Hello everyone and welcome to the first post of Around the World with Becky! I’d like to think our city guides are not comprehensive but reviews of what we encountered and some recommendations for young professionals, if you’re in a city for a short period of time. Think of them as 72-hour highlight reels.

So – on to Japan, and what to do in Osaka.

Osaka itself is very much a business city and I found it didn’t have a bunch of things that interested me personally, but it’s the closest airport to Kyoto. You can also buy train tickets to many nearby cities, but since it has a long history of being a business center, there’s not a whole lot of touristy things to do. However, the benefit of this is that there are less crowds and that it’s a little cheaper, so if there are certain Japanese chains or shopping that you’d like to get done, Osaka is a good place to cross that off your list.

Flight plan:

Chicago – San Francisco – Osaka, or ORD-SFO-KIX for all you avgeek nerds out there ;).

Eats: Specialties of Osaka and food we encountered
Okonomiyaki: This is Osaka’s most famous dish exported to all of Japan, basically a type of Japanese savory pancake with eggs, shredded cabbage, some sort of protein and topped with a variety of condiments. You should try this in Osaka specifically!

Takoyaki: I feel like this is something that everyone is excited to eat in Japan, but I actually don’t love the authentic versions. It’s a fried dough ball with vegetables and octopus or squid, but usually a little undercooked and it’s supposed to be a little goey. My whole family was expecting a crunch but it was very soft. Everything else about it was great; I’m just going to make these at home and cook them for a little longer.

Kanidouraku Dotombori-Honten: This is one of Osaka’s most famous restaurants and is located prominently in Dotonbori: it has a huge crab sculpture over its entrance. It’s hard to miss, and features crab as its specialty. This was the best crab I’ve ever eaten. We had it steamed, raw sashimi style (this we saved to put in the hot-pot as we found the texture offputting), in a steamed egg custard (chawanmushi), and hot-pot style and more. It’s a little pricey for the set, but the service and theater of the set meal (example, watch them prepare the hot-pot broth with egg!) and it’s delicious. Definitely worth a shot. We went in the late afternoon and were lucky that there wasn’t much of a wait due to the off-hour, but be prepared to make a reservation.

Things to See & Do:

Osaka Castle: This is the main tourist site of Osaka and holds some historical significance, and is a cool tour if you walk around inside as it documents the history of the complex and the clan that controlled it. However, as far as activities to do aside from walk around, it’s a little lacking.

Hello world, it’s Becky:

Dotonbori/Dotombori: I would describe Dotonbori as, Times Square is to New York City as Dotonbori is to Osaka. It’s the one hugely central site that is made up of a ton of restaurants and shopping establishments, and even a few entertainment places. For me, this photo pretty accurately captures Japan and a lot of Asian countries’ building styles; looking at it makes me miss Asia and specifically, Taiwan as well.

Tsutenkaku Tower: This is a tower kind of similar to Seattle’s Space Needle and great for views of Osaka. There is a cute boutique and café at the top, but it’s not a must-see.

Prayer cards at a shrine:

Dressing in a kimono in the Japanese style: In actuality, you can do this almost anywhere in Japan but I did this in the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living: a reproduction of different houses and streets in the style they would have looked like hundreds of years ago. Wearing a kimono is a really cool experience but can get expensive quickly, and stifling if you do it in the warmer summer months.

Not pictured:

Nara: This is the city famous for the “domesticated” wild deer where you are able to pet the wild deer and even feed them from your hand because they aren’t afraid! I really regret not doing this when I was in Japan.

Thank you for making it to the end! Let us know what you think and if you’ve been to Osaka – what have we missed? Sound off in the comments below