I would say Osaka is a good place for shopping and eating.
What to do
Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai - Japan´s longest shopping arcade. You find small local shops here. Good for souvenirs.
Osaka Castle
Kuromon Market - a food market.
Dotonbori - Famous shopping street, try the local style in the fitting room! You also find the Glico sign here.
Try the strawberries!! Fruits in general are amazing in Japan (and expensive but worth it!).
I didn´t go but you might also enjoy
Umeda Sky Building
Pokemon center
Osaka Museum of housing and living
Hozenji Temple
Tsutenkaku - a tower.
Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai
I came here 2 times during my 2 days visit, so I will share what I ate and what I bought here!
Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai - Japan´s longest shopping arcade! A good place to buy gifts, such as cosmetics or snacks, for your friends or yourself! I recommend to keep an eye on what shops are busy, which most likely means the price or quality is good! Below you can see what I ate and what snacks I bought from here.
What I ate at Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai!
This was an amazing snack at Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai! I saw a long line next to it, so I decided to join:p. Not sure what it was inside it, maybe potato...
Another snack I found in Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai called "fish cake"!! Wow. strongly recommend. It had a sweet taste with a white pastry inside. Again, not sure what was inside..
Takoyaki is a local dish in Osaka! To be honest, It wasn´t really my "cup of tea". Let me know what you what you think about the taste!
Actually, a fun story behind this order....I thought the "crackers" covering the Takoyaki was plastic...so I didn´t eat it and threw it away. Later I saw these "crackers" in 7 eleven, and immediately understood it had been eatable..
What snacks to buy at Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai!
Milk tea and Matcha powder is a good gift. In the first row you can see the brand of Milk tea that I love, especially the caramel taste!
Why not buy some face masks or eye masks for you friends? :P
The snacks I bought from Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai and convinent stores. They have a lot of Matcha and Peach flavors! Good gifts for friends.
Osaka Castle
Osaka Castle. In case you want to go inside, remember they usually close at 5pm.
Kuromon Market
Kuromon Market. You could consider eating here, they have lots of fresh sea food etc. I bought strawberries here, and that´s when I realized how amazing the fruits are in Japan!! Sometimes the more expensive, the better it actually is...:P strawberries is a most try!!
Dotonbori
Dotonbori - famous shopping street. Here I am next to the Glico sign. Not really sure why it´s so famous lol. It was quite crowded here, I would recommend visiting some shops to see and maybe try on the local style! and why not visiting the Disney store...
Trying the local style here at GU (same owner as Uniqlo)- Actually trying clothes in a fitting room was quite an experience:P I wasn´t used to taking off my shoes outside the fitting room, and some shops also give you a "paper", which you put on your face to protect make up to come on the clothes:p
Restaurants/Food
Food - What to eat in Osaka in particular?
Okonomiyaki
Takoyaki
Kushi Katsu
Byta man
Restaurants/places to eat
Machikadoya Fukushima
Ichiran - (ramen restaurant)
福太郎 - (Okonomiyaki restaurant)
Eat at Tenjinbashi Fuji Shotengai or Kuromon Market.
Machikadoya Fukushima - My favorite restaurant !!
I loved this restaurant, the vibe, music and staffs! This was close to my hostel, in Fukushima area. The service was very good and the place was cozy. You could get a feeling of the local vibe by seeing workers coming in and out. This is also why the restaurants had many seats for only one person. In the picture you can see the workers:P
Ichiran Dotombori honkan - Ramen
Easting ramen at a very famous restaurant chain in Japan, Ichiran. This was in Dotonbori area.
福太郎 - Okonomiyaki restaurant
This restaurant was between Kuromon Ichiba Market/Dotonbori area. Here is it on Google maps. Okonomiyaki is a very local dish in Osaka. The more traditional version of it can be seen in the picture, however, I would actually have prefered the ones that are more fried:P Overall, I think Okonomiyaki tastes similar to Takoyaki. Not really my type of food;P
Where to live?
I stayed at J-Hoppers Osaka Guesthouse, close to Fukushima station (JR). I strongly recommend. The staffs were amazingly helpful and the room/bed was clean and good. They also have free toast for breakfast. The area is not the most central, but I think it´s even better. Then you can see a bit of the real life of locals. I usually walked to Umeda, 20 min walk, and took the metro to different touristy places.
Enjoy your trip to Osaka! my next stop was to Kyoto with train!
Let me know if you have any questions!//Diana
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