Osaka, March 4

11:51 JST - “First day in Osaka”

Whew what a long day, i’m beat so i’m keeping this short haha.

We walked a lot today but it was pleasant as we got to explore the public transport for the first time as well as just the general traffic in the city. It’s all a little bit confusing, the car lanes are big and plenty and they don’t seem to have a special lane for bikers. When you’re on the sidewalk you have to watch out for bikers as they are allowed to cycle where pedestrians walk XD

Also the sidewalks are not continuous, what does that mean you may wonder; It means that the main streets seems to have a sidewalk, but as soon as you take a turn into a smaller street the sidewalk disappears and you can walk wherever but still have to dodge some cars here and there. It’s also immediately a different atmosphere as the main street is illuminated by shops, neon lights, over the top decorations etc. and one turn and you’re on a dark street with a few lampposts

Today we explored South and Central Namba! We visited Dotonbori, Amerika-mura, Shinsekai and Nipponbashi Denden Town. It rained a little bit today but luckily it wasn’t hard or cold plus the city has a lot of ‘indoor’ shopping streets. It’s not quite indoor as e.g. a department store but you can compare it to the Korenpassage in Apeldoorn but bigger and a lot of side-streets where you could leave the main shopping street.

For today we also had a reservations at the Pokémon café! It was a bit difficult to find it at first XD It was in a high end department store and we weren’t sure if a Pokemon Cafe fit in there, but it sure did. We went there for lunch around 12:30. The cafe was cutely decorated with special café themed plushies and wallpaper. Maybe you’ve already seen the photos on Instagram but the food was so adorable! It was character based and Jo-anne had ‘Sobble’ which was a cream filled bread with mixed berries and a ‘Mew’ themed marshmallow raspberry drink. I got a ‘Grooky’ plate which was stew with bread and potato salad. Grooky’s ears were made of hamburger and the stew was very tasty! I also had a ‘Zapdos’ themed drink with Tapioca Pearls :)
If you want to see more pictures then I recommend checking out our Instagram; @Japannights where we post a lot! ;)

Dotonbori is known as a district for food and that’s also where we had our dinner! We went to Ichiran Ramen which is considered to be amongst the top when it comes to Ramen. It was really funny to experience. You enter the shop and you actually order through a sort of vending machine where you pay beforehand and it gives you a ticket with your order on it. Then you’ll get seated and you can customize your ramen by filling in a preference sheet they give you, it’ll ask questions wether you want pork and how soft or hard you want your noodles. The Ramen is served really quickly and boiling hot and of course it’s super delicious!! Definitely a recommendation if you like noodles :D

After dinner we walked around a lot and there are so many arcade halls, it’s crazy. And almost all are several stories high. One floor filled with only clawmachines, the second with retro arcade games, the third has more clawmachines, gacha machines and purikura booths (photobooths with editing options to make yourself have that ‘kawaii’ look) and then the fourth floor maybe has karaoke rooms or pooling tables, darts and even a bowling center. You name it and it’s probably there. Now imagine 5 of these on at least every main street. I think it’s funny XD

Also inside every store it’s literally so freaking hot. It’s no wonder you see a lot of girls with skirts or dresses in this weather. Inside it’s like the cold doesn’t exist and you constantly get hit with hot air, cold, hot, cold as you enter many different shops.
I had a fun fact for today but I forgot it XD oops, well maybe it’ll pop up again.

It still became a long text although I wanted o keep it short. Well writing this down is fun and I hope it’s a bit interesting to read XD

I’m going to sleep now! Osaka Castle is on the planning tomorrow!

Byebye!

- Yaru