Dotonbori, Osaka - Worth the Trip Alone

We officially have a new travel "inside joke." At the China Airlines counter in SFO, the dad checking in next to us cutely said, "Well so far everything's is going as planned!"  Let's hope so, he hasn't made it very far!  

Layover in Taiwan

Our 2 flights went very well, but our time at Japan's Osaka (KIX) airport was just ok. The line for immigration was an hour long, and they wanted a phone number for where we are staying. Since we are staying at an Airbnb we don't have a phone number. Thinking quickly, we wrote down a restaurant number. The agent seemed very particular so we were nervous he would catch it but all he wanted to know was how many days we were visiting - so I passed the answer back through the line of Webber's, like I was cheating on a test. 

Next, we located the airport post office to pick up our pocket wi-fi. I ordered it in advance from Global Advanced Communications for 6150 JPY (about $62) for our 9 days. Not only was there was no line at the post office with a nice lady who spoke English, we also received an upgrade on our device. At 175mb it is 3 times faster than our home service. 

Unfortunately we weren't done; there was a list of stops to make while we were at the airport - hoping there would be more English spoken there. At the Nankai ticket office, we bought our train pass into Osaka. I also wanted a day pass for tomorrow and an IC train pass (via email they confirmed they sold them) but the guy shoo'd me away; he used extremely little English. 

Japan has many private train lines so to get train tickets for our other travel days, we had to go to another office. Next we went to the JR station to buy our Shinkansen train tickets to Tokyo for Saturday. The JR station was great and the lady was nice and helpful. We also bought a separate JR train pass for another day. 

I still wanted to get a reloadable IC card - it allows us to pass through any company's train station without buying individual tickets. Deciding I was given bad information about getting a Pasmo card in the Kansai region, I made an impromptu decision and got us the ICOCA card. It just means I lose the $5 deposit on each of our cards (1 card per person) because you can only get the deposit back in the Kansai region and we are leaving from Tokyo. 

To get to our apartment in Dotonbori, I picked the most direct train - Nankai's airport express to Namba. It was relaxing to be able to ride without paying attention to stops or switching trains ... Namba is the last stop on the hour ride, and then we walked the 15 minutes to our place. 

Walking to our apartment in Dotonbori, Osaka

I made our walking route take us through Kuromon Ichiba Market, fondly called "Osaka's kitchen."  Around for over 170 years, it is lined with almost 150 shops that sell various products, centering on fresh fish and seafood, along with fruits and vegetables, and meat.  Maguroya Kurogin sells a small bowl of o toro - perfect for sampling. Everyone liked it but I expected a more dramatic response like for them to be drooling over the most succulent part of the tuna. 

Kuromon Ichiba Market is known as Osaka's kitchen

Kristi you know that is $15 (Greg). O toro - "I liked it -tuna is not my favorite fish" (Jeremy)

Squeezing through the narrow market with our packs on

Rather than just fly into Osaka, the 2nd largest city in Japan after Tokyo, I chose to spend a night there to see Dotonbori. It is the heart of Osaka's nightlife district and food culture. 

The kids huddled in the bathroom  trying to figure out the toilet. Kate explaining it, "Yeah, I saw it on instagram."  

Trying to figure out the toilet

It's like a $400 toilet seat, what the heck --Jeremy

Dotonbori is quintessential urban Japan - a shopping, entertainment and eating paradise like none other. 

The melon bread filled with ice cream was a tie for my favorite food of the night. It gets its name from looking like a melon, not tasting like one. It actually tastes like a sugar cookie, and is served warm, so as you can imagine it is pure deliciousness. 

Melon bread...Oh it's warm that's weird. It's good. How do you take a bite of it?  It's yummy, mmmhmm.

We chose this place to try Kushikatsu – fried food on a stick, a close cousin to tempura. 

Our assortment of kushikatsu: (from left to right) pork loin, lotus root, shrimp, pork fillet (twice), onion, and pork loin (again)

Kate said she likes it here, except for not being able to understand anything. I asked, "Why, because we keep stopping and eating?"  Jeremy responded, "This is the only vacation we've ever eaten on." 

Eating takoyaki is an absolute must. They are fried balls filled with octopus. Finding a takoyaki stand isn't difficult at all; we chose Otakoya, with the large octopus above it. 

The balls are a lot more interesting than they are tasty.  They are alright I just don't like eating a bunch of them (Chris).  

Takoyaki have a piece of octopus inside

You would be hard-pressed to miss Osaka King Gyoza. 

The gyoza, only $3, was one of the best things I ate today. 

Don't miss the Kani Doraku Crab, which has been moving above the restaurant since 1960 and said to be the reason so many animatronic signs have sprouted up along the Dotonbori.

THE crab, the original one, is Kani Doraku Crab

The only store we went in was a giant 24-hour Don Quijote – the famous chain "Donkey" that seems to sell everything.  It is a discount shop that carries a variety of items ranging from food, daily items, clothes, toys, small interior items, cosplay merchandise and other out-of-the-ordinary items that you can only find in Japan. This Donkey is absolutely crazy and impossible to maneuver through with all the crowds. To me the prices seemed 2-3 times the value of the item but most of the shoppers had handfuls and basketfuls!

No trip to Dotonbori is complete without taking a picture with the giant Glico Man, Dotonbori's most iconic landmark. It's a symbol for the Glico candy company, makers of caramel candy and Pocky.  

We all took a picture with Glico but not like everyone around us, who mimicked him standing on one foot with their arms in the air. 

Dotonbori Canal

Another must-try food is Okonomiyaki. We went to Juza but walked out when we couldn't figure out the vending-machine-like ordering system. The green buttons, in Japanese, kept canceling our order - and google translate's lens wouldn't tell us what the buttons said. Thankfully the guy brought us back in to help us because it was delicious!  

The katsuobushi (small flakes of dried bonito) on top wiggles like it is alive. 

Omg it's fuckin hot. That was really really really hot. That was actually really good.

The last thing we did was stroll down Hozenji Yokocho -the narrow, cozy and quaint, stone-paved traditional alley next to Dotonbori Street that feels like the Osaka of olden days. 

Hozenji Yokocho

This stone-paved alley, lined with traditional and restored shops and restaurants, was beautiful lit up at night. The street is named for Hozen-ji Temple, which is home to the lush, moss-covered Buddhist Mizu-kake Fudo. As customary, Jeremy splashed water onto this statue, and made a wish for luck.

Hozen-ji Temple

Even though we weren't on Japanese soil very long today, the experience so far already made the whole trip worth it. My day ended with the words I love to hear most:  "Thanks for today"—Jeremy