Osaka　大阪

I got a bit confused about the station name in Osaka, but after a bit of awkward Japanese with the ticket office lady, I understood that Shin-Osaka as it was written on my ticket wasn’t another town, just that the the JR Shinkansen station is called Shin-Osaka/新大阪(“new Osaka). It was built to avoid the engineering difficulties of running Shinkansen lines into the center of the city.

I had directions to my hotel from Osaka station, and it’s about 3km from Shin-Osaka station, to Osaka station. Walking was out of the question because I had too much luggage, so taxi it was! It was a bit expensive, but oh well.

I arrived at my hotel and found it too look quite luxurious! I hadn’t expected that at all, as I was trying to find somewhat budget hotels. And the TV was huge, compared to what I am used to at hotels It was probably around 32 inches! Nice!

This hotel had complimentary internet, but sadly I didn’t bring a laptop with  me, because mine is too big and heavy (closing in on 3 years old now :/). But next time I will definitely bring a laptop to Japan!

You could also lend a laptop for I think it was 1000円 a night. And it was modern, and had a memory card slot (and my xD card fit into it). I rented one so that I could check my e-mail etc, and also upload some of my photos to Facebook for those at home to see!

Sadly the weather in Osaka wasn’t the best, it was raining most of the time. I didn’t really have any plans other than the castle, so I just walked around town, and I ended up inside a big department store called Hep Five, which was something like 8 floors with loads of shops and restaurants. After walking around and buying a pair of jumpsuits (why are they called jumpsuits? ?:S), I stopped for lunch!

Soba noodles (I think) with prawn

After gobbling down lunch, I took the ferries wheel which is attached to Hep Five for a good overview of Osaka. Luckily the rain had stopped by then and the sun was shining!

If I remember correctly, it cost about 500円 for an adult. They also took your picture in front of a poster, which you could buy after the ride, but I rarely buy those photos so I politely declined. Do you usually buy those tourist shots?

You got a really good view, actually 360 degrees view of Osaka on the top.

You could see Osaka Castle from the Ferris wheel!

Same view as above, only zoomed in. The castle is on the right side, in the middle.

After Hep Five and the Ferris wheel I walked back to the hotel to freshen up a bit, since it was a very humid day, and to find a place to eat dinner.

Okonomiyaki / 大坂城

One thing you have to try when in Osaka is Okonomiyaki/お好み焼き which is Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name Okonomiyaki comes from the word Okonomi meaning “what you want” or “what you like”, and yaki meaning “grilled” or “cooked”.

There are a lot of different styles of Okonomiyaki, but the Osaka-style is the predominant version of the dish. The batter is made of flour, grated yam, water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally pork or bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese. I ate one with bacon, and it was super yummy! Really savoury and a nice consistency to it.

At a lot of okonomiyaki restaurants you get the ingredients in a bowl, and you grill it yourself on a hot plate right in front of you.

I was a eager to find out if I was at that type of place, since there was a hot plate in front of me as you can see in the above picture. The chef prepared the whole thing for me, and served it finished on the hot plate to keep it warm.

The yummy Okonomiyaki…

It was very filling, and I managed only to eat half of it :/

Osaka Castle / 大阪城

The only thing I actually had planned for Osaka was the Osaka Castle. Since day one in Osaka was so bad, I decided I would see the castle on day two before heading to Hiroshima.

The check-out time was 10 or 11, and I overslept! I got woken up by the receptionist calling me to tell me it was past check-out time! Luckily I had packed most of my stuff the night before, I just needed to get dressed and toss the remaining items in my backpack.

I left my things at the hotel and went to check out Osaka castle! It was really easy to get there, I just took the train! And since it was JR operated, I could use my JR rail pass on it!

View from the top of Osaka Castle

Lunch at Osaka castle! A kind of "donburi". Eggs over prawn and rice!

Inside Osaka castle it was just a museum. It was fun to look at some of the items, but I would have liked it more if the original (or at least a reconstruction of the original) structure was still intact inside, like it is in Himeji castle.

Osaka was a pretty city, and I’ll probably go back for a little longer next time to check out more of the city and surrounding sights!