Hi everyone! I am in Thailand after 3 weeks in Japan. Our trip was amazing. Japan is an amazing country. Everything is great because the US dollar is so strong. It felt like everything was 60% off. We stayed in Osaka for 9 nights at the beginning of our Japan trip. I wanted to relax for a few days and recharge a bit before moving around a lot. We have been to Japan twice before, but we have never been to Osaka. It is a huge, sprawling city. Some people might think 9 days is too long for Osaka, but it was just right for us. We visited different areas of Osaka and did day trips to other cities. Osaka is a great base for day trips.
Japan is an amazing country with so many places to visit. Should you include Osaka in your itinerary? In my opinion, you can probably skip Osaka if this is your first trip to Japan. Osaka is similar to Tokyo. They are both huge cities. But Tokyo has more to offer. We have been to Tokyo and Kyoto before. That is why I wanted to explore Osaka a little bit on this trip.
The main attractions in Osaka are the food, shopping, and nightlife. You will love Osaka if you enjoy these activities. The shopping arcades were always full of people. It was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, we don’t enjoy shopping and don’t go out at night. However, the food was amazing. There were many options and price points. I will share some of our dining experience in Osaka below.
Oh, we visited Osaka Castle, Osaka Aquarium, saw a show, took a ceramics class, and explored several shrines. But we didn’t go to Universal Studios. I heard it was too crowded. We don’t like spending all day waiting in different lines. We walked about 20,000 steps every day. My legs were tired.
Dormy Inn is the best
Fortunately, I had booked a room for us at Dormy Inn. This is a Japanese business hotel chain, but it has many extra comfort features. The best feature is the onsen (hot spring) facility. I loved going to bathe after a long day of walking. The hot springs helped relax my aching legs. However, RB40Jr didn’t like the public bath. I took him for a quick look and he said he was shocked. There were two naked men in the hot springs. Americans are very strict. I told him to get used to it because he would have to use the school locker room at some point. He said he would avoid bathing after physical education. Well… do it your way, man. Ms. RB40 also felt uncomfortable in the public hot springs. She prefers to go at 3 am when no one is around. Anyway, she enjoyed it. They also have a sauna, but I didn’t use it.
Another great feature is the laundry facilities. There are washing machines and dryers at the hotel. The washing machines are free to use. They dispense detergent automatically. How cool! The dryers cost 100 yen for 20 minutes. That’s a good price.
They also had two great massage chairs. I used them every day. The massage was good. Not as good as a real massage, but great for a chair massage.
Finally, they offer yogurt drinks, ice cream, and ramen (not instant) at different times. Awesome!
By the way, we had a private bath in our room. RB40Jr didn’t want to use the public hot springs, so he took a bath there. Anyway, Dormy Inn is our favorite business hotel chain. Dormy Inn has much more character than your average business hotel.
food
From what I’ve read, Osaka is the food capital of Japan. There are all kinds of restaurants. We ate a lot of food. I’ll start with the things I didn’t like and go from there.
Not impressive
Takoyaki – Takoyaki is one of Osaka’s signature dishes. It’s balls of dough and chunks of octopus. The takoyaki was good, but it wasn’t any different from what I’ve had before. Nothing special.
Kushikatsu – Kushikatsu is another Osaka specialty. It’s fried food on sticks. These were good, but that’s a lot of fried food in one meal. All the sticks tasted pretty much the same. We had this at a bar and it was enjoyable. However, I will avoid Kushikatsu in the future.
Good stuff
Garage – Japanese style fried chicken pieces. We had this several times on our trip and they were all delicious. The batter was light and the chicken was tender. Good thing. For some reason, we liked the karaage much more than the kushikatsu.
24 hour restaurants – We went to a few of these 24-hour restaurants for breakfast. Here’s a Japanese breakfast I tried. It cost about 500 yen ($3) and was quite enjoyable. This dish had quite a few sticky things – okra, natto, shredded potatoes, raw egg, seaweed, and raw fish. It sounds weird, but I enjoyed it. You order from a machine and the staff will bring your order to your table. We enjoyed trying a variety of Japanese dishes. The gyudon (beef bowl) was another delicious and affordable option.
Okonomiyaki – We tried a small okonomiyaki restaurant in Shinsakai. It was great. They had something we had never had before – negiyaki. This dish used green onions instead of cabbage. It was delicious. The atmosphere in the restaurant was fun. Okonomiyaki ChitoseI highly recommend it if you visit Osaka.
Wagyu beef – We visited a restaurant that specializes in Wagyu beef for lunch. They had great lunch specials. The lunch below cost 1,580 yen, or about $10. This was black Wagyu beef with rice. It was delicious. The entire RB40 family loved this meal. We had to come back for more. This was in Yakiniku Kitan Minamisenba.
bento boxes – We also tried a more economical and convenient option, which is the bento boxes from the grocery store. These boxes are cheap and usually delicious. Here is a duck and rice bento I had for lunch. It was excellent and only cost about $3. If you are really stingy, wait until 7 p.m. and they will put discount stickers on all the bento boxes.
Goodbye Osaka
We had a great time in Osaka. The location of the stables gave us time to recover from our jet lag. The onsen at Dormy Inn was also a big help. The food was the highlight of Osaka. We had so many delicious meals and everything was cheaper than in the US. We felt like everything was a great deal. We did a little shopping, but we got tired of shopping pretty quickly. Shopping is not our main priority. We also missed the nightlife. I’m not 25 anymore so I wasn’t interested anyway.
I’m glad we visited Osaka, but we probably won’t be back next time. We’ll spend more time in a smaller town and get to know it better.
Have you ever visited Osaka? Should visitors include Osaka in their itinerary?
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