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Published: February 11th 2008
makino
view of makino on our walk to the station...i love the mountains in the backgroundafter our exciting day in kobe, i was up early again on sunday to go to osaka with leilani. we wanted to get some shopping done before all the sales were over and also go to america-mura. but once again, things didn't go as we planned! not that it's a bad thing, cause it turned out to be a really fun day...but in
dotonbori instead of america-mura.
we met at around 1 and walked to makino station. it was a nice walk, the sun was actually shining and all the snow from the day before had melted. i was really happy cause i'm so ready for spring to come! it was such a pretty day that i took a few pictures of the city on the way to the station. like i've said many times before, the city here is so pretty that i really don't mind walking. i don't think i'll ever get tired of looking at the skyline with the mountains in the background. it's a very beautiful view!
when we finally got to the station we got our tickets and got on the train to kyobashi, then took the subway to shinsaibashi...the usual routine. surprisingly, we
more makino
another view of the city didn't get lost at all! i think we're finally getting this whole public transportation thing figured out. it felt good to know what we were doing for once, and not looking like lost foreigners. i felt very independent walking around the train stations lol. although i was surprised to learn that it took us about an hour and a half to get to shinsaibashi. i mean the time went by fast while we were travelling, but i just didn't realize that it took that long! so we arrived at shinsaibashi around 3 pm. we then went to the shinsaibashi-suji shopping strip that we had gone to the other time we went to shinsaibashi. we crossed the road and went to the shops on the other side that we didn't get to last time. there were some really cute things, definitely much better than kobe. of course i heard that osaka is a very fashion-forward city and usually has the new trends, so that's probably why i like it so much! it's by far my favorite place to shop in the world...so far lol. it's just amazing! compared to maryville and knoxville, osaka is definitely a bit overwhelming. it's probably even
shinsaibashi
in shinsaibashi after we got out of the subway bigger than new york city! but i love walking along the streets and seeing chanel, louis vuitton, prada, diesel, findi, coach, zara...and so many others. i know i always say this, but i really am in heaven! of course i can't afford any of them, but it's still cool to see them there. we went to the takashimaya department store and aside from the beautiful architecture of the building, the stores inside were also very nice...more designer brands like the ones i named before.
well we walked around that area for a couple of hours and stopped at mom's cafe (great name right?) for a quick snack. we had a slice of seafood pizza and a doughnut with a lot of sugar on it. the pizza was very good, it had shrimp on it and squid, which i only found out after i had eaten it. i was like oh, that's what those chewy things were! so i've learned that it's just best to eat things and not ask...we did more shopping after that. and we found my favorite store ever!...the sanrio gallery aka the HELLO KITTY STORE! everything in there was so cute...we even got our picture with
pachinko
one of the many pachinko places. definitely have to try pachinko one time! hello kitty! i didn't buy anything but i definitely plan to go back there before i leave and buy A LOT.
after that we kept walking until we came to this really neat bridge that had an amazing view of the city! we probably spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of each other on the bridge cause we wanted to get it just right. these guys were watching us and probably thought we were crazy! then we crossed the bridge and the first thing i saw was a huge crab!! i immediately recognized it from my map of osaka, and that's how i knew that we had reached dotonbori! dotonbori is in the minami district and is right next to shinsaibashi. there were so many neat stores, and we took tons of pictures! we even saw the shochikuza theater! turns out the huge crab is for one of the restaurants there (we decided it must be like the red lobster of osaka lol). there was also a huge squid and two giant blowfish! we also noticed a lot of signs for tokoyaki, so we decided we should probably try some. so we got in this huge line for tokoyaki
sanrio gallery
the sanrio gallery aka hello kitty shop...my favorite store in japan so far at one of the street vendors. we even got the guy taking our order to get a picture of me and leilani while we were waiting! yes, i got to use my japanese and it worked lol. about 10 minutes later we got our tokoyaki. we ordered six so we each got three. they were really hot cause they had just been cooked, but so good! tokoyaki is octopus in a fried ball. i actually enjoyed it until i bit into one and saw the tentacle there...i still ate it but it just wasn't the same after that. like i said before, i should just eat things and not ask what it is or try to find out!
after our delicious tokoyaki we walked around more of dotonbori. we saw so many cute things, like a dog in a stitch costume ( i told you stitch was a big thing over here!), these little pooh toys that walk around, and of course a bunch of cute japanese kids! by the way, the kids here are soooo adorable. japan definitely has the cutest babies, once again proving our theory that everything in japan is cuter! i wanted to take pictures
hello kitty
me and hello kitty :) of all of them but thought the parents might get mad. guess i'll just have to sneak in some shots when they're not looking. although i feel kinda weird taking pictures of babies lol. and i noticed that there were a lot of kids out this weekend. i've never seen so many kids out in the city. i don't know what was going on...
anyway, we walked around dotonbori for a really long time. at one point we were in a back alley where there weren't a lot of people and there were a lot of strip clubs. it was kinda scary, so we got back to the main strip as quick as possible! by that time it was around 7:30 so we decided to try some okonomiyaki for dinner cause leilani really liked it. and we learned that osaka is famous for its tokoyaki and okonomiyaki, which is why the lines were so long and the restaurants all advertised them. so we go to this little restaurant for okonomiyaki and it is really neat. it looks like a bar cause you sit at stools around this counter, but the cooking area is right in front of you. just
hello kitty for men
they even have a special section for men. there was some cool stuff there. guys, i would definitely recommend it! like at wasabi!! you order the ingredients you want in your okonomiyaki and then the chef cooks it right in front of you! and fyi okonomiyaki is a like a fried pancake. they just mix all the ingredients together and cook it like a pancake...oishikatta desu! the couple next to us had this stir-fry looking thing, so even though we were full after our okomiyaki we order the same thing. it was yaki soba and they cooked it in front of us again...it was very good too! but we were so full afterwards, probably the fullest i've ever been from japanese food lol. we did spend quite a bit on dinner, but it was definitely worth it! it was a really authentic japanese experience...
and at dinner i got to use my japanese again! i asked the cook where america-mura was because from looking at our map we figured we had been walking around the area it's in all day but still hadn't seen it! so he told me where it was and i actually understood! i was very proud of myself. so after dinner we started walking in that direction. we found the apple store, and the guy
approaching dotonbori
the view as we walked toward the dotonbori area had said it was right behind that. but we didn't have time to actually go to america-mura that night so we just walked back to the subway station instead. and you know how i said we had finally figured out the transportation system? well i was wrong because we got pretty lost on the way back. after we got off in yodobashi we didn't know which line to take so we walked to the wrong one then had to walk to the right one. then we got on a train that didn't stop at makino station so we actually went one station past makino and had to get off and get on another train going back to makino. oh well, i guess we need some more practice with the trains!
we got back home around 11 then got on our bikes and rode to kyu-kyu for some groceries since we both didn't have any food to eat for this week! i love kyu-kyu, they're open really late and everything's 99 yen...can't beat it! but the road to get there is really narrow and there's not really a place to ride your bike on the side so it's very dangerous.
me in dotonbori
here i am on the bridge with the city behind me! the ride over there was good, but for some reason on the way back i almost died at least 3 times! then me and leilani went our separate ways, her to sem 4 and me to sem 3. but it was a really fun day...definitely a good way to spend our long weekend! and we're planning to go to america-mura and maybe denden town next time we're in osaka. but today (monday) is pretty much my study day. i have two tests tomorrow, but they should be pretty easy cause it's just japanese review stuff. then on wednesday i'm going to kyoto with leilani to have dinner with one of her friends over there. we also have plans to visit a castle next weekend, and i have some field trips to asuka and hiroshima and the osaka peace museum for my classes too. so it's going to be a fun and busy next few weeks! can't wait to take more pics...
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