The bus ride was actually pretty sweet. The seats were nice and comfy and came with slippers and a blanket. Given that our round trip tickets cost us about the same amount as a one way ticket on the Shinkansen would have cost us, we made out quite well. In fact, the ride was so nice that we were a bit disappointed that we only had 4.5 hours to relax before running around Osaka.
Since we only had a few days for vacation and already had plans for other days, we made our first day the "explore Osaka" day. Honestly, my initial impression of Osaka was rather indifferent- I had been to Osaka two times before, and I can't say that it's changed all too much. However, my feelings soon changed to well.... hmm disbelief and slight disma
y when I saw our hotel.... It wasn't the suspicious people walking around the area in naught but their underwear.... or even the tons of garbage littered about (note: Japan is super clean- so trash lying around... not normal).... I could accept the fact that we had to be in by midnight or risk being locked out and that the bathrooms were unisex. I didn't know what to make of the fact that there were permanent residents in the hotel.... or the port-a-potty like coin showers. No, I think it was more the fact that the whole hotel reeked of tobacco (or worse) and that our cramped tatami room had air conditioning that automatically shut off at midnight (forcing us to camp out in our underwear). So- yeah, if you're ever in Osaka, do not stay at Hotel Sun Plaza... in fact, avoid getting a hotel around Shin-Imamiya Eki altogether.But anyway- back to our first day in Osaka, the itinerary:
-Den Den town
-Sennichimae Doguyasuji
-National Bunraku Theater
-Pokémon Center (sooo not by my choice, haha)
-Umeda
-Dotonbori
Den Den town: a bit of a disappointment. Though indeed there were many electronic stores to be found, they were scattered around a vast array of porn shops, which just makes the place "colorful" I suppose, but there were no good electronic deals to be found either so survey says, go to Akihabara if you're looking for electronics. That said, I did buy a pretty sweet digi-kame at Bikku Camera around Nanba about two years ago so one could also go that route.
Sennichimae Doguyasuji: Pretty cool actually. This is Osaka's place to get all your culinary needs- be it restaurant uniforms, tako yaki banners, pots/pans, and coolest of all, plastic food! For those who haven't been fortunate enough to visit Japan I would say without hesitation that if only to see the most delicious-looking plastic on earth, the trip is well worth it. Wilma had a mind to buy a plastic sundae to take home as a souvenir, but as it turns out- food made out of organic polymers is a bit on the expensive side. (Though for a decent 400 yen, one could get a pretty sweet squishy sushi key chain... try saying that five times fast.) After all the excitement of looking at plastic food, one can imagine that we developed a hankering for some real food, so we went for okonomi yaki~ better known as Japanese pizza.... sort of. I think noodle pancake would also suffice as a name, but people seem to find that off-putting so Wilma, Josh, and I thought perhaps noodle hash browns would be the translation of choice.
National Bunraku Theater: This stop was on our way to nowhere in particular and looked promising as a good place to buy tickets for some late night entertainment. Sadly there were none to be found, but we did stamp our Osaka maps with Bunraku Theater icons. Note: Bunraku plays are quite entertaining~ I'm not quite sure why I find creepily human-like dolls acting out old Japanese folk tales so amusing, but seriously they are- and one would be wise to make a point to see a play
Pokémon Center: Ehmm... this wasn't a planned stop for our day trip -per se- but having spotted it on the way into Osaka Eki, one member in our party -cough, Wilma- couldn't help but want to make a quick stop. I was game so long as Wilma agreed to wear the Pokémon hat that she bought as a sort of scarlet letter to reflect her guilt in taking us to the Pokémon Center~ m(*_*)m
Dotonbori: Wilma and I were kind of disappointed by most of what we saw during the day at Osaka, but our spirits were lifted when an old high school friend of mine, Sayaka, took us around Dotonbori, a really "happening" area of Osaka with a lot of shiny lights, shops, and nice restaurants. We went to the best, albeit also slightly sketchy sushi place in Osaka. Unlike other conveyor belt restaurants, all the sushi had the same price... a mere 130 yen could get one two delectable pieces of heaven. However, while there was plenty of good sushi to be found, there was also a number of plates of old-looking sushi making their rounds. Anyway, considering we each paid like $6 for a full stomach's worth of sushi, we were not at all disappointed.
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