time we asked the counter staff to help us reserve seats for the next train to Osaka.

How to use your JR pass:

1. Pass is not magnetic so u cant scan or slot but you will have to show the guy at the station at the side of the gantry so that they will let you pass/open the gate for u.

2. Bring along your passport when you need to travel on JR, sometimes they will ask you for your passport to ensure you are tourist (Locals are not eligible to buy JR pass)

3. Note that the expiry date for the pass is printed in Japan Era Name:

23. 4. 22 means: YY.M.DD. Year 23 in this case, corresponds to the number of years the current emperor has been on the throne. Simply put, add 12 to 2011, it will be "Hensei 23". So if u see the year is wrong, do not panic :)

It is recommended to reserve ur seats for long distance journeys so that it will ensure that you will have 2 confirmed seats. There are different cabins for reserved and non reserved seats.

The Shinkansen is very spacious and have ample leg space and overhead compartments for your luggage.

There will be service attendants pushing push carts down the train selling light snacks and drinks so if you are hungry, u can get some of those. Eating is permitted on the train.

Please keep your reserved seat tickets with you because after every stop there will be ticket conductor walking ard to check if you are seated at the correct seat.

After about 3 hours, we arrived at Shin-Osaka JR station, whereby we have to change to subway to Namba Station, via Midosuji Line 御堂筋線.

Note: There is a Namba JR station but it was more convenient for us to take subway cos our Hotel is nearer to subway line :)

Shin Osaka - Namba. 270 Yen.

***

We put up in Hotel Dotonburi for 3 nights. The hotel is very impressive for a budget hotel.

- 3 mins to the subway, 10 to JR station
- 5 mins main shopping street, Dotonburi & Sennichimae.
- Walking Distance to Amerika-mura
- 8 mins to Takashimaya
- Free international calls at the lobby & free use of computer
- LAN cable for high speed internet provided in room
- Multi purpose phone charger.
- Free umbrella and bicycle rental etc

***

Rested for a bit before we headed to Dotonburi for late lunch. Stomach was protesting by then =/

Main dotonburi street. Cant miss the giant crabby.

Attracted by the colorful display, we decided to let this be the first meal of the trip!

Sorry not quite sure of the name of the place, but theres branches in Osaka & Tokyo.

I ordered the set below while he ordered the set above. Each set cost 1,970 Yen (~29 SGD). Very worthwhile!

Happy face!

Very fresh sashimi.

Sumptuous!

After filling up our stomachs, its time to SHOP!!

But er.. we are distracted by snacks. lol

Freshly made 人形烧 stall. cute looking and tasty. 300 Yen for one bag.

Cant miss this shop in Dotonburi, a good place to get your Omiyage (sourvenirs)

Sennichimae street runs perpendicular to main Dotonburi street. Lotsa fashion shops. You can find Amos Style lingerie here too! My gf recommended that their bras are v pretty and good!

Found this snack at Sennichimae street in a small shop. Not common in Osaka from what i see. Its 2 takopachi balls sandwiched between 2 crispy prawn crackers. Absolute yums! 150 Yen.

Yes, we keep snacking after our lunch. but everything just looks irresistable! cant blame us!

As you may be aware, vending machines are aplenty in Japan.

Witness a demonstration. Something about the Nuclear plant.

**

Headed to ame-mura after that. The 20 mins walk was very interesting. saw plenty of interesting sights along the way.

Shrine that was closed for the day. The floor was covered with fallen cherry tree leaves..

Ame-mura is an American town in Osaka. Quite a good shopping place but the place is not really my kind. :)

Gotta take a pic w the landmark. :)

Watched this Taiwanese gourmet program 食尚玩家 before i embarked on this trip.

The following was one of the item in my must eat list after watching the program. Tried to google for it but surprisingly there wasnt much information on it. Thought it must be really hard to find, but we just stumpled upon it as we enter tha main street of ame-mura. lucky us :)

Its looks ordinary. But it makes sucha good dessert! Soft serve ice cream made from Hokkaido milk in fried hot dog bun. whats not to like. ^^

We shared one. but i m quite sure i can eat 2 by myself cos its not too sweet. lol.

Ever since i came back from Japan, my appetite have been monstrous. :(

But, he is right, if i were to put on weight, i better make sure all the food i eat is worth it i.e good food! Gotta be Japanese food then!

***

Walked ard ame-mura for abit, before deciding its not really a place for us. And decided to head back to Dotonburi side for dinner! yes i know, eat eat and eat.. haha.

And en route back, we encounter a lil surprise.

We saw the whole entourage of race cars on the road, like scenes from Tokyo Drift, damn cool!

One of those very fancy cars

Vroom vroom vroom!

**

Back to Dotonburi area

Shinsaibashi 心斋桥. Another famous landmark. Glico neon signboard. There is a H&M outlet nearby :)

Time for dinner!

We had Kinryu ramen 金龙拉面. There are a few branches in Namba. Not hard to find. Tried the one at the main Dotonburi street.

Shop front with a huge green dragon.

First of all, gotta pourchase your food ticket from the machine. Such methods are very common in Japan, where u have to purchase the tickets with specific orders and later pass it to the chef.

Soup is very light, not salty. taste abit different from the other ramen i had.

Tonkotsu is chewy and lean. nice! You know how some of the ramen soup base taste very heavy? This is definitely not that way, feels like i can eat it every day~!

***

Finally to end off the day, we packed a beef bowl from Yoshinoya! hahaha. There is a Yoshinoya shop just opposite Dotonburi street.

yum yum. the bowl was on promo and cost 390 Yen. (~5 SGD). Its nice, but i think our yoshinoya have great beef bowl too! this is prob the only thing i can find in SG that can be comparable to Japan's standard.

Thats it for Day 1. As we were quite tired from the flight we didnt venture out much of our hotel vicinity.

Back to hotel to recharge for Day 2!

Back from Japan!

WE are back from Japan!

Well, in fact, i have been back for more than 5 days now. Been trying to catch up withwork and unpacking and sleep.

Will find time to blog about the trip soon before i forget the details!

Anyway, the trip was amazing. We totally didnt regret embarking on this journey amidst all the uncertainty.

I certainly have some regrets, i will write them down so i will take note of them the next trip!

1) Spend more time in drugstore to look for facial products & cosmetics
2) Spend more time in the small lanes near Shibuya instead of the main area (too pricey)
3) Try more of their local drinks
4) Buy more of their clothes
5) Buy more Dorayaki!

:) Tts all for now, hitting the sack.