All about Osaka travel story

Osaka is the second largest economic city in Japan also known as Namba in olden time. However, the name had changed into Osaka during Meiji period. In fact, Osaka is a big city. In my opinion, shopping is the best thing to do in a city. Nevertheless, there are a lot of places to visit in Osaka as well. What are the places ??



Shin-Umeda City




Shin-Umeda City is a floating garden concept's building. Moreover, this is 173 meters high building. The entrance fee was 700 yens per adult. You can take the JR line stop at Osaka station and get out from Center North Exit. Then, you just need to walk about 5 to 10 minutes to reach Shin-Umeda City.The specialty of this building is you can go out to the sky walk and enjoy the 360 degree panoramic view in the open air condition. I can say that this is very cold during winter with the strong wind blow. However, this provided an amazing view of Osaka city especially at night. In this building, you can find out a lot of couple dating around. Moreover, you can have a cup of nice coffee and enjoy the view. This was quite relaxing as well. Official Website: http://www.skybldg.co.jp/.



Shinsaibashi area and surrounding




Next, of course is shopping time. Shinsaibashi is one of the best shopping area in Osaka. Depend where are you from, you can take either take JR line or Hankyu line to Osaka Station. After that, change to Midosuji subway to Shinsaibasi station. Then, you can reach there easily. You can find out a lot of different brands here or big department store such as Daimaru. For those who like H2M, you can get those average price items in this shop too. I was staying in Kyoto. For fashion items, you can get cheaper items here compared to Kyoto. I found out that Japan's stocking and leggings were very feminine and cute. That was a reason why I bought a lot of them.

Uniqlo is one of the Japanese economic brand here. In this shop, they sell all kind of clothing such as the clothing range from kid to adult, from female to male and from casual to formal. I bought a lot of heat tech clothing and legging because these kept me warm during winter with reasonable price. Official website: http://www.uniqlo.com/

Dotomboni is famous because of delicious food available here. This is just next to Shinsaibaisi. In this photo, this is basically sixth-stories building. Furthermore, you can get a lot of interesting stuffs such as costume, funny items or "unknown" items here. Next to Dotomboni, Americamura is not so far away. In this Americamura as known as American village, you can get a lot of Europeans and young fashion items. Furthermore, there is a 300 yens store which you can prepare cheap and nice souvenir for your friends.

In Dotonboni, you can't miss the famous ramen. Move over, the soup was sweet and tasty. Another famous food in Osaka is takoyaki. You can get the most originate tasty takoyaki from Dotonboni as well. However, I didn't try this even though I went there a lot of times. The reasons were too many people line up to buy the takoyaki and I was rushing time as well. (CRY) .. Anyway, I had no fate with with it. Next, yogurt from Yogurtland is worth to try too if you like dessert. But, please remember that the price is based on the weigh of the yogurt in your paper cup.

Osumiyaki is worth to try as well. Basically, there were some vegetable, meats, egg and something unknown stuffs gill on the hot plate in front of you. This was quite interesting. However, you may smoke with the food's smell all over your body.

Umeda City

A lot of higher end department store around Umeda Station. One of the special department store is Hep Five. At the top of Hep Five building, there was a bright red colour Ferris wheel. For this Ferris wheel, you can observe the Umeda city view. Official Website: http://www.hepfive.jp/.

Besides Hep Five, there are a lot of department store such as Hep Navio, Yodobashi, The Hilton Plaza, Comme Ca Store, Hankyu department, Hanshin department, Loft and etc. For those not so higher end brand, you can get it from Hankyu Sanbangai or Hankyu market street. All the places listed above are not so far away, and there are just walking distance apart only. For those who like electronic stuffs, you can get it from Yodobashi.

Christmas was just around the corner, there were some decoration around Osaka city. There were not a lot of illumination decoration. But, this was beautiful enough.

Osaka Castle Jo / Kyobashi

Next, Osaka jo is somewhere around Kyobashi. A lot of people wander around this park. Furthermore, there are mini train service which travel around the Osaka Castle park. Each ride is 200 yen.

Osaka castle is one of the historical castle. Anyway, the history background you can check from their official website: http://www.osakacastle.net/. The entrance fee is 600 per adult. The castle is opening from 9am to 5pm. In this castle, you can spend 300 yen and try to put on their traditional clothing with photo taken.

Next to the castle, there is Osaka Historical Museum. Each entry cost about 600 yen for adult and free admission for children. Basically, this is exhibited about the history of Osaka. Official website: http://www.mus-his.city.osaka.jp/.

In Osaka, I found out reading the railway map was a challenged to me. Anyway, once you get familiar with the map you can travel smoothly all over the place in Osaka. Enjoyy ~~ Yahooo !!