Another “punch card” place in Osaka is the Dotonbori District. This is the kind of place that my kids want to go where the benefits outweigh our dislike with crowds. The main objective, of course, was shopping along the Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street. And also to take a photo at the signature Glico man billboard.
Shinsaibashi Shopping Street
Similar to many other Japanese shopping strips, it was a covered street with shops on both sides, only that it was longer and shops have more floors than Nara or outskirt towns.
We spent quite a bit of time in the Daiso store. 5 storeys and my girls were only the ones excited about it. Interestingly, the things they sell there were very different, not available and cheaper than in Singapore branches. We ended up buying more stuff than we need. But mostly Japanese snacks. There were also shoes we bought. But not so much of clothes as the season was winter. No practicality if we buy those for use back home.
Dotonbori River
A To and Flo trip on Shinsaibashi Street took us the whole afternoon, including lunch at a restaurant within. When the sun is setting, we chilled at the Dotonbori River, rest our legs to enjoy the evening twilight and see the street transform into night lights.
Dotonbori Food Street
Instead of looking for another restaurant for dinner we decided we would buy a more variety of foods from the Dotonbori food streets south of the Dotonbori river. Some of the famous billboards were replicated elsewhere in the world, including the octopus and pufferfish.
We had grilled Kobe beef, sushi, tuna sashimi, the famous Osaka Takoyaki and many more. There was also a live demonstration of cutting tuna.
Overall, it was a really nice day. Long walks for shopping tire us in the first half of the day but the really nice street food more than made up for it.
gobassky.