Hey everybody! I’m in Thailand after 3 weeks in Japan. We had a implausible journey. Japan is an incredible nation. Every part is such an important deal as a result of the USD is so robust. We felt like all the pieces was 60% off. We stayed in Osaka for 9 nights firstly of this Japan journey. I wished to take it simple for a couple of days and get better a bit earlier than shifting round extra typically. We visited Japan twice earlier than, however have by no means been to Osaka. It’s an enormous sprawling metropolis. Some individuals would possibly suppose 9 days is just too lengthy for Osaka, nevertheless it turned out nearly proper for us. We visited totally different areas of Osaka and took day journeys to different cities. Osaka is a handy base for taking day journeys.
Japan is an incredible nation with so many areas to go to. Must you put Osaka in your itinerary? In my view, you’ll be able to most likely skip Osaka if it’s your first journey to Japan. Osaka is much like Tokyo. Each are big cities. However Tokyo has extra to supply. We already visited Tokyo and Kyoto beforehand. That’s why I wished to discover Osaka a bit on this journey.
The principle points of interest of Osaka are meals, purchasing, and the nightlife. You’ll love Osaka should you take pleasure in these actions. The purchasing arcades had been at all times full of individuals. It was fairly wonderful. Sadly, we don’t take pleasure in purchasing and don’t exit at evening. The meals was superior, although. There have been so many selections and value factors. I’ll share a few of our Osaka meals expertise beneath.
Oh, we visited Osaka Fortress, the Osaka Aquarium, noticed a present, took a ceramic class, and explored many shrines. We didn’t go to the Common Studios, although. I heard it was tremendous busy. We don’t like spending the entire day ready in numerous traces. We walked round 20,000 steps day-after-day. My legs had been blasted.
Dormy Inn is the very best
Luckily, I booked us a room on the Dormy Inn. It is a Japanese enterprise lodge chain, nevertheless it has many additional consolation options. One of the best bonus is the onsen (scorching spring) facility. I beloved going for a soak after an extended day of strolling. The new springs helped calm down my aching legs. RB40Jr didn’t like the general public bathtub, although. I took him to take a fast look and he mentioned he was traumatized. There have been two bare guys within the scorching springs. People are such prudes. I instructed him to get used to it as a result of he’ll have to make use of the locker room in school in some unspecified time in the future. He mentioned he’ll skip having a shower after PE. Okay… Do it your approach, man. Mrs. RB40 additionally felt uncomfortable on the public scorching springs. She prefers to go at 3 am when no one was round. Anyway, I loved it. In addition they had a sauna, however I didn’t use it. Â
One other nice profit is the laundry facility. They’ve washing machines and dryers on the lodge. The washing machines are free to make use of. They dispense laundry detergent routinely. Wow, that’s nice. The dryers value 100 yen per 20 minutes. That’s a very good value.
In addition they had 2 nice therapeutic massage chairs. I used it day-after-day. The therapeutic massage was good. Not as good as an actual therapeutic massage, however nice for a chair therapeutic massage.
Lastly, they supply yogurt drinks, ice pops, and ramen (not prompt) at numerous occasions. Good!
BTW, we had a personal toilet in our room. RB40Jr didn’t wish to use the general public onsen and he took a bathe there. Anyway, Dormy Inn is our new favourite enterprise lodge chain. Dormy Inn has far more character than a standard enterprise lodge.
Meals
From what I learn, Osaka is the meals capital of Japan. There are every kind of eating places there. We ate a lot meals. I’ll begin with what I wasn’t impressed with and go from there.
Unimpressive
Takoyaki – Takoyaki is an Osaka specialty. They’re balls of batter and octopus chunks. The Takoyaki was good, nevertheless it wasn’t any totally different than what I had earlier than. Nothing particular.
Kushikatsu – Kushikatsu is one other Osaka specialty. It’s fried meals on sticks. These had been good, however that’s an excessive amount of fried meals in a single meal. Each stick tasted fairly comparable. We had this in a bar and it was enjoyable. Nonetheless, I’ll keep away from kushikatsu sooner or later.
Good things
Karaage – Japanese fried hen chunks. We had these a number of occasions on our journey and so they had been all scrumptious. The batter was mild and the hen was tender. Good things. For some purpose, we favored the karaage far more than the kushikatsu.
24-hour eating places – We went to a couple of those 24-hour eating places for breakfast. Here’s a Japanese breakfast I attempted. It value round 500 yen ($3) and it was very fascinating. This dish had fairly a couple of slimy issues in it – okra, natto, grated yam, uncooked egg, seaweed, and uncooked fish. It sounds unusual, however I loved it. You order from a machine and the employees will deliver the order to your desk. We had enjoyable attempting numerous Japanese dishes. The gyudon (beef bowl) was one other inexpensive scrumptious choice.
Okonomiyaki – We tried a tiny okonomiyaki restaurant within the Shinsakai neighborhood. It was nice. That they had one thing we by no means had earlier than – the negiyaki. This dish makes use of inexperienced onion as an alternative of cabbage. It was scrumptious. The ambiance was enjoyable on the Okonomiyaki Chitose. I extremely suggest it should you go to Osaka.
Wagyu beef – We visited a restaurant that specialised in wagyu for lunch. That they had these superior lunch specials. The lunch beneath value 1,580 yen, about $10. These are black wagyu aged aitchbone beef on rice. It was scrumptious. The entire RB40 household beloved this meal. We should always have gone again for extra. This was at Yakiniku Kitan Minamisenba.
Bento packing containers – We additionally tried a extra economical and handy choice, bento packing containers from the grocery shops. These are low-cost and largely scrumptious. Here’s a duck with rice bento that I had for lunch. It was glorious and value solely round $3. For those who’re additional low-cost, wait till 7 pm and so they’ll slap low cost stickers on all of the bento packing containers.
Goodbye to Osaka
We had a good time in Osaka. The steady location gave us the time to get better from jet lag. The onsen at Dormy Inn helped quite a bit too. The spotlight of Osaka was the meals. We ate so many scrumptious meals and all the pieces was cheaper than the US. We felt like all the pieces was an important deal. We shopped somewhat, however bought bored with it shortly. Procuring isn’t our essential precedence. We additionally missed out on the nightlife. I’m not 25 anymore so I wasn’t anyway.
I’m glad we visited Osaka, however we most likely received’t come again subsequent time. We’ll spend extra time in a smaller city and get to realize it higher.
Have you ever been to Osaka? Ought to guests put Osaka on their itinerary?
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