Eating and Shopping - Osaka

Here is a few mini stories of our eating and shopping adventures in Osaka...

As far as food, Osaka is known for okonomiyaki, which literally means "as you like it." Ken did some research and found a foreigner friendly okonomiyaki restaurant, meaning they have a menu in English and are accustom to serving foreigners.

The restaurant was in this underground maze lined with restaurants.

We finally located it!

The food is cooked and then served to you on your own hot plate.

Hungry Ken.

This one is a combination dish with octopus.

EAT UP!!! I liked the cabbage-noodle dish better than the pancake dish.

It was rainy when we were in Osaka, so this underground passageway, called "Garden City" kept us dry while traveling from the hotel to the train station. The span from the hotel to the train station was a few blocks and this passageway was directly connected to both. When we returned to the train station in the evening we would always get lost and couldn't find the entrance into Garden City to return to the hotel (good thing for umbrellas).

Some areas in the underground passage were very low, I thought Ken was going to hit his head on the ceiling.

The following photographs are of places and things I found interesting or strange while in Osaka; let me know what you think.

This is one of the huge shopping centers near the Osaka train station.

Crazy looking skewered food; I'm not sure what the fuzzy spheres are...

The Billiken will make your wish come true if you scratch the sole of his foot. I wonder what he is wishing for...

Cigarette vending machines were everywhere in Japan and this bald Winston-man was also everywhere.

Yeah... weird!

We took in the lights of Dotonbori one evening. Although it was raining, the street was packed full of people and I thought Vegas was all about hustle and bustle! So many people, shops, restaurants, and LIGHTS; it was overwhelming. Although the night was slipping away and the stores were closing, the area remained crowded.

The guide book described this particular area as "a scene from the science-fiction movie Blade Runner"; so true.

The Dotonbori was a maze of streets, lined with shops, covered by canopies (a.k.a., a shopping arcade). I love shopping arcades, just ask Ken.

This area in the Dotonbori had movie banners with cat characters. The banner in the photograph is a rendition of Star Wars.

Appropriately found in the cat banner area was a cat cart.

The cat cart was attracting girls.

Neko on a leash.