OSAKA

On Thursday morning I met Elspeth at Nagoya station and we hopped on the shinkansen to Osaka. Only an hour later we arrived (I love the trains here) and met up with Becky. We took the subway to Namba station (downtown Osaka) and after a frustrating experience with some lockers (it seems that Becky's American suitcase was not designed for the largest Japanese locker) we decided to find our capsule hotel and see if they could store her luggage.

That taken care of, we headed out to explore Osaka. We didn't really have a plan about what to see or do so we just walked around, checked out stores, arcades and restaurants. It was insanely hot so we stopped for an ice cream break. We had all had a long week and had not slept much the night before so after a couple hours in the sun we decided to head to our hotel for a rest and then decide what to do for dinner.


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[This was the most bizarre 'arcade' we found - indoor fishing! You buy bait, fish for around 30 min and then bring your 'catch' to the lady and she'll give you a prize....so weird...]

I had read about capsule hotels that allowed women in my guidebook and had persuaded Elspeth and Becky to try it out. For 2500yen ($25 Canadian) we got a capsule and breakfast, which was cheaper than a lot of hostels I had been looking at. I was nervous that it would be crowded, noisy and dirty but was pleasantly surprised when the women's floor turned out to be quiet, dark and the capsules clean. After taking a ton of pictures and exploring (and probably waking up all the women who were sleeping) we took a quick nap to refresh ourselves.




In Becky's guidebook she read about a restaurant that served sushi and cake. That's right..sushi and cake. I thought that sounded random so of course my vote was for sushi and cake. We took the subway to Umeda station and tried to find it with very limited directions. Elspeth asked a cute police officer and he said he knew of the restaurant but that it closed down. Darn. No sushi and cake for us. We wandered around a bit, saw a nice shrine in the middle of a busy area and decided to go back to Namba, find some food and some karaoke.


If you come to Osaka you have to eat two things - Okonomiyaki (cabbage/egg/meat pancake with mayo and sauce) and takoyaki (yummy dough with octopus inside). We found an awesome okonomiyaki restaurant, where the waitresses prepare it on a grill at your table. It was so delicious. SO DELICIOUS!! Full of okonomiyaki, we found a karaoke place across the street and for the next two hours sang our hearts out. Then we headed back to our capsules for the night.




After a pretty good nights sleep (it was much quieter than a lot of hostels I've stayed at) we went out to find some takoyaki. Randomly, on a street corner, Elspeth ran into a university friend who is going to be working for NOVA in Nagoya. Talk about coincidences. We grabbed some burning hot takoyaki (so good, but so hot), said goodbye to Osaka and then headed to the train station to get the local train to Kyoto. I will definately return to Osaka for more wonderful food and to visit the aquarium (when it's not a holiday and every kid in Osaka is there).