Dear T, Thank you for reading our blog and wishing us well! After reading some of our posts, you probably know us better than you think! We are having a very good time in Japan! We’ve been looking forward to it for our entire trip, in part because Japanese food is our favorite. Osaka—our first…
When we last left our beleaguered heroes, they were collapsing into a fancy bed after a long day of travel. So, it comes as no surprise that by the time they woke up, got ready, and figured out the Osaka trains, it was one in the afternoon. And they were hungry. They saw that the subway station had a…
I was recently asked: Based on all of the places you’ve been…, which one has been the best of all? We have liked many of the places we’ve visited, so picking a single “best” one isn’t easy. I’ll consider the following criteria: People: Is the city diverse? Are the people interesting? Are they generally nice?…
We were in Osaka for almost a week, and here is what we saw: 1) Kuromon Market: This is an excellent food market that leans heavily toward seafood. Unlike other fish-related markets, it isn’t smelly or dirty, and the path through the stalls is wider than many markets we’ve seen. We ate here several times, and I could go…
Our first day in Japan was not our smoothest arrival. Our flight got us into Osaka (the second- or third-largest city, depending on how you count) at 10:30 pm local time. Check-in at our long-stay apartment-style hotel closed at midnight, and a cab was supposed to take half an hour, so we needed to make it through baggage,…
We didn’t see as much of Kyoto as we might have liked, but there were still a few things that surprised us about the city: In many of the Kyoto subway stations, the subway worker – dressed like the conductor from the Shining Time Station show we watched as children – often says ‘Thank you’…
Neighborhood: Yamashina-ku Also Called: Otowa? Pros: It is a residential neighborhood, so you can see how people really live here. It’s pretty, with mountains and cherry blossom trees nearby. It’s quiet. It has plenty of dining options—though many are chains—and the employees/servers are very nice. It is right on a major subway line through the city, so…
Neighborhood: Tennoji-ku (ward) Also Called: N/A Pros: It was within walking distance or a short subway ride to almost everything we wanted to see, from a distinctive Japanese puppet show to their Times Square-like area. It felt safe, but that was true of everywhere we visited in Osaka, so not sure if that merits mentioning. It was…
Here are some things we were surprised by in Osaka: Subway cars have heating vents underneath the seats, so you feel like your feet and/or butt are being warmed. Excellent idea! Toilet seats are also heated. An even better idea! They generally have a lot of features, from a bidet-like sprayer to a sound-making machine to cover the…