13 November 2023
Korea practice
Bibimbap in Osaka
Currently I plan to go back to Korea for the 6th time next April. I have been going there a lot since COVID because Japan kept me locked out. So what better way to look forward to my next trip with still 11 days of my current trip to go than to go eat some Korean food?
Actually it was not my first choice but the Coco curry place I went to had sold out of nearly everything, so I still have not been to Coco on this trip.
Before going for my Korean food court treat I wandered along the canal at canal level for a while, headed underground and went the wrong way, crossed the road to America-mura, lined up for a handbag... all the things you might do.
Actually the central area of Osaka is surely the busiest retail area of all of Japan, surpassing Shinjuku and Shibuya and Ikebukuro and Ueno and every other city within Tokyo, where as Osaka is mainly the strip between Umeda and Namba.
I guess it is a bit like Sydney and Melbourne, Sydney has lots of satellite city areas so people spread out, where as Melbourne focuses everything at the one central location so the middle of the city is significantly busier than the middle of Sydney.
That's my theory anyway. It's probably wrong.
A rare sign indeed in Japan, lot's of places are still militant about NO PHOTO.
Because of the sign, I obliged. This is in the Edion. So many out of stock cameras still. Fujifilm has banned people in Japan from even ordering their cameras due to the backlog.
I headed underground and thought I was going north but was really going east. That was really confusing actually.
So I had to double back to Dotonbori. Not so busy at this point, but when I returned to my hotel later on it was so busy I detoured around the main part.
Down at the water level there was almost no one. Kind of strange that people avoid going 10 steps down to check out the view at sewer level.
This is actually a ferris wheel of sorts, going around the Donki. I assume I have noticed it before but I could not recall, I will check my previous visits to see if I am losing my mind.
This area of the canal is very busy early on, all those people are lined up for the octopus testicle shop.
Osaka takes the Chinese favourite brand for money laundering very seriously.
This is now the start of America-mura. A lot of sports stores and gyms in this building which is bigger than it looks here.
America-mura is the place to go to buy blue jeans, hats with logos you do not recognise and other marijuana related clothing, all while listening to music with no actual music in the music. I stayed in a hotel on the next corner from here once, I remember it was pretty good.
After the Coco failure, I headed downstairs to go find a train station ramen option but instead found a food court. And it has protectice plastic sheeting between every chair and was not very busy at all, I was sold! And yes, I did get my meal from the pictured bibini, which is Japanese for bibim (presumably).
And here it is, all the best meals come on brown trays.
Tomorrow I go to Kyoto where I shall also stay for 4 nights. Will it be as busy as Osaka? Probably.