The Osaka Tour Guide is I

December 11, 2007 on 11:44 pm | In Food, Osaka | | Email This Post

A friend from the states came to visit, so I had played the role of Osaka tour guide for half a day. We didn’t have lots of time, but got a lot in and had a lot of fun!

We did Osaka Castle in the early afternoon. The weather has been strangely warm lately, so even though it was December 1st, it wasn’t very cold and the leaves were in great fall colors.

We took the stairs to the top of the Castle to check out the view. There are lots of displays with information in English depicting the history of Osaka Castle to check out on the way up.

After finishing the Castle tour and enjoying the sights around Osaka Caslte Park we got on the train and headed to Shinsaibashi.

We walked through Amerika-mura to get to Kuishinbo, one of my favorite restaurants to and tried some real Osaka food. Takoyaki, negiyaki, some beef kushiyaki, all the good stuff.

After filling our stomaches – well, sort of. My friend wasn’t into the octopus and squid… Though she did try! Props for that. I ended up eating the leftovers!) we took the 15-20 minute walk down to Doutonbori

A big portion of the construction on Doutonbori bridge (aka. Hikkakebashi) was recently completed, so now the pelxiglass is out of the way and the giant Glico neon billboard is in clear view again. The bridge is also suped up and has a much more modern feel, with a nice walkway down to the lower level near the river.

We had a good time just standing on the bridge and checking out the Osaka-ians and other tourists as they walked by. That Glico sign is one of the most photographed things in Osaka, there was even a foreigner with a giant video camera apparently taking footage for a film of some sort.

After that, we headed back to Osaka station to have a slow dinner at that Slo-Viva place near the Hankyu Line.

Good times.

If I had more time, I would have also introduced my friend to Osaka Prowrestling! I would have also tried to get down to Tsuruhashi to enjoy some Korean BBQ. If it were someone who could eat anything, I would have also tried to get down to Shinsekai to get some kushikatsu! I thought about going into the Gokuraku Shoutengai attraction, but decided against it. Maybe next time.

So many things to do, so little time!

What would be on your 1-day Osaka tour itinerary?

- Harvey

Related Posts... (in theory)   Walking Tour    Sanzenin in Kyoto    Osaka Life Blog: by an English speaking Osaka-jin  

Click here to Stumble Upon it!

10 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Gravatar

    That looks great!
    I went to all of those locations on my last visit to Oksaka 3 years ago.

    Sigh…

    I think I need to go back again soon and have some takoyaki while I’m there.

    Thanks for the photos!

    Comment by Contamination — December 12, 2007 #

  2. Gravatar

    Thanks for the pictures. It seems people watching is big no matter where you live.

    Comment by kole — December 12, 2007 #

  3. Gravatar

    I’m one of those people who likes everything (as far as touring) so I’d probably just let you (or a tour-guide friend) pick some sights out for me!

    Comment by Kat — December 12, 2007 #

  4. Gravatar

    ハービー、今大阪に住んでるの？

    Comment by kotomi — December 12, 2007 #

  5. Gravatar

    大阪に住んでますよ！日本一美味しい町。日本一おもろい町！日本一自然に欠けてる町〜

    Comment by harvey — December 12, 2007 #

  6. Gravatar

    Maybe the Umeda Sky Building? Or at least a quick trip to the “Floating Gardens” at the top. Fun escalator ride, too. I dunno. I’ve really only been to Osaka twice, and still haven’t made it to the castle. Ha ha.

    Comment by Deas — December 12, 2007 #

  7. Gravatar

    I’m going to Osaka for half a day next week, and wanted to take my father out for some Osaka style food. Good timing on this post, I will definitely go to Kuishinbo to eat!

    Comment by Brian — December 12, 2007 #

  8. Gravatar

    Deas - Yes Umeda Sky Building! Actually we met some other tourists + local at the castle who asked we were going to hit the sky building. That place has a great view from the observatory. If we would have gotten started a little bit earlier in the morning… Also at the bottom of Sky Buliding is an old-school decorated restaurant town that is pretty atmospheric. Kinda like the gokuraku shoutengai, only a lot smaller.

    One of the reasons I picked the castle though, was that my guest had never been to a Japanese castle before. However… I think she went to Himeji the next day… So would have seen one of the -best- castles in Japan. Doh!

    Brian! If you go to Kuishinbo be sure to order NEGI-YAKI with PONZU sauce. You can put pork or squid or beef or whatever you want inside of it. Doesn’t matter. As long as it’s NEGI-YAKI with PONZU sauce you’ll be in heaven.

    Comment by Harvey — December 12, 2007 #

  9. Gravatar

    Nice choices, Harvey!
    Osaka water-bus(http://suijo-bus.jp/)must be a lot of fun. I took AQUA-LINER a while ago and a fried took HIMAWARI a few months ago. She said it was good.
    Speaking of a great view, the Ferris wheel at HEP FIVE might be good and just the rides are fun!

    Comment by まゆみ — December 12, 2007 #

  10. Gravatar

    When I was in Osaka I stumbled on a reggae kushikatsu place in Shinsekai. Japanese rastas out front handing out flyers, big picture of Bob Marley on the wall. It was the Osaka experience I had been waiting for. Food was pretty good too!

    Comment by Adam — December 13, 2007 #

Leave a comment

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Study Japanese with help from J-List!
Study Japanese with help from J-List!

Loans - Credit Card Consolidation - Phoenix Pools - Arizona Landscaping

Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^