Hey everybody! I’m in Thailand after 3 weeks in Japan. We had a improbable journey. Japan is a tremendous nation. Every part is such an important deal as a result of the USD is so sturdy. We felt like every part was 60% off. We stayed in Osaka for 9 nights at first of this Japan journey. I needed to take it straightforward for a number of days and recuperate a bit earlier than shifting round extra usually. We visited Japan twice earlier than, however have by no means been to Osaka. It’s an enormous sprawling metropolis. Some folks may suppose 9 days is simply too lengthy for Osaka, but it surely 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 a tremendous nation with so many places to go to. Must you put Osaka in your itinerary? For my part, you may in all probability skip Osaka if it’s your first journey to Japan. Osaka is much like Tokyo. Each are large cities. However Tokyo has extra to supply. We already visited Tokyo and Kyoto beforehand. That’s why I needed to discover Osaka a bit on this journey.
The primary points of interest of Osaka are meals, procuring, and the nightlife. You’ll love Osaka for those who get pleasure from these actions. The procuring arcades have been at all times full of individuals. It was fairly wonderful. Sadly, we don’t get pleasure from procuring and don’t exit at evening. The meals was superior, although. There have been so many selections and worth 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 strains. We walked round 20,000 steps daily. My legs have been blasted.
Dormy Inn is the perfect
Thankfully, I booked us a room on the Dormy Inn. This can be a Japanese enterprise lodge chain, but it surely has many further consolation options. The most effective bonus is the onsen (sizzling spring) facility. I liked going for a soak after a protracted day of strolling. The new springs helped chill out 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 sizzling springs. People are such prudes. I informed 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 manner, man. Mrs. RB40 additionally felt uncomfortable on the public sizzling springs. She prefers to go at 3 am when no one was round. Anyway, I loved it. Additionally they had a sauna, however I didn’t use it.
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 price 100 yen per 20 minutes. That’s a very good worth.
Additionally they had 2 nice therapeutic massage chairs. I used it daily. 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 on the spot) at numerous instances. Good!
BTW, we had a non-public toilet in our room. RB40Jr didn’t need 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 persona 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, but it surely 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 have 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.
Great things
Karaage – Japanese fried rooster chunks. We had these a number of instances on our journey and so they have been all scrumptious. The batter was mild and the rooster was tender. Great things. For some purpose, we preferred the karaage far more than the kushikatsu.
24-hour eating places – We went to some of those 24-hour eating places for breakfast. Here’s a Japanese breakfast I attempted. It price round 500 yen ($3) and it was very fascinating. This dish had fairly a number 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 convey the order to your desk. We had enjoyable attempting numerous Japanese dishes. The gyudon (beef bowl) was one other reasonably priced 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 a substitute of cabbage. It was scrumptious. The environment was enjoyable on the Okonomiyaki Chitose. I extremely advocate it for those who 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 price 1,580 yen, about $10. These are black wagyu aged aitchbone beef on rice. It was scrumptious. The entire RB40 household liked this meal. We must always have gone again for extra. This was at Yakiniku Kitan Minamisenba.
Bento containers – We additionally tried a extra economical and handy choice, bento containers from the grocery shops. These are low-cost and principally scrumptious. Here’s a duck with rice bento that I had for lunch. It was wonderful and value solely round $3. In the event you’re further low-cost, wait till 7 pm and so they’ll slap low cost stickers on all of the bento containers.
Goodbye to Osaka
We had a good time in Osaka. The secure location gave us the time to recuperate from jet lag. The onsen at Dormy Inn helped rather a lot too. The spotlight of Osaka was the meals. We ate so many scrumptious meals and every part was cheaper than the US. We felt like every part was an important deal. We shopped slightly, however bought uninterested in it shortly. Purchasing 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 in all probability gained’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?
Japan is superior, however not everybody can journey there. In the event you get pleasure from Japanese tradition, try the Sakuraco field. They’ll ship you a field of genuine Japanese treats and different enjoyable houseware objects to the subscribers. Test them out!
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