Day 11 Short Wandering in Osaka

We had a day to do more wandering in Osaka before heading off to Sapporo. Marie' was off to Kyoto to visit friends and we tried to figure out what we might want to see in Osaka without too much work. The couple of things that popped up were the Tsutenkaku Tower, the Osaka equivalent to Tokyo Tower, sort of, and Dotonbori, the riverside food/tourist district. Off we went...
Heading to the wandering sites usually start with a train ride - in this case on the JR Osaka Loop, which circles central Osaka. One of the joys of Japanese train travel is getting on a car that has been decked out - in this case for the "younger" set [I believe the space near the door was meant for stroller moms]. |
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Along the way we passed what is a new fad (?) store which didn't exist when we lived here - Don Quijote. Imagine an offspring of Dollar General and Target, but better organized (though not less cramped) with a major target market (at least in the big cities) being foreigners, particularly those from East Asia. Aside from fresh food, which I think they have in rural stores (we went to one in Tokamachi when visiting the farm), they are the everything store. I didn't realize I hadn't taken any interior shots, probably because I was sensory overwhelmed. We seemed to stop in a number of them, though I was never sure why...
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With that out of our system, we head for Tsutenkaku Tower area. Like many (most?) Japanese tourists sites, there is a very interesting shopping/eating enclosed street. This one is called the International City Shopping Street with the usual touristy stuff and nice decorations. |
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The tower itself was not that impressive. At night they do light it up, these days with LEDs but originally with neon (it is an Hitachi building, after all). We thought of going up to the observation deck until we saw the rather large line; this was a Sunday, so local folks were out as well as the throngs of tourists. The underside of the Tower does have a rather nice mural as a ceiling... |

Time to move on to Dotonbori to find some lunch, and more tourist shops. Hop on JR again to Namba Station which is close. Along the way we passed an impromptu concert in a buildings courtyard - none of us recognized it, but public performance in Japan is not so unusual. |
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The most famous shots of Dotonbori are of the monster crab over the river. We didn't make it that far, but stayed on the other side of the long mall that parallels the river, which had some of it's own interesting sites...
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The buildings basically tell you what is inside. The first one has Fugu, the life-risking puffer fish which is a local specialty. The middle picture has a famous octopus restaurant on the left and Chinese restaurant across from it. Finally, there is a shrimp place hiding behind the black van.
We joined the crowds in the shopping street/mall to find something to eat - it was getting late and folks were getting peckish. After wandering a bit, we finally gave into a sushi shop with KFC-style marketing. |
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Sushizanma turned out to be a pretty good spot, in spite of the honoring of their founder everywhere. Fresh, tasty, and not too expensive. Goes back to my contention that even mid-level Japanese sushi places are as good as (or better than) high end shops in the US. |
With that, we head back to the rooms to meet up with Marie' and rest for tomorrow's flight to Sapporo. The official opening of the Osaka Expo 2025 is tomorrow and expected to rain. Just right to move on...

More pictures from our wandering, including some plastic flamingos and dessertmobile in the Gallery...