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Some words that regularly get thrown around a lot for Osaka are “smaller” and “laid back” in comparison to Tokyo, which of course could easily be misconstrued as it being some kind of little beach town, not so. Its still a large\u00a0city with plenty of hustle and bustle, to put things into perspective, Melbourne is Australia’s most densely populated city at 430\/km2 while Osaka crams in over 12000\/km2! So while it may only have a population of Brisbane its shoe horned into the space of the Cook Islands. That said, the only real difference between Tokyo is they stand to the opposite side of escalators. Tokyo = left, Osaka = right. Weird since they both drive on the same side of the road, either way, we’re just glad there’s -some- etiquette and commonsense! (Yes I’m looking at you Australia, get your act together! :p )<\/p>\n
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Travel tip: In Osaka, we chose to stay at the Hearton Hotel (Nishi Umeda), a short walk from Osaka station with the majority being undercover thanks to a short mall which joins the station. The mall is pretty much all restaurants and cafes (bar the token electronics store) so its perfect to grab a bite at the start or end of the day. There is also delis, fresh fruit and bakeries\/dumpling huts(with some of the biggest pork buns we have ever seen!) along with Auntie May’s Pretzels (not as good as Wetzel’s but a worthy substitute) and McDonald’s inside the train station.<\/em><\/p>\n Ah the wet season, always just enough rain that you need some kind of protection but its too hot and muggy to wear a hardshell so a brolly is the way to go. $5-10 from just about anywhere or just borrow one from the many that are left at entrances of the train stations, just remember to pay it forward \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Nipponbashi aka Den Den Town<\/strong><\/p>\n Our original plan was to stop off at the Shitennoji Temple markets<\/em>, one of the biggest in the area but with the rain unrelenting as we exited Tennoji station<\/em> (closest to the temple) we made the executive decision to turn straight back around and head to back Nanba. This is where the JR pass pays for itself, no need to worry about paying again on a failed mission.<\/p>\n Walking out of Nanba station<\/em> had a instantly strange small town feel, gone were the towering skyscrapers of shiny glass and metal and in its place, a “main drag” of a small town\u2026comparatively. Not to the point of only a fish and chip shop and a pub but awning covered footpaths, a two way street that wasn\u2019t as wide as it was long and far less signage and neon lights bearing down on you. Many buildings were still about 6 stories tall so there wasn\u2019t a chance of seeing a horse and carriage. The best part, there’s no need for any kind of navigation, it basically just one long street centered on Sakaisuji Avenue<\/em>.<\/p>\n Travel tip: Walk out of Nanba station East exit (follow the signs to Den Den Town) then turn right into Sakaisuji. One of the first shops is tourist info if you need a map or extra help getting around.<\/em><\/p>\n Den Den town<\/strong> is Osaka’s answer to Tokyo’s Akiba<\/a>, it\u2019s an electronic and toy haven\u2026 just on a smaller scale, but what it lacks in variety it makes up for in savings. Prices were all noticeably less here, a quick scan of the Bandai model kit section saw most kits $5-10AU cheaper than their big city counterpart.<\/p>\n Laox<\/a> and its countless clone stores handled the electronics side of things but it was the toy shopping that tweak our interest with Super Kids Land<\/strong> leading the charge. Five floors of specialties from general collectibles to model kits to air guns and RC vehicles to trains and a whole floor dedicated to Tamiya. If you have any sort of passing interest in any of those things, you may want to budget a bit of time here \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Other stores of mention, Herogangu<\/a>: very similar to Mandarake<\/strong>, a big variety of toys, collectibles and memorablia. Check out the “best Optimus Prime halloween costume everrrr”, and Astro Zombies<\/a> (of rockin toyland), worthy of a look on name alone, but there’s much more to this store. \u00a0One of the more quirkier stores we’ve come across, it not only sports the usual fair but takes a hard left into pop culture and movie related items\u00a0from resin casts and busts to masks and props. For those not able to make it to the states, there’s also a big selection of vintage Americana related toys.<\/p>\n Used camera stores are also plentiful but contrary to belief f1.2 lenses aren’t just thrown away, most of the good\/usuable stuff has already been picked through or can be found cheaper online (and new!).<\/p>\n — If like us, you walked down one side of Sakaisuji Av<\/em> and up the other you’ll end up with the dilemma – do you keep walking to Dotonbori or walk back to Nanba station to catch a train to the next station and walk back from there? We figured since we were already walking to just keep going. It was only a km or two and we found a nice little spot for lunch along the way. The shops and scenery however dies off and it\u2019s a rather uneventful walk till you get to Dotonbori which is hard to miss with all the giant sea creature signs on the front of shops! It\u2019s a shopping and eating mecca and basically the go-to destination for all Osakian travellers. You could easily spend a day exploring both sides of the canal and the long covered shopping mall that runs perpendicular to it. Nike Osaka<\/strong> is also nearby if you’d like to try your luck for some regionally exclusive items. Photo tip: The Glico sign (makers of one of our fave snacks here and over there, Pocky<\/a>) can be clearly seen from one of the major canal bridge crossings and is common tourist attraction.<\/em><\/p>\n Heading a little further north you’ll come across Amerikamura<\/strong>, known locally as Ame-mura is kind of like a little America-town, doesn\u2019t quite have the same ring as Chinatown though and its relativity to America is pretty much only in the form of clothing shops with a hip hop angle (closest “wrong” American style food was probably the ice cream\/cream filled hotdog bun. We passed, something just not quite right about it\u2026 tho if they threw some bacon on it\u2026 \ud83d\ude09 ) so again, if you’re missing out on travelling stateside then this could very well be the stop for you, if of course, your wallet agrees. With the some what implied exoticness of all things American, clothing prices reflect that. Basic Adidas tees were around 4-5000Y and just like Harajuku there are plenty of guys of African persuasion trying to jive talk you into their store to give you the hard sell.<\/p>\n Travel tip: If you’d rather not be bothered or would like to browse in peace, give them a blank stare to imply you don\u2019t speak Japanese or English, they give up pretty quickly and move on to the next person<\/em> \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n The stand out for the area however will please the sneakerheads out there, there are several sneaker stores sporting the higher end models, namely Jordans but also a selection of local releases. There are even stores which have larger sizes for those that normally don\u2019t have much luck when travelling through Asia. Fine Crew Osaka<\/a> was one of the stand outs and clear lovers of the Jumpman.<\/p>\n Caps and head gear is covered by New Era dealer, On Spot<\/strong> which is conveniently on the way to our must-stop sneaker spot, K Skit<\/a>. Sadly though, many of their shelves were bare with remaining stock spread out, quite possibly waiting for their next shipment. It was definitely a stark contrast to their brimming Kichijoji store, none the less, its rather easy to find being above GStar Raw<\/strong>. \u00a0Just hope you don’t catch them on an off week!<\/p>\n With the rain unrelenting we made our way back to the hotel for some much needed rest and crossed our fingers it would give us a break the following day when we head to Kyoto!<\/p>\n If you have any questions on our travels, where to buy, what to do, hit us up on the Soulbridge media facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Japan 2013 part #1 \u2013 Arrival<\/a> Some words that regularly get thrown around a lot for Osaka are “smaller” and “laid back” in comparison to Tokyo, which of course could easily be misconstrued as it being some kind of little beach town, not so. Its still a large\u00a0city with plenty of hustle and bustle, to put things into perspective, Melbourne is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2241,2725,2518,388],"tags":[1830,2527,2526,2521,2522,2523,487,411,2519,2520,2524,2231,50,2525,100,488,391,595],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6017"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7609,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions\/7609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"IMAG1550-8\"](\"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMAG1550-8.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDotonbori<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nOn a clear day, jump aboard the mini ferris wheel to get a higher view of the area.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJapan 2013 part #2 – Tokyo International Toy Expo<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #3 \u2013 Gotemba \u2013 Premium Outlets mall<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #4 \u2013 Tokyo \u2013 Studio Ghibli Museum<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #5 \u2013 Tokyo \u2013 Kichijoji and Nakano<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #6 \u2013 Tokyo \u2013 Akihabara<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #7 \u2013 Tokyo \u2013 Tamiya HQ, Diver City<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #8 \u2013 Yokohama \u2013 Zoorasia<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #9 \u2013 Yokohama \u2013 Ramen Museum<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #10 \u2013 Nissan HQ and Yokohama<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #11 \u2013 Osaka \u2013 Nanba Shopping<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #12 \u2013 Kyoto<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #13 \u2013 Tokyo \u2013 Harajuku, Shibuya<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #14 \u2013 Osaka castle, Umeda Sky building<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #15 \u2013 Osaka Aquarium and Tempozan wheel<\/a>
\nJapan 2013 part #16 \u2013 Osaka Universal Studios<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"