Japan 2016 - Osaka Day 6.7

2016/07/11

/continued

On the same day we had the Nara Day trip, we arrived back in Osaka at around 5pm.

Our hotel is located in Namba, and a few minutes walk away from a shopping street. As well, it was super close to Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi so the near abouts were extremely busy.

We will be staying here for a few days so there wasn't a rush to visit all the shops immediately, instead we had a little tour ourselves around the block.

such a beautifully designed manhole haha (it's the Osaka Castle!)

Here's the amazing view over the Dotonbori river? at night time. I love all the lantern hung along the river and the colours from the led lights by the nearby shops.

First Stop: Dotonbori / Shinsaibashi Area

So here's the main point for this little section:

One thing I noticed after a walk around was that everything has to be BIG.

And I mean B I G ! !

I have no idea to the reason for this, but it may be an Osaka thing, so let's start

I spy with my little eyes...

A bigger than life-sized octopus,

A kushikatsu old man's face,

An extra extra extra large portion of the stamina don,

An even bigger octopus,

A good years worth of Asahi beer,

Mr. king crab,

A farmer? eating some seemingly delicious snacks from Meiji,

An enormous plate of gyozas,

A graceful crane,

The king of octopus making takoyaki/okonomiyaki? lol,

Just a flying puffer fish,

God's hands holding a salmon nigiri,

Massive pockys,

A flying cow/ox,

Very delicious king clam,

Just a dragon casually holding a golden coin, (this was actually a Pachinko place lol)

This famous mascot I forgot the name of,

A lovely cheese tart,

One Piece Luffy's ship,

Moomin mochi?

A chubby life-sized Lucky cat,

this mammoth leg?

& don't forget the famous Glico running man!

So hopefully by now you get the idea and you're seeing the pattern :)

Second Stop: Isomaru Suisan 磯丸水産

After all that walking, we can't possibly go back and rest in our hotel rooms am I right?

We decided for some seafood for this late-ish dinner on our first night in Osaka.

We went to the Dotonbori store, it is open 24hrs. There are 3 or 4 floors, so there should be plenty of space. They also have a few different locations right around this area of Osaka, it shouldn't be hard to find.

As always, we ordered a bit of this and that, but nothing too heavy of a portion because this was supposed to be our late night snack.

We ordered a Pineapple Sawa to share and oh my gosh I can't start to explain how amazing it was. I'm not usually fond of alcoholic drinks but this was incredible, and I have no idea why I didn't snap a photo of it. If you are deciding to visit, make sure to try it out, you will not regret!

Seaweed and whitebait fish omelette しらすと海苔の玉子焼き

Fried Shrimp えびあげ

Pan fried Squid & Crab Miso Kora Yaki イカ焼き & 蟹味噌甲羅燒

Assorted Shellfish Platter 活貝盛り合わせ

Seafood Roll 海鮮ロール

All in all, everything was fresh and delicious. You don't even have to cook them yourself, the waiter/waitress will walk around helping the customers cook the food, so no worrying about overcooking/undercooking anything!

Last Stop: Sennichimae Yasudaya Gyoza 千日前やすだや餃子

Can you believe after all the food at Isomaru Suisan on the way back we decided to get a cheeky little takeout at this gyoza shop literally three steps away from our hotel.

I was pretty full to be honest, but my brother and dad seemed to still have room for more food.

Although they are a gyoza specialty store, the choices are quite limited. There are three flavours in total: white (garlic), green (vegetables & pork), and red (shrimp).