Shinsaibashi 心斎橋, Japan Trip (Day 11)

6th January 2014, Tuesday

Today, we were supposed to go Nara but it was raining very heavily when we woke up. So we decided to go to Osaka Castle instead. We asked the hotel staff on the direction to the castle after we had our breakfast. He told us to alight at Midoribashi station and walk for around 20 to 30 mins to the castle and so we went off, without umbrellas, just our jackets' hoods. Then we took the metro until the station but when we alighted at the station, there wasn't any sign or direction to the castle. So we went upstairs and checked with the station staff. He told us to go to Morinomiya station (1 station down) and then walk for about 30 mins to the castle. We almost wanted to faint, have to walk for 30 mins to reach the castle. Ok, so we went down to the platform again and took the metro back to the correct station. This time, there was signs to direct us to the exit to the castle and so we went up to the street level. But it was still raining very heavily outside and to walk under the rain for 30 mins....So we gave up, instead we took the metro to Shinsaibashi station instead to look for Apple Store as we had problem on the new iPads wifi connectivity.

 Inside Shinsaibashi Staion

Pom's Farm Restaurant

Once we reached Shinsaibashi station, we tried to find the directions to the Apple store. We did managed to find the exit nearer to it but it was still raining heavily and there was no shelter too. So we went back down to the station and we started to walk in the station as there was a very very long underground shopping area. We just walked and window-shopping at the place, there were restaurants and many shops too. Halfway, there was an escalator going up to the street level, so i decided to go up instead. And to my surprise, we were at Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Arcade (which i realized i came here too during my first Japan trip in year 2009). This is the central shopping street which connects to these 2 places: Umeda and Namba. And we turned to our right and started exploring the street, there were many branded shops like H&M, Uniqlo, Face Shop, Sanrio Garden, Disney Store etc. My friend started looking for her expensive shampoo and they were selling cheaper in Japan as it was a Japan brand. We also saw a Pablo branch selling the cheesecake and we wanted to buy it but as it was too early, so we decided not to buy it first. Then we managed to catch sight of the Apple building and Nike building. So we crossed the road to the Apple shop first and went and asked 1 of the staffs on the the wifi connectivity issue. He told us could be the hotel wifi signal was weak but we don't really believe him cos my old ipad was able to connect it properly. Anyway we can't let them to do a check cos we didn't brought our ipads out. So we just left and went to Nike shop instead to continue our shopping walk.We had a crepe from a stall called Crepe Ojisan beside an amusement center, it was selling all crepe at $390 yen for only today. And there was a queue, so we went to buy one too....hehehe...The crepe smelled and tasted really nice and i got a nice hot chocolate drink too.

Crepe Ojisan

Taiko Drum Machine

After the nice crepe and hot chocolate, i jioed my friend to play Taiko Drum with me. 1 game was only 100 yen for 3 songs..cheaper than playing in SG.....shiok....After playing, we continued walking down the streets and into those shops selling all sorts of stuffs (like our value shops). We continued walking until we stopped by Pablo cafe. As it was already about 2 plus and we haven't had our lunch too so we went in. We got a small original cheesecake set, it comes with the cheesecake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Then we went upstairs to sit down, ahhhh....finally can rest my feet for a awhile. Inside the cafe, there was a video showing on how to make the perfect cheesecake (which is of course, Pablo) and it was showing a pretty lady making a prefect man. It was quite funny and interesting, idea.

Pablo Cheesecake Set

Staffs Dancing

Then after some time, the music suddenly got louder. I was wondering why the music got louder and then we saw 2 of the Pablo cafe staffs started to dance in the cafe. Hehehe....One of the guys was featured in their own video too, singing one of the songs from Frozen - Love is an Open Door but in Japanese. Everyone in the cafe was surprised when they started dancing and after that, everyone was enjoying the performance. After the nice performance, everyone gave their applause and continued eating their nice cheesecake. We too left the cafe after finishing and continued with our walk. Just beside the cafe, there was a Italian restaurant selling Naples Pizzas...kekeke....didn't managed to try it. Then we continued to walk until Dotonbori (Namba area), where we saw the buildings with the lighted up signs. One of the famous one which normally see on tv was the Glico sign, a runner reaching the finishing line. Then of course, also saw those famous dinning restaurants like Kani Doraku (the restaurant with the giant movable crab). And the bbq crabs smells really really nice. Then we also saw the King of Gyoza and a shop with giant octopus selling Tako. We continued walking, the whole street was full of food, beef, noodles, crabs, bbq scallop, etc. We kept walking until we came to a building where the 1st level was amusement center, and there was bowling alleys (from level 6 to 10, total of 42 lanes) and a 24 hours KTV. We went up to check out the bowling alley, the balls were highlighted colors and they played in the dark, where the balls will shine (if play at night time). Each game costs $650 yen and $370 yen rental for the shoes. There was darting boards too at the service counter. But we didn't went and play, so we went off and went across to the next street, where there was a big BIC Camera building. We kept walking until quite far in and we don't see the end point of the shopping street too....soooo long and i don't know whether we covered half of it anot...hahaha...

Boiled Snow Crab Legs

Snow Crab Legs Sashimi

Snow Crab Hot Pot

As it was getting dark, we walked back to Dotonbori and went for snow crabs dinner at Kani Doraku.  I bought a bbq scallop along the street to try, it was $400 yen per piece. It was quite big and not bad too. Then we went into the restaurant, and the manager held the lift for us while we 2 were busy taking photos of the giant crabs in a tank near the entrance....hehhee.. There were 2 lady staffs welcoming us when we came out from the lift (it went up to level 2 or 4). She told us to take off our shoes and brought us to our table. We had to sit on the floor when our legs under the table. The staff also passed us the ipad for ordering and we ordered a set meal, which consists of a crab hot pot, crabs sashimi, boiled crabs, bbq crabs, rice porridge and fruit. The snow crab legs were very fresh and sweet, we liked the sashimi best. Then we had the hot pot...nice...but it got salty towards the end. And the staff came and used the remaining soup to cook our rice porridge. Before she poured in the rice, she got us to try whether the soup was too salty. If it was too salty, she will add in more water and let it boil for some time and let us try again. Once the soup was ok, she poured in the rice and started cooking it. And later, she also poured in an egg to mix with the rice. The rice porridge was nice too...hehehe...After the nice and yummy crabs dinner, we went down to level 1 and paid for our dinner. After that, we walked back to the bridge and walked along the canal. All the mechanized signs were all lighted up in the night. Then we walked until Ebisu Bashi-Suji shopping street, we continued to walk along it. Went to check out their Daiso shop, it was 2 storey high. Then we continued walking down along the street, came across another shop selling cheesecake. We tried a tiny bit from their sample, it was quite tasty, something like Uncle Tetsu cheeckcake in Ion. Then we continued walking and saw a very big Takashimaya building. But it was closed, so we can't go up and explore.

Glico Runner

Dotonbori Canal

Yummy Cheesecake

Takashimaya Building

Then we continued to walk some more to see as much as we can but most shops had already closed for the day. Hohohoho....and as usual, we walked until so lost. We had no idea where we were and we didn't even see any metro station around too. We walked until almost 10 plus, passed by a shop selling porn videos too...hehehe....Went in a 24 hours mini mart and asked for directions and bought a pink Pesi drink (cherry flavor but not very strong cherry taste). We ended up at one of the stations (Ebisucho station) on the brown metro line. So we just took the metro from there and changed to the green line to go back to our hotel. The train for the brown line was nicer and cleaner too. We were surprised that our bath curtains got changed to a cleaner one, with no stains. And so i can do my hot bath, while my friend went downstairs to surf the net with her ipad. After my bath, i just lied on the bed and watched TV. Was watching a Japanese program on some facts and frictions...It was showing on a fact that you can use Mayo sauce or Coke to chill down the wasabi spicy effect. And there was a poor guy who had to eat the one big chunk of wasabi and using the different ingredient to try to see whether it helps. He tried with normal green tea, mayo sauce, coke and milk. Milk was the bad drink to go with wasabi cos milk triggered the wasabi spiciness more. When he drank down the milk after eating the wasabi, he was crying out that he had to throw out the wasabi chunk from his mouth. Can really see it was very very spicy.....hehehee.... Another fact was how to slice an egg into 5 pieces without having the egg yolk in a mess. You just have to freeze a raw egg for 7 hours and then peel off the shells. And you can slice the egg with the egg yolk still frozen. Then after slicing, you can fry the egg slices and you can share one egg with 5 or 8 people. It was quite interesting but i think i was sleeping on and off throughout the show, until my friend came back. And she was happily telling me my old ipad cannot connect to the hotel wifi but the new ipad can.... -_-"....Then it was rest time for the both of us.....

Hotel Stayed:
Humor Resort New Oriental Hotel