04. Shopping and Eating in Osaka

Today it was off to the centre of Osaka. As a city it can be likened in some respects to Melbourne in that both Osaka and Melbourne are both the second largest cities in their respective countries, however, Osaka is much bigger! The shopping strip photo on the left would probably be wall to wall shops for about 1-2km's in itself. Then there were Daimarus and other department stores all over the place so for someone coming from Melbourne, the scale of everything was just huge.

Similar to Melbourne, the people of Osaka tend to take their food quite seriously which is probably the reason I felt instantly at home. Ms Fukui said "The people of Osaka spend their money on food, Kyoto on clothing and Tokyo on sandals." While I can't really confirm the Kyoto and Tokyo part of the quote, I can confirm the food part.


Okonomyaki, Mmmmm Okonomyaki! Okonomyaki in Osaka was one of the things I was really looking forward to on my trip. One of Carolyn's Japanese friends made it for me a few months ago and since then I've been trying to make it. Nothing compares to having it done for you! We were taken to the restaurant by Mika who has been to this place a few times. In the end we had a banquet of 5 Okonomyaki variations to share, the total bill was only about $70 for this great meal. If you are ever in Osaka, I would highly recommend that you go there. http://r.gnavi.co.jp/k137800/


One of the other things that surprised me a bit on my trip was the regular buddhist temples where people would pray. Japan for all the technology is still a very spiritual place.

And what trip to Japan is complete without the obligitory trip to a Sony store to play with Aibo.