Osaka Grad Trip!

A chapter of my life has ended, and I have finally graduated from high school! The past 3 years in California have been some of the best times of my life. Now that my friends and I have graduated, we of course had to jump on the "grad trip" bandwagon. It is true I've been to Japan numerous times, but some of my friends, not so much. So this time, we decided to go on a 5 day Osaka trip. Yes, I was just in Hokkaido the past winter, and Osaka exactly 2 years ago, but who's counting?

Day 1 was spent at Kyoto. We took Peach Airlines, which is not bad for a very economic price. We landed in Kansai Airport at 5:30am, and took the JR Haruka line straight to Kyoto. From Kyoto JR station, we took the bus to Kiyomizu-dera, a must-see attraction at Kyoto. Kyoto is well-known for having a number of ruins and old temples for sightseeing, and Kiyomizu-dera is probably the most famous one. The road to the temple is dainty and laid with various souvenir shops. Green tea is popular there, so there are a lot of green tea snacks sold there. At the temple, you can wish for anything you want. Most people wish for luckiness in their love life. There's even 2 rocks dedicated to bringing romantic luck!

For lunch, we travelled to the other side of Kyoto, around Arashiyama, to enjoy a traditional kaiseki meal at Shoraian 松籁庵 Tofu Restaurant. It was one of our most expensive and filling meals, but so worth it. I recommend calling and making a reservation, since the place doesn't have a lot of seating, but is quite well-known. Their tofu is so rich, and all courses were made with supreme detail. It's not the first time I've had kaiseki, but it was really an enjoyment.

After a full meal, time to enjoy the Bamboo Forest. I wasn't super impressed with it I have to say. It seemed very man-made and unnatural, because it was just weird to me that there's a fenced in bamboo area among non-bamboo trees. It was still pretty fun walking through it and goofing off with friends.

After a long day, we returned to Osaka-shi, to our machiya near Matsuyamachi. We found this location through airbnb.com I do recommend looking through their accommodations, perfect for us students who do not want to spend too much on a hotel room but can still enjoy the stay.

Day 2 we decided to do some shopping at Shinsaibashi, the famous shopping street of Osaka. We did quite some damage to our wallets, not gonna lie.

For lunch, we walked all the way to Amerikamura (American Village) to have Omurice with curry. Hokkyuokusei not located exactly in Amerikamura, so I recommend asking shop owners for directions. This is my second time at this omurice restaurant. It is quite well-known, but I feel like to me, it's just... omurice, nothing super special. I think their menus have Chinese and English translation, so don't worry when you order.

 Pork Katsu Omurice with Curry

 Fish Rod Omurice

While walking back to Amerikaruma, we passed by a record store and Alice On Wednesday. I'm not a huge records fan, so I'll talk about Alice On Wednesday. At first, I thought it was a gallery or exhibition, seeing it from the outside. But since my two friends went in and didn't come out for quite some time, I decided to go in and take a look. They have 2 rooms, one selling accessories and stationary, another for food and drinks. The decoration is adorable and the merchandise is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, the classic one, not necessarily the Disney version. I. Went. Nuts. And of course causing me to completely forget taking pictures of the interior. Don't worry, they welcome everyone to take photos of the store. But seriously, go to their Facebook page to see the interior design and their products. I died. The cutest thing I got was a "Drink Me" bottle of water. That thing is on my shelf, for my collection, no kidding.

Then we walked back to Shinsaibashi and chilled there for the rest of the night. For dinner, I have a tradition that I have to have a crab dinner. So we tried to get a seat at the famous crab place in Dotonbori called Kanidouraku Dotombori-Honten. I've been to this restaurant literally every time I go to Osaka with my family. However, we were super tired and hungry, but we had to wait for 30 min for a small table because it was so full, so we decided to go to another crab restaurant 5 min walk away. This restaurant is actually under the same company, but just not as well-known as the flagship one. It's also Kanidouraku. For the 5 of us, we had our own large room and sat really comfortably. We ordered 2 sets, which included crab sashimi, shabu, boiled, grilled, sushi etc. It was a very fulfilling meal.

From top (clockwise): Boiled crab, crab salad, crab sashimi

Original shop

Pablo Cheesecake is quite well-known for its softness and goo-y-ness. So we bought one to bring home to try. For me, it wasn't really worth the hype, maybe because I like my cheesecake heavy and cheesy. The pastry crust tasted good, not oily, and not too filling. The cheesecake itself is more eggy than cheesy. It's super light, and reminds me of an enormous egg tart. Personally, not worth the money.

 Random green tea Portuguese style egg tart + Pablo Cheesecake

Day 3 started with Osaka Castle. This is a must-go attraction in Osaka. It really is quite a nice looking castle, I like the style of the architecture and inside, every floor has an exhibition/museum where you can learn about the history of the castle.

 View from the top floor

Kuromon fish market. Maybe I'm spoiled by Hokkaido's fish market, but I was quite disappointed with Kuromon. I guess Osaka isn't as close to the sea as I had imagined. Yes, it does have a lot of seafood and food stalls, but I found the sashimi not as fresh as I had hoped. The grilled food is not bad, but not the best I've had. The fruits though, PARADISE. I feel like at these markets, fruits are pretty much guaranteed to be amazing for not a very expensive price. We bought a box of peaches and some pearl grapes. The peaches were around HKD 35 each, but they were so sweet and juicy.

That night, we planned to go to Umeda to look at the night lights. So after going back to our apartment and resting for a bit, we set out for Umeda. Our first stop was the famous Ichiran Ramen. There is one Ichiran in Hong Kong, we felt like it is a must to go have ramen in Japan, and why not one of the best?

Buy tickets

Customize (they have English version!) 

They recommend 1/2 spicy sauce for first-timers, but personally do not feel any spice, and I can't take too much spicy, so I would recommend regular spice :)

Cubicle style eating

After a good ramen meal, we burnt off all that calories by walking to the sky building (it's actually not THAT bad). There, we went up to the floating garden to enjoy the view of the city at night. There's also an area for love locks if you're into that. They even have a special seat for you to take pictures at.

Day 4 is Shinsaibashi/Dotonbori take 2. Yep, we just couldn't have enough of this shopping and eating paradise. We first hit Tokyu Hands, a popular Japanese department store and had some fun there. Then we headed to Mizuno Okonomiyaki. I have to confess that I've never had the Osaka special Okonomiyaki despite visiting Osaka for at least 3 times in the past. This okonomiyaki place is super packed, but it was quite worth the wait. I'm pretty sure they're used to everyone trying to take a picture of the food and the frying pan. We ordered a set for 3-4 people aka 4 regular size and 1 small size okonomiyaki. They're quite filling, and I like the one with the noodles most. They put the same sauce on all the okonomiyakis, so they all kind of tasted the same after a while. I would say maybe try different combinations of the sauce for each and don't put all the sauces on all the okonomiyakis. They were not bad regardless.

Then we walked down Dotonbori and into Little Osaka, a snack and souvenir shop. They sell lots of different Japanese cookies and food. One of the most memorable thing they sell is this:

Breast pudding...?

Anyways, we walked along the river and into shops we haven't been yet to finish our shopping. Don't judge. We consist of 5 girls. What do you expect.

We then had takoyaki. I was never a huge fan of this kind of food, but my friends are, so why not. This place is pretty good (judging by the fact that they have a huge octopus sign). The takoyaki is blazing hot, the batter is good, and the octopus is pretty fresh.

I was craving for some dorayaki, so we found some at the Daimaru in Shinsaibashi. Daimaru is a famous department store. We found the dorayaki at the basement food level. At first I wanted red bean, but the sweet potato is just irresistable. This dorayaki has a crunchy and crispy shell, I was hoping for the thick, chewy kind. But nonetheless, the sweet potato filling is satisfying.

Day 5 the last day was spent on outlet shopping. We chose to go to Mitsui Outlet Park at 門真南 station. This is a smaller outlet, but we thought it was going to have more shops geared towards our style. However, it was a big disappointment. Some sales was good, but there really weren't a lot of shops, explains why not many people were there.

We wasted our time walking around and traveling to Mitsui Outlet Park that we didn't have time to go to Rinku Premium Outlets before catching the plane. This outlet is right next to the airport, and provides a free shuttle to the airport. We walked through it just to see if we could sneak some time, but 30 min was not enough for us girls. Rinku is way bigger than Mitsui, and provide a larger range of shops. If you like outlet shopping, go to Rinku before catching your flight.

We decided to go souvenir shopping before checking in our luggages at the airport. There is quite a few things in Kansai airport, mostly food, to buy back home. I got a green tea Kyoto baumkuchen cake and a Konditorei Kobe Cream Cheesecake, two of my favourite foods from Japan.

And that concludes my 5 days in Osaka/Kyoto, also my first travel with my best friends. My friend made a video diary of our trip, so go watch it if you'd like. Japan is one of the places I go the most often, and it has never failed me.

Where do you like to travel? Any places you recommend that I go? I'm always up for an adventure :)