JapanDay 3:
Woke up early in the morning!
Oh by the way, I haven’t shown you guys our room in Osaka!
It’s a traditional tatami room, where two tatami mats are placed together and a sheet is spread on top of the mats.
Though we were sleeping on the floor, its still very comfy.
Unlike cheap hotels in china, which are dirty and eerie looking, cheap hotels in japan are nonetheless clean and cosy!
Tennoji Area
The Tennoji area is the older area of Osaka, where old shrines and temples are located.
Sumiyoshitaisha Grand Shrine
This shrine is designated as a national treasure and many Japanese from all over Japan always visit the shrine to pray for the well-being for their family! Plus, the shrine is well-known for its protection for people in their travels. How can khai and I miss such a good chance to pray for protection?!!
And for some reason, we kept seeing Jap kids and saw a group of them at the shrine again!
They are so so cute!
You see the way they climb up the stairs of the bridge?? They are so adorable!
The stairs are actually quite steep, so in order to balance themselves, most of the kids are climbing the stairs on all fours with their butts facing me..hahaha..
In every shrine or temple, there will always be a well of water for you to cleanse yourself before you enter the shrine.
You can use the water to wash your hands, face etc. But don’t drink the water!
Wishes strung together!
The Japanese believe that after they pray to the gods, and after they 求签, they have to hang the slips of paper up so that all good luck will follow them and all bad luck will be carried away.
And many students hang these wooden planks to pray for passing grades and getting into good schools!
In the shrine, there are many 宝殿, each for different gods.
And at every 殿, there is a bell and a container for you to throw coins in. Before you pray, you are supposed to throw a coin into the container, pull the rope to ring the bell, clap twice and pray.
See how sincere I am!
There’s also a place that sells amulets. Jap amulets are really nice! Bought quite a lot back for my family and friends!
Shitennoji Temple
Japan’s oldest Buddhist temple.
Took us quite a long time to find the temple because it is actually located among resident areas and surrounded by rows of shops.
There was a book fair in the temple grounds.
The things they sell were quite interesting. There were many old gramophone records, old Japanese textbooks, oh and I even spotted Chinese textbooks!
Shin-Sekai
This area is where the Tsutenkaku Tower is located. The tower is said to be constructed in the same style as the Paris’s Eiffel Tower.
What do you think? Haha..
Looking at the rows of shops and with all the nice banners put up, you guys will probably think that this street is a bustling street. But nono, its actually a dead town!
Khai and I were like one of the very few people walking along the street. All the eateries there were almost empty!
There are many yakitori stores there, so we settled in one for our lunch.
Unfortunately, the menu was fully in Jap! Had a hard time ordering food!
Luckily, the really pretty waitress there was very patient with us and with her broken english and our broken jap we managed to order the stuff we wanted.
Up in the Tsutenkaku Tower.
The symbol of the Tower, this cute monkey look-alike thing. I forgot its name, its been too long since I’ve returned from Japan. Haha..
Tennoji Zoo
The zoo happened to be in the same area and we had a free entry pass to the zoo, so we went in.
But it was so boring we went in for 10mins, after taking a few pictures of the flamingoes, we came out!
Shopping at the Minami Area
Basically, Osaka has 2 main shopping areas and places for youngsters to hang out. One is the Minami area, and the other is the Kita area.
The Kita area has more departmental stores and upclass shopping, while the Minami area has more shopping streets and relatively cheaper stuff. So naturally, being poor students, we headed for the Minami area first!
Honestly, shopping is not exactly a fun thing in Japan. Everything here is so expensive! When we went over Japan was having their sale period, everywhere we went there were huge signs saying sale sale sale. But even after the sale, we can’t afford anything! The most basic top easily cost 50sing! No doubt there were many many nice things to buy, but the prices were also very impressive. Japan shopping is only fun for rich people!
So khai and I spent a lot of our time looking for cheap food!
We had this for snack.
Its actually a crunchy biscuit with some Jap sauce and mayonnaise. Tasted really good! For only 150yen!
Dotombori
The Dotombori district is a strategic landmark of the Minami area.
Actually there’s nothing much there, except rows of restaurants.
Dotombori Gokuraku Shopping Street
One of our main reasons of coming to the Minami area was because of this place. It was written in our guide book that this place is actually a gourmet place where we can experience food culture unique to Osaka. Hence Khai and I saved spaces in our stomach to have a good meal here!
But to our disappointment, there really weren’t much stuff here..and the food sold here were way too overpriced!
So in the end, we settled for MacDonalds. Haha..
Macs in japan do have some interesting things on their menu.
For example, Khai ordered a shrimp burger with real shrimps in it! She was so excited about it.
And I ordered a McChicken burger and Chocolate pie for only 100yen each!
Singapore should start coming up with such cheap Mac deals, then maybe I’ll start to frequent Mac.
Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street
There are many shops selling clothes, shoes, food and stuff. 100yen shops sprawl the street.
Oh and guys would love this – porn video shops, adult toys shops and show clubs (where guys can appoint girls they fancy to perform “shows” for them and charges are made by the duration of the show)!
Off to Tokyo!
Pack up to set off on an overnight bus to Tokyo.
For those of you traveling around Japan, you can consider taking an overnight bus which is probably the cheapest mode of transport around Japan. Plus you can actually save on accommodation.
