Osaka

When we were planning this trip, I was most excited about going to Osaka just because I heard that it was a foodie city. Osaka is known for Takoyaki (breaded octopus balls) and Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake), both of which were some of my favorite snacks growing up. I remember back in Manila, my dad would always bring me some Okonomiyaki from Sugi (a Japanese restaurant in Manila) on his way home from work and it always tasted so delicious. When I moved to Vancouver, MM and I were always excited to go to the Aberdeen center food court and to the Richmond night market to get some tasty Takoyaki.

Osaka isn't too far away from Kyoto. After checking into our hotel, we headed straight to Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori to get some fooood!

Entrance to Shinsaibashi

Shinsaibashi is great for shopping, but my favorite shops were the Disney store (2 floors of Disney!) and the Hello Kitty store. Photographs weren't allowed at the Hello Kitty store, but I managed to take one picture :)

Hello Kitty store at Shinsaibashi

We decided to skip the shops and go directly to Dotonbori for some Takoyaki first. Of course, I spotted a store selling more Pocky in Dotonbori so I made a quick detour before continuing our Takoyaki hunt. There was a huge octopus outside one of the food stalls, so we decided that place must be good. If they invested on a huge octopus to attract customers, they must also know how to cook their octopus balls, right?

First Takoyaki stop

We ordered two kinds of Takoyaki. I think one was with bacon and another had cheese. To be honest though, it's not much different from the Takoyakis I've had in Vancouver. The ones in Vancouver are probably even better. I prefer my Takoyaki crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, but the ones we had in Osaka were more soggy all around. Still delicious though. Takoyakis are just like chocolate. It will always be good no matter what.

Took this shot while chatting with the friendly Takoyaki chefs

Mmmmm... good!

Our stomachs were full after this so we walked around a bit before having another round of Takoyaki. There was so much to see! All the shops were very well decorated. Aside from the huge octopus, there were giant everythings - crabs, chefs, pufferfish, racoons, you name it!

Dotonbori

More of Dotonbori

Ok, enough looking around, time to eat some more! We only had a day or so in Osaka, so we wanted to eat as much as we can. Our next Takoyaki stop was at Creo-ru. I thought this was better than the last one just because I thought that having my Takoyaki with a soft boiled egg was sort of interesting.

There wasn't much else to see. We went to the Glico billboard to take another million pictures, and after that, went back to Shinsaibashi to shop.

Glico billboard at night

After visiting all the pharmacies so MM could get her cosmetics and after revisiting the Disney store, our feet were starting to get sore. We knew we had to continue roaming around til dinnertime though because we had plans to go to Mizuno for Okonomiyaki. However, we were also very very tired and I could no longer move my feet. There weren't any benches in sight so MM suggested (and may I add that this was a genius idea) that we enter one the shoe stores and pretend to try on some shoes. We must have sat there pretending to try on shoes for about an hour and believe it or not, MM actually ended up buying a pair of shoes. I would have bought a pair myself if I hadn't already run out of luggage space with all the Pocky and KitKats I bought. Who knew Japanese high heels were so comfortable? No wonder most women we saw in Japan walked around in heels all the time. When we finally finished shopping our hearts out, we went back to Dotonbori in search of Mizuno.

Dotonbori at night

More Dotonbori at night

There wasn't much of a wait at Mizuno because we went there pretty early. We were seated after about 30 mins and since we were still so full, we ordered only two Okonomiyakis. The pancakes were cooked right in front of us, which added some fun to the meal. I only took raw pancake pictures because I didn't want oil to splatter on my camera.

Now, I want some Okonomiyaki... Drat! After writing this post, I realized I didn't really eat enough in Osaka. Maybe next time I visit Japan, it will be for a full two weeks so I'll have more time for food. :)