Hey Hive!
If you missed the last couple of posts, we're currently on a new journey through Japan with my family and Sean, starting from Tokyo! Since we've been here before but it's my relatives' first time we had to bring them to all the popular spots we visited previously already, but it's all good.
Last week, we brought my family shopping in Shinjuku after our very peaceful trip through Shinjuku national Gyoen! We went exploring different department stores and had delicious yakiniku for dinner!
But we had to call it an early night because the next day we were going to be traveling to Osaka! Here we go!
20 December 2017. Wednesday.
We had reserved seats on the shinkansen/bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka ahead of time, and we booked the train for 11am. Since it takes around 3 hours to travel from Tokyo to Osaka, we could all just sleep on the train.
So we all woke up early, checked out of our hotel in Akihabara, and lugged our baggage to the train station. By the time we arrived it was around 10:20am.
This is another very useful invention in Japanese bathrooms - the stalls light up for whichever is occupied so you don't have to check if the stalls are locked, which is so useful!
Man I remember queuing up for the bathroom and the person in front of me didn't check all the stalls and one was empty the whole time!! I just looked at the lady like bruh..
Anyway, we had to wait for the train so we just stood on the platform which got pretty cramped at times. Especially with our luggage.
But soon enough, our train arrived!
And we thankfully found our way to our seats just fine. After stowing our luggage away, we sat in our seats and enjoyed the ride!
And what a smooth ride it was! Sean and I always loved the shinkansen! It's definitely one of our favourite ways to travel.
One of my favourite things is definitely how much space you have on the train! At the very least, the legroom on the shinkansen is so much more substantial compared to an airplane.
I was pretty tired from waking up early so one of the first things I did was definitely plugging in my noise-cancelling headphones and taking a nap.
Seany and I had bought gyudons beforehand so we had lunch on the train too. My relatives woke up later than us so they bought the bentos from the station, which tbh kinda sucks. And we learnt that last time which is why we went out ahead of time and bought Sukiya.
After lunch, we passed the time playing some Switch games!
And exactly 3 hours later, we arrived at Shin-Osaka station!
So we started making our way towards to our hotel - Dormy Inn Premium Namba!
Dormy Inn is pretty conveniently located right next to Dotonbori, which was why it took us more than an hour from the station. By the time we checked into the hotel and settled in, it was around 3:30pm.
This hotel room was a lot bigger than the one we stayed in Akihabara. And my relatives definitely pointed that out.
They're all used to bigger hotel rooms, so the one in Tokyo was a culture shock although we warned them ahead of time that the Tokyo hotel rooms were really small.
But I'm glad this was more to their liking. And rightfully so, since it was also more expensive. But worth it because this hotel comes with some unique amenities!
And I don't mean this bathroom.
But before we get to that, we took my family out and showed them around Dotonbori!
And walking along the canal we saw a clowder of cats! And this lady was feeding them with her dog.
Her very cute doggo who was shivering a little bit.
We went to revisit the biggest Donki Hote!
Before bringing them to the heart of Dotonbori - Nippombashi!
I'm sure you'd recognise this place if you've seen Dotonbori before. This is an iconic scene, with all the signboards and lights.
While walking along though, my mum got peckish so we bought a couple boxed of gyoza from this Osaka Osho stall and we all shared.
It was piping hot, with the bottoms crispy pan-fried!
Everyone got some snacks and we ate in the middle of the street since it was street food after all. It did feel good eating steaming hot gyoza in winter though.
I'm sure this is another iconic area that many people would recognise. Especially with that pufferfish sign.
In fact, there is a mall in Singapore that replicated this street in one of the areas in the mall itself!
Source: The Smart Local
The gyoza wasn't enough so my relatives bought more street snacks, this time - takoyaki!
The plate itself was also pretty cool; it looked like an octopus wrapped around a seashell of some sort.
Sean and I aren't that big fans of takoyaki, because they're not crispy so it was only alright. It was still warm though. But yeah not something we would buy for ourselves.
After that, we started making our way to Shinsai Bashi!
Where we saw the famous Glico Man!
For those who didn't know, Glico is a household confectionary brand in Japan, and was founded in 1921 with the creation of their first product - Glico-Caramel, named after glycogen (a storage form of glucose in the body). It was thus marketed as a source of energy and had the mascot of the Glico Running Man! In 1935, a neon sign was set up here and remained there for 53 years until they updated it to LEDs in 1998. Now it's become the symbol of Dotonbori and more flashy billboards have popped up around him! (Source: theculturetrip)
There was also this billboard in Dotonbori with a camera and of course, we had to take a shot there for a memento.
After that we just walked around exploring the streets and side alleys of Dotonbori.
And there were quite a few that neither Sean nor I have been.
They looked really cool though, but I think they were mostly just shady izakayas.
Maybe not necessarily shady, but definitely smokey.
We also walked pass this cool French restaurant that looked curiously out of place.
But we soon found ourselves heading towards the other side of Nippombashi, where the Bic Camera is.
My mum and her sisters wanted to look at a few shops so we stopped by Bic Camera and found these cute bags that reminded me of We Bare Bears!
After that we walked through the famous shotengai here on the way to find some dinner!
We found this udon restaurant that wasn't too crowded, thankfully.
They had so much udon prepared fresh on the spot right in front of you!
It was also one of those places you could choose from an assortment of tempura to accompany your main dish.
I ordered an udon set with egg and an ebi tempura and I think soft shell crab?
While Sean just got a basic udon with vegetable tempura.
It was actually pretty delicious! The udon was just your regular udon, but the tempura was not bad! I think it was a little pricey though which is why we chose only a few pieces.
After that, we went to donki to shop for some snacks and drinks and Sean and I found our bear friend!
There was even a mini one!
But after enough walking around, we made our way back to the hotel.
We were all eager to try out the special amenities in Dormy Inn, which included an onsen!
It was a public onsen available for every guest to use but obviously the male and female were separated. So I went with my mum and aunts while Sean went with my uncle and cousins.
Source: jalan.net
Obviously I couldn't take pictures in there, but it was my first time in an onsen so I was quite nervous. But I stripped down and went with my mum into the shower area before going inside the onsen. There were naked ladies everywhere but I just kept to myself and the onsen water was initially quite scalding. I think it was 40 degrees celsius so it took some getting used to, but afterwards it was quite relaxing. My face got completely red from the heat though. For health reasons you can't stay in the onsen for long, so after about 20 minutes I was done. There were shower areas with soap and all that so I bathed there and came out fully refreshed!
Source: jalan.net
It really did soothe my muscles too. My feet were kinda sore from all that walking but I felt so much better after the onsen. Very dehydrating though, so I chugged a lot of water after that. I felt really clean after that though! And I think it improved my skin too! A truly new and unique experience that's for sure!
That's all for now! Tune in next week where we explore and experience more new stuff, namely, wearing kimonos!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #117 (Japan 5.0: Tokyo): Shopping and BBQ after a Walk in the Park! 🍱
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