Osaka Adventures: 48 Hours in & around Japan's second city
Shipping container stays, eating okonomiyaki, real life Super Mario and an inter-island udon-inspired road trip
Just 15 minutes from Kyoto on the shinkansen, Osaka feels like a world away. Its vibrant central streets can make Kyoto seem twee and Tokyo feel buttoned up.
Is it as essential must-stay when pitted against the other two? Maybe not. Is it a great place to spend 48 hours? Absolutely.
For us, Osaka had two keys draws… the Dotonburi nightlife district and Super Nintendo World, part of Universal Studios Japan. As excitable as we are, we decided to tackle both on day one of our stay in Osaka.
As we were travelling from Kyoto that morning, we left our bags in lockers at Osaka’s Umeda station, before spending 15 minutes on the city’s busy Loop Line to Universal Studios Japan.
This theme park is home to many of the Universal Studios rides and experiences you’ll find in their US parks, including the legendary Jaws boat ride (which has long since been replaced in Florida). But it was the lure of Super Nintendo World that had motivated this leg of our trip - if not the whole trip as far as the kids were concerned.
As we’d come to expect with Japan, getting tickets to Universal Studios and then timed access to the Super Nintendo World area felt unnecessarily complicated. I will be covering the ticket buying and timed access process in a break out article for paid subscribers, as it warrants a word count all of its own.
I am delighted to say that we just about navigated the system to gain access to Super Nintendo World and despite the constraints of our timed access slot it was everything the kids had dreamed it would be. As well as the area’s big rides, visitors of all ages can don (paid for) wristbands that allow them to enter a series of real life Super Mario mini games, ultimately getting the chance to defeat big baddy Bowzer. This life-sized set of the Super Mario universe is mind-blowing, manic and quite frankly a little overwhelming. But for Mario-mad kids of all ages, there’s really nothing else like it.
With a hardcore 10 hours at a theme park under our belts, we retrieved our bags and headed to our exciting Osaka accommodation - a shipping container sat right in the city centre’s Namba district. While sadly it seems to have closed since, this stay was a great adventure thanks to its clever design, outdoor bath and having its very own vending machine. You’ll find it here on Insta, if you want to follow on the off chance they are only closed for refurbishment.
Bags deposited, we headed straight out on the hunt for street food in Osaka’s famous neon-lit Dotonburi district, a busy stretch of streets bordering a river of the same name. The area’s much-photographed lights and signs, including the iconic Glico Man are best-viewed from the Dotonburi bridge, where we paused to take pics before deciding what to eat. This nightlife district’s ample eateries, bars and amusements made it feel the closest we experienced to a traditional European tourist strip. There are stalls offering you the chance to shoot pellet guns to win sweets, brightly-lit restaurants and food kiosks that spill out onto the street a there’s a general air of frivolity, something we hadn’t experienced in Japan prior to this point.
Night one saw us partake in some shooting/sweet winning before heading down a quieter side streets to seek out one of Osaka’s best-known dishes, Okonomiyaki.
Through the power of Google Maps, I have found a small, apparently locally-loved Okonomiyaki shop. I ventured in to the tiny, smoky space and used the most handy Japanese phrase I had learned for the trip “yonin des” (meaning four people), in an attempt to secure a table. My awkward efforts were rewarded after a short wait when we were welcomed in to sit at a table with its own central griddle and sauce selection.
We knew that Okonomiyaki are pancake-come-fritatta type patties cooked to order with a choice of protein and toppings - but quite frankly we had no idea how this was achieved. The elderly couple running the cafe didn’t speak English, but the menu had handy images for us to optimistically point at and we were met with a mix of bemusement and indifference. While the lady owner poured us delicious fresh pints of Asahi from a tiny draft beer pump in the corner, we debated whether we would be expected to make our own Okonomiyaki on the griddle and if so, how we were actually going to go about that.
Fortunately, the couple sat next to us were served first and we tried to not look too nosey while noting how they expertly topped their Okonomiyaki after they were placed on the griddle, using the sauces and bonito flakes provides, before neatly cutting and serving it onto their plates. When our Okonomiyaki arrived they (and everyone else in the small cafe) repaid the favour by avidly watching our attempts to copy the process.
When we overdid the sauces and got them on the griddle there was a collective but not unkind chuckle and when my husband managed to pretty accurately copy the process and the kids and I cheered, everyone else cheered along with is. The whole experience was fun, awkward and memorable. Most importantly the Okonomiyaki were just as delicious as we had hoped they would be.
Never ones to stand still, day two in Osaka was even busier, as hired a mini van and headed off to explore the islands to the south of the city, before returning late for more Dotonburi fun, sampling legendary local delights including Takoyaki (fried octopus dough balls) and Kushikatsu (a mix of breaded, deep-fried things on skewers) then making our way to Round One Stadium, said to be Japan’s best amusement arcade, for grabbers, dance games and more before bedtime (if you visit with children check the hours they are allowed to be in the building… we managed to overstay and get asked to leave).
Our one day road trip itinerary from Osaka included exciting Japanese service stations, lunch on the Kagawa Prefecture’s “Udon Trail”, hitting the beach in the Kochi Prefecture and visiting the home of the Bonito flake.
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