Osaka was a short trip of about 3 nights. We stayed in a microstudio AirBnB in the Orange District which was basically America Town. We didn’t realize this until we arrived but it was pretty interesting to see what people view as American culture and that it was popular. This area was a great location for walking to many things like the famous Dontabori Market, which is AMAZING!
I really liked Osaka, it was a big Japanese city, but not as busy and chaotic feeling as Tokyo can be at times. They also very much have their own distinct version of Japanese culture. I read more people speak english in Tokyo, and maybe this is true, but the willingness to speak english in Osaka was noticeable. Japanese are friendly and very helpful in general, but it was like the difference of being in a busy NYC rush or a little slower Seattle (although Osaka is a lot larger than Seattle). Several times we were found looking over the train schedules to see what fit our needs and someone would just ask us what we are looking for and then guide us through the series of complex underground train tunnels. They didn’t want anything from us and they didn’t work there, they are just that great of people.
Because of our short time in Osaka we really only had about 2 and a half days to visit. We spent a lot of time wandering Dotonbori Market for food and ate waaayy too much (per our usual), we visited an insanely long market of 2.6 km called Tenjinbashi-Suji that had every product imagineable, we visited the Edo style Osaka Castle and it’s museum which was beautiful, and we went to the Aquarium which is one of the largest public aquariums in the world! We also spent entirely too much time at another arcade playing mostly Mario cart. Turns out I’m better when I have a wheel! Competition was on.
Sadly it was now time to leave Japan. A bittersweet moment. Although we loved Japan, it’s culture and it’s food, we were really excited about moving on to Vietnam. Not only cheaper but another great food scene!
More photos below:
