Osaka & Kobe (Day 1 --> One Day in Osaka City)

17th September 2011

Since 19th September was holiday.  One of my friend planned a trip to Osaka and Kobe from 17th to 19th September. To go to Osaka from Kumamoto, Shinkansen cost around 18000 yen. Although bus was cheaper at 8000 yen. I was not ready to take night bus and it would take 10 hours. So, after much searching, 3 of us took flight and it cost us 14000 yen. We took ANA airline.

Our flight reached Osaka Itami airport at 9.05am and we took monorail to Hotarugaike 蛍池. It was so expensive, it cost 200 yen for 2 minutes ride. Then, took another train to Ikeda 池田 using Hankyu Takarazuka line 阪急宝塚線. After that, we waited inside the station for other friends from Tokyo. After we gathered, then we walked to Instant Ramen Museum. Entrance was free. The main attraction was that you can custom made your own cup of Ramen for 300 yen. Inside the museum, there were explanations about how the inventor Momofuku Ando 安藤百福 invented the first instant noodle. The first instant noodle flavour was 'chicken flavour'. There was an animation about how Mr. Ando created the first instant noodle cup, it was very funny. Other than that, there was a wall full of instant noodle cups, ranging from big, small, round, square, cute, colourful, etc. Then, there were footages of the old advertisement for the instant noodle, so cute! However, the funniest thing was to custom made our own Ramen cup. First, need to pay 300 yen, then a cup will be given for you to draw on it. After that, choose the flavour you want, there are a lot of ingredients to choose from. After that, queue up to have the cup vacuum and packaged. The most difficult part was to draw on the cup, I was a very bad painter. Among all our friends, my cup was the worst. So, I decided not to keep the noodle cup as a souvenier and ate that as a breakfast the next morning. After a tour of Instant Ramen Museum, we decided to skip Osamu Tezuka Museum 手塚治, a famous Manga artist in Japan due to time constraint.

Dolls sold as souvenier in the Instant noodle museum, so cute!

The father of instant noodle, Momofuku Ando

the wall of instant cup noodle

I like this design the best! (Chicken ramen cup)

the custom made Noodle cup procedure

the museum workers busy helping to make a cup noodle

my ramen cup! Had it eaten the next day.

After lunch of Okonomiyaki (Osaka version was a little bit different from the Hiroshima version), we went to Tsutenkaku 通天閣 (a tower), a famous landmark in Osaka. This was the place that really tested my patience. The queue was so long that we waited almost 2 hours standing there only. There were a lot of vending machines selling souveniers along the way. After queueing up like forever, finally we got to go up to the floor where the Billiken statue was located. According to the brochure, Billiken (God of Good Luck) was created by an American artist from her dream. Tsutenkaku was first built in 1912, however, it was dismantled in 1943 to provide raw material for the war. By 1956, the tower was rebuilt due to the local citizens lobbying. However, when it was rebuilt, the original Biliken statue went missing, so a new replica was made using photograph. It was believed that if you rub his feet, your wish will come true. I did go and rub the feet. After that, going one round and took elevator to go down. 

a shop that sells Okonomiyaki in Osaka

Okonomiyaki (Osaka style)

illumination on top of the elevator in Tsutenkaku

Illumination on top of the elevator in Tsutenkaku

the statue of Billiken

Next, we had Takoyaki 章魚焼 at a nearby stall which was rumoured to be very famous. It was nice.

saw this colourful van outside Tsutenkaku

very delicious Takoyaki

Then, we were on the move again to find the restaurant we had booked earlier for the crab dinner. There were so many branch of that shop. We walked quite far to find that shop. Along the street, we could see that there are a lot of shops with interesting labels. Not a bad place to walk and shop.

sushi shop

not sure what kind of shop is this

also not sure what the shop sells

I think this is souvenier shop

maybe sell cloths?

However, the dinner was heaven although I wouldn't think of crab for a few weeks after that. There were so many crab dishes. Even the toilet broadcast the crab song, the lyrics was like "かに.....かに......" (かに=kani=蟹=crab). One of my friend who had to go toilet to do her business was so troubled by the kani song and she claimed that she almost fainted due to that song. Hahahah! 

the famous shop for crab

even the chopsticks holder was crab shaped

raw crab (nice!!)

crab rice

crab dish (the cover was crab too!)

crab dish

the bowl to keep all the shells after eating, full!

After a very full crab dinner. We went to a Umeda 梅田 tower for the night view of Osaka. It was called the Lumi Sky Walk. The view was very impressive. The building itself was very futuristic in design. The observatory floor was glittering under the night sky. There was a Lumi Deck for lovers where the light will changes and finally a heart shape will appear. It was so romantic. I actually saw a couple that kisses for so long that after I finish touring the whole Sky Walk, they were still kissing. After that, I went to the souvenier shop and bought a post card to send home. There was a rubbish bin that looked like post box, they even posted a note to tell people it was not a post box, there must be a lot of people who insert their post card into the wrong bin. 

the Lumi sky walk

the night view of Osaka city

the night view of Osaka city

in my opinion, it does looked like post box

the real post box

Finally, we went back to our hostel and give ourselves a good night sleep.

Day 1: Osaka City (this post)
Day 2: Universal Studio
Day 3: Kobe one day trip

For itinerary of my trip, please click the link below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/102820312/Osaka-Kobe-3-Days-Trip-Itinerary