Osaka, Japan - Attractions and Things To Do

We enjoyed ourselves most in Osaka and really loved the hotel, Namba Dotonbori Hotel Osaka, that we stayed in. It's small but it has everything! Even iPhone and Blackberry charger! For about $117/night, it's really value for money and is situated in a great location.

And the best thing was the bed!! The bed came with a Serta mattress made of memory foam. We each had 2 pillows to ourselves, 1 made of memory foam and the other with corma beans. Both can really drag you into dreamland within seconds! I didn't know these stuff can make your body feel so well rested every night. 

They even greeted me with generous amount of Shiseido toiletries when we first checked in. The hotel provides Sheseido shampoo, conditioner and body foam too. Love, love it 'coz the shampoo smells like Senscience.

Free Packs of Shesiedo Toiletries (more than 1 set in a pouch) with Headband and Hotel Room's Ones

The hotel is very easy to locate too. Just alight at JR-Namba station and get out from exit 26D. If your luggage is heavy, you can use the lift between exit 26C and 26D. It's less than 5 mins walk and Dotonbori Hotel has the signature 4 head figures in front of the hotel. It may be a good idea to print a picture of the hotel entrance to ask for directions if you need help on arrival.

On the way out from exit 26D, there's a Life Food Market where we replenish our cheap beers, tidbits and sashimi from. When we came back late from Kyoto 1 night, we even settled our dinner with pre-packed food from the Life Food Market and heated it up with the oven provided by the hotel. And of course, we always conveniently end up with a can of beer (biiru) when walking back from JR-Namba station to Dontonbori hotel.

Biiru and Nuts From After A Long Day @ 1 End of Dotonbori Street

For breakfast, the 24 hr Lawson convenience store right opposite provides delicious bun. The one on the top left corner of the pic has a slab of chocolate in it! Sinful and heavenly for breakfast... Japan also has many 120-150yen drinks vending machine littered around. It's really easy to grab a hot coffee to kickstart your day.

The Namba Shisaibahi shopping area is so big that it took us a few nights to cover the bulk of it. There's the famous Glico man in the middle of a cross junction and a huge H&M too. If you're into sportswear, pay a visit to Sportaka as they have levels and levels of sportswear and a bargain corner.

My Favourite H&M

Uniqlo Building with Interesting Lights Display

Try exploring the smaller alleys, you'll discover some authentic restaurants that cost lesser with great tasting nice food. We found it good 'coz these small eateries are usually filled with locals and added to the whole Japanese experience. To order, they speak a smattering of English or I'll just point where my finger brings me. Usually, the food turns out fine, if not very nice, hehe...

We also went to Rinku Town Premium Outlets where we got some cheap buys like the Nike sneakers.

One of the best days was the trip to Osaka Castle It's about 40 mins away from Namba. That day, the rain caused by Typhoon 14  has passed and the weather was fine.

Cute Japanese Children Out for Day Trip to Osaka Castle

Staying at Dontobori is a blessing to foodies. But we had to try the Macdonald's 'coz the limited edition burgers just seemed so yummy. Every special item is available for 2 weeks. While there, the German Sausage one was selling. Well, it was a disappointment 'coz it was too salty. 

It just reinforced my point to never eat fast food when overseas but to savor the local cuisine to the max!

The local cuisine on the other hand was awesome! My best memories in Osaka, besides the day trips to Kyoto & Nara, are all about the experience. Enjoying the weather, eating and simply being in the moment.

Here's some pics:

Best Ramen We Had in Japan (50m walk from Dotonbori Hotel)

Small Cozy Alley Restaurant We Came Across

"Sex Machine" Beef Restaurant

Too bad we didn't have the chance to try out this beef restaurant that we very much wanted to. Too many meals and we ain't greedy. ;P

You won't miss this crab restaurant at Ebisubashi Street. By the way, what kind of crab is this? Can someone enlighten me? Its meat is really sweet. Nice supper we had out of it.

If you don't already know, Takoyaki is one of Osaka's must try food. So, we tried 2 kinds of 'ball ball's at 2 different places. The octopus was fresh and the balls were juicy.

Fugu Restuarant

Best Japanese Curry in Bf's Opinion

Throughout our Japan trip, one of our favourite things to do was to walk into a Yakitori Restaurant to rest our feet, eat some light snacks and have a beer or sake before continuing to shop. And we both concur that the Yakitori Restaurant opposite Dotonbori Hotel was the BEST we had in Japan.

It is the first time I had Octopus Sashimi and it's surprisingly good. The lettuce appetizer served was crunchy and  refreshing, the ambience authentic, the food deliciously tasty and the owner is a charming young man who is friendly and welcoming. I'll go back to this cozy find if I have the chance to. It left a happy lasting taste to my last night in Osaka. =)

**Read more about my Japan trip here.**

All About Japan Rail, Bullet Train aka Shinkansen and Keisei Line to Narita

Before going for my trip, I heard so much about the efficient Japan's railway system and the impressive bullet trains also known as Shinkansens. 

Even with the reliable website www.hyperdia.com. I was overwhelmed by information and felt a nagging need to double check on some of the minute details.

And Tokyo itself has 3 railway companies, the Japan Rail (JR), Tokyo Metro & Toei. And many many lines for each of the railway companies....

As such, I shall dedicate 1 whole post on my experience with JR and the Keisei Line to Narita Airport.

Firstly, our itinerary of the train rides was:

Inside of Narita Express Ride (NEX)

Luggage Compartment In NEX with Key Lock Provided

1st Day (16,820yen)

- Delta airline to Narita Airport Terminal 1 (lands around 2pm)

- Narita Express (NEX) to Tokyo City

- Tokyo to Osaka

- Osaka to JR-Namba station near our hotel

2nd Day (1,780yen)
- Osaka to Rinku Town
- and back

3rd Day (3,390yen)
- Osaka to Kyoto
- and back

4th Day (1,080yen)
- Osaka to Nara
- and back

5th Day (340yen)
- Osaka Castle
- and back to Namba

Chancing Upon a Double Deck Shinkansen in Tokyo Station

6th Day (14,320yen)
- Osaka to Tokyo
- Explore Tokyo (Akihabara, Shibuya) (500yen)

7th Day (640yen)
- Explore Tokyo (Ameyoko, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku)

1st Tickets Bought From Machine

8th Day (300yen)
- Travel within Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku)

Slower (76 mins) BUT Much Cheaper Keisei Limited Express Train to Narita Airport 

9th Day
- Tokyo to Narita Airport Terminal 1
Shinjuku to Nippori (190yen)
Nippori to Narita Airport Terminal 1 by Keisei Limited Express Line instead of JR line (1,000yen)

The prices in blue are those that we had to pay after our 7 day Japan Rail Pass expired. The red ones are covered by our 7 days JR pass.

JR Pass

As you can see, if you have the intentions to travel from Tokyo to Osaka or other long distance, it may be more worthwhile to get the JR pass to travel on the Shinkansens (bullet trains). These JR passes are available solely to foreigners and can be bought only outside of Japan. Read more about where I got mine from.

In my opinion, the ordinary one is good enough, there's no need to get the green one. Just the to and fro trip from Osaka to Tokyo already more than cover the 7 days pass cost of 28,300yen. The rest of my trips from the 1st to 7th day were taken only on the JR lines and they're all covered! Saving about 170SGD!!

The JR lines are extensive and cover the major touristy places I wanted to go. It covers the rides on NEX (Narita Express), all rides on the Shinkansens and all rides only on JR trains.

JR Ticketing Office in JR Namba Station

Basically, inter-cities traveling will be by Shinkansens and when traveling within the cities, it's by JR trains which are like the MRTs in Singapore. To ride on the Shinkansens, you need to get a train ticket from the JR Office found in the JR stations.

JR Office in Narita Airport Terminal 1

To turn the exchange order (activate) into a JR pass, just head to any of the JR offices here. I activated by JR pass the day I reached Japan and got it done at the Narita Airport Terminal 1 JR Office.

It's pretty easy to get to the JR Office Counter or Keisei Line Counter at Narita Airport. Just head to the basement and the 2 counters are very nearby.

Keisei Counter at Narita Airport Terminal 1

Some helpful info:

• When changing trains, try to change at smaller stations like Shinagawa instead of Tokyo station as there won't be so many tracks and trains to confuse you further. This was for our trip from Narita Airport to Osaka. You can select the different routes from hyperdia.com. (refer to the maps to see which stations have more train lines to it to guess which are the major ones)

 

Reserved Train Tickets for Shinkansens

• Plan, plan, plan your route, go hyperdia to check out.

• In hyperdia, for those rides with unreserved or reserved seatings drop down options, you'll need to pay that in addition to your fare. So the ride to Narita airport is 3,110yen actually.

• In hyperdia, you can streamline your route options. Eg, tick only Japan Railway(JR) if you intend to use only JR pass to travel.

• Be on the platform as early as possible as the trains, especially the shinkansens are moves off ON time and will close the doors 30s or so before departure time. If you cannot make it to your car, just get your butt in the right train first and move within the train.

•  Rapid and Limited Express trains skips some stops and get you to your destinations faster. You may want to take a Limited Express train instead of the Normal one even if it comes later.

Cute Shinkansen Chopsticks

• For Shinkansen rides, you can reserve your seats at the JR office. If you can confirm the timing and it's peak period during the time you travel, it's better to reserve your seats early. We got our seats a little late and ended up in the smoking car.

• Check the timing here for the cheaper Keisei Line to Narita Aiport and do note that there's 4 tabs on top of the table to choose from. The Limited Express which is the cheapest one is on the 3rd tab. Took me a while to realised they were tabs!

• And of course, you should have brushed up on your Chinese in Secondary school, it'll help you to read your way around in Japan. ;)

It was fun figuring our way around and was quite an adventure to get on the right trains. One of my happiest moments were chancing upon the many Shinkansens at Tokyo station when we were wandering around to check out how big the station was. I'm glad my cute chopsticks serve as a remembrance.

Click here to take a look at the new bubbly-gummy 2011 Shinkansens launching in March 2011 too.

**Read more about my Japan trip here.**

http://life-bite.blogspot.com/2010/09/cheap-japan-rail-pass-jr-pass-in.html

Japan Great Value Shopping Buys - Ichi

The great thing about Japan is their toiletries shops! Being a bigger fan of skincare than fashion, I was thrilled to explore the many shops scattered around their cities. With so many interesting options and brands, the Japanese consumers are really spoilt for choices.

It's a known fact that the Japanese consumers are very particular about their beauty products and regime. This gave me confidence to try out any items that caught my eyes. Moreover, the products are all made in Japan which is really value for money!

Bf must have been a little sick of toiletries shopping but maintained his patience throughout. In the end, even he was convinced and bought himself a few pack of eye masks back home. The bottom left eye mask is really effective! His eye rings lightened and wrinkles smoothened out quite a bit. 

The baby packaging mask in the middle is really moisturizing; better than SKII in my opinion, and cost less than 10SGD for a pack of 5. 

We found the masks that came packaged like wet tissue (like the bottom left and bottom middle ones) even more value for money and bought a few packs for gifts. The co-enzyme Q10 ones in orange packaging by KOSE are really effective and there was a customer that bought 10 packs at one go!

I finally got to try the much acclaimed Habo Labo hydrating toner at less than 800yen / 12.80SGD.  I was told the green one is meant for combination skin and it is really moisturizing for Japan's cool weather and non-sticky for Singapore's one.

By the way, this one with the green wordings is the lighter version for combination skin. It's not available in Singapore yet. For new users, you may want to buy this in Japan instead of Singapore whereby you can only get the orange wordings one, which is more hydrating and may cause breakouts. :|

Besides these, we found the leather products really worth buying too. The pink card holder cost me 1000yen/ 16SGD. It may not be a Japanese made product but the quality is really good and it's made of genuine leather. And if you  inform the departmental staff that it is a gift, they'll even gift wrap for free!

I really love the design of the blue wallet above too and it came in such a lovely colour!

Best of all, we managed to find the shoes bf wanted for less than 80SGD a pair!

He got some chic ties at less than 10SGD each too. 

And if you're into brands, get on a train to Rinku Town in Osaka, the premium outlets. We got the Nike sneakers and toddler's ones at 3360yen / 53.80SGD and 1680yen / 26.90SGD respectively.

See how happy Clara is with her new sneakers.

In Tokyo, there's this fashion accessories shop at Harajuku that sells really pretty and inexpensive accessories called Before The Bloom. It's facing the North or Takeshita exit of JR Harajuku station and situated quite close to the one end of the popular Takeshita Dori.

I got myself these 2 beautiful necklaces that carry the exquisite dainty Japanese style.

And of course, we drank and ate our way through the cities. The beer was cheap, the sashimi and vegetable was fresh, the mood was loving and everything tasted yummy!

Asahi Clear is really light and refreshing.

Suntory Rich Malt tastes full-flavored like its name and leaves a lasting malt taste.

We only drank Yebisu in restaurants and it tasted like a mix of the 2 beers above even though it's a all malt beer.

The sake flavours are varied too and the warm ones are great accompaniment to meals.

The sashimi from the supermarket is very fresh and we had them almost every night. Sometimes from restaurants.

We were lucky that Dotonbori Hotel, the hotel we were staying in Osaka provides a microwave oven on every floor and is located very near to a food market / supermarket; a great place to grab discounted meal from 8pm or 9pm onwards. Even though it's cheap TV meal, it was totally delicious and enjoyable.

**Read more about my Japan trip here.**