Osaka: Hustle and Bustle
Kamala:
We spent our last morning in Nagoya primarily sweating and waiting in lines around the train station, to pick up Maneka’s JR pass, get tickets to Osaka, and then our usual stop: lunch in a train-station related mall. We tried to find some place to eat the raw chicken served in Nagoya, but when our restaurant picks were closed for the weekend, ended up with fried chicken wings and donburi. Of course we also hit up Takashimaya to pick out train snacks. This time, Kamala took it easy with a kouign aman from Fauchon, and Lori got a fruit tart.
The train to Osaka was surprisingly fast! We took a taxi ride from Shin-Osaka to the Namba station area, where we’re staying in a very lovely apartment-like accommodation at the Fraser Residence. They have lime/rum scented lotion, a full kitchen free snacks/wine/beer, lots of electric outlets, and wifi. We’re all very pleased.
On the way to our hotel, we passed a large demonstration of people who seemed to be chanting about freeing people, but who or what or why were all unclear. We were also driving on a main drag that included many high-end stores and we spotted some inspiring, well-dressed individuals, such as a man in great black pants with big white curlicues on them, standing outside the Prada store.
We ended the evening with a long stroll around Dotonburi—which one might think of as the Times Square of Osaka. There were mobs of people streaming through the covered arcade, hawking samples, playing music, and taking photos. We took our first photo with a group of old man mascots—not that we knew who they were—and also bought a small tart that was advertised at “parm cheese tart.” It was really like a cheesecake in a crust. The loud, electronic pings of the Pachinko parlor music, swept us along until we encountered the restaurant featuring a huge crab with moving hands on the front of the building that Linda remembers from when her nice homestay mom took her to Osaka to eat crab.
Mäneka:
“Me and my Japanese bitches in Osaka” – never has a Nicki Minaj lyric been so relevant to my life and I quite pleased about it.
Also this musubi cartoon lady is so cute! 😊🍙
