Today marks the halfway point of our 30 days in Osaka, so I’m taking a step away from posting chronologically to record our experience thus far. But I promise to post about Tokyo, Hakone, Atami, and Kyoto, all of which we visited between Hanoi and here, in the next few weeks. We loved our time in Osaka six years ago so much (read about it here and here). Would this stay live up to our memory?
Short answer: YES!!!!!!
Our first two weeks in Osaka have been marvelous and I would say even better than our first. For one thing, our Airbnb is much larger, probably two and a half times the size of our prior place here, though it is a studio and that earlier one had a “wall” enclosing the bedroom.
Though not everything feels new like last time, the familiarity of revisiting some old favorites (hello, conveyor belt sushi and noodle bowl lunches) brings its own joy and pleasure. We’ve also been able to enjoy quite a few activities in our first two weeks, even though we’ve been playing catch up from taking almost 10 days off as we traveled here from Hanoi. Here are some of the highlights so far:
Shinsekai
In addition to being more spacious, our Airbnb is also located in our favorite part of Osaka, Shinsekai. This neighborhood is the epitome of retrofuturism. According to the internet, it was developed in the early 20th century with the Tsutenkaku Tower as its centerpiece (which was built in 1912 and apparently inspired by the Eiffel Tower). The area was neglected in the years of struggle after World War II and then revitalized at some point as a tourist attraction with carnival games and street foods. The big specialty is kushikatsu, deep-fried foods on sticks. There are dozens of different foods to try in that style, though we haven’t ventured too far beyond seafood and veggies. We love the crazy signs, the lights, and especially the tower. It’s also right next to Tennoji Park.
Six years ago, we had our best nights out in Shinsekai, so when we saw an Airbnb in this area, we jumped on it. We weren’t sure we’d love it: normally we’re not big on staying in the heart of tourist zones. But it’s actually been perfect for us. We’re much closer to transit stations than at our place six years ago and have great access to restaurants, konbini (convenience stores), a produce seller, and supermarkets within walking distance. Chad even joined a gym that is a 10-minute walk away, because while Tennoji Park is nice, it doesn’t have great trails for running.
Park Days
Speaking of parks, they’ve been another highlight of our first two weeks. We’ve reinstituted our usually European tradition of having a park day each weekend.
For our first Saturday, we went to the park by Osaka Castle. We bought food for a picnic from 7-Eleven, including their green smoothie, for which you buy a frozen cup of cut-up vegetables that gets mixed onsite in their smoothie machine. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of Japanese families out picnicking. We found a nice shady spot and had a lovely time, then walked all around the castle grounds. It was too crowded for us to be tempted to go into the castle, which we never did on our last trip to Osaka either. It’s on our “maybe list” for our last two weeks here. I know the history will be interesting but it always seems so busy.
Our second park day was in the midst of Golden Week, a string of four Japanese holidays within a single week that Japanese people tend to vacation around. Since we knew there’d be more domestic tourists out for the weekend, we went south away from the main part of Osaka to Sumiyoshi Park. We were able to reach it on the streetcar line that originates from Ebisucho station right by our Airbnb.
This time we got our picnic from Lawson’s and found a spot near the pond in the park. Once again there were tons of Japanese families out picnicking too, which we like to see. It was fun watching the little kids try to feed the birds and catch butterflies. There were several large herons by the water that were especially fun to watch.
After walking around the park, we went across the street to Sumiyoshi Taisha, a shinto shrine. It is particularly connected with prayers for prosperity and has a tradition similar to one of the big shrines in Tokyo of people purchasing a little prosperity cat for each visit. We read that people visit each month and buy a little cat figurine, and then 48 of them can be exchanged for a larger figurine, which I guess is when your prosperity prayers really start to take off. We’ve found it very interesting to learn a little about Shintoism with each of our shrine visits. If we learned much about it six years ago, it didn’t really stick.
After the park and shrine, we took the train north to the Kyocera Dome area to have a riverside drink at a chill-looking bar I’d noticed. The bar was a bit more lively on a Saturday but a great atmosphere to enjoy a beer by the river to cap off our park day. We ended up coming back to Shinsekai for dinner in our own neighborhood, because there are so many places we want to try. We got initial appetizers at a sidewalk standing bar we walk past frequently, which was a fun experience next to a very elderly Japanese man who really wanted to talk to us despite him knowing no English and us no Japanese. Then we walked around Shinsekai and had our second course at one of the kushikatsu restaurants, where we were able to get super-cheap bowls of udon soup and a very delicious gojuchang chicken.
Orix Buffaloes Baseball Game
In between the two park days, we went to a Nippon Professional Baseball league game on a Wednesday evening. Six years ago we’d gone to see the Hanshin Tigers, which are just outside of Osaka. This time we chose the Orix Buffaloes, who play at the Kyocera Dome a little ways northwest from our neighborhood. It was good we didn’t want to go back to the Tigers because in researching how to buy tickets, I learned that Tigers home game tickets have been sold out since February. The Buffaloes tickets weren’t the easiest to get either, not because of selling out but because you have to register for an account on their very challenging Japanese website. However, we got it to work with the help of ChatGPT and purchased cheap tickets on the first base side so we’d be close to the main home fans in right field.
We got up to the area about an hour before the game and spent a little time walking along the riverfront, which is when I noticed the bar we went back to on the weekend. The dome itself is pretty cool-looking, though a little rundown. It was my first experience seeing a game in a dome, which I have to say is not as enjoyable as being in an outdoor stadium. But we had a great time watching the game (a 5-0 blowout, which made it especially fun) and trying the food and drinks.
We tried a couple flavors of chu-hi, a shochu highball (we got grapefruit and grape), two kinds of karaage (fried chicken) without sauce and then with yuzu (sour citrus) sauce, and had a tartar dog, which was half sausage, half fried shrimp.
The atmosphere was a different but equally memorable experience as our Hanshin Tigers game. We found it interesting that the home fans are basically silent when the opposing team is batting, as their away fans in left field sing their players’ songs for each at bat. There’s no organ or stadium music, other than the home-team batters have walk-up songs. During the home team batting, everyone in the stadium sings their player songs, just as we saw at the Tigers match. There was also a moment when all the fans did a choreographed dance with their rally towels, and the seventh inning stretch involved handheld LED lights.
After the game, at least two-thirds of the fans, including us, stayed for the “Victory Party,” which was mostly just a post-game interview with the two MVPs (the pitcher, who pitched a complete game, and star hitter Ryo Ohta). Everyone politely clapped after each answer. But it was a lovely show of respect that so many people stayed to hear from the stars.
Kitahama Philharmonic Ensemble Osake Brahms Concert
One of our favorite things to do when we travel is to take in some of the regular cultural activities the cities we visit have to offer. Chad researched music venues and discovered a few interesting-looking concerts. The Philharmonic’s Brahms concert was the clear winner in terms of price (just 2000 yen or $14 per ticket), setting (beautiful Izumi concert hall), content (we love classical music and symphonies), and timing (Monday night, which has been a consistent date night for us because my clients almost never want to meet on Mondays).
The music was wonderful, especially the pre-concert string quartet at 5 p.m. that played an original composition inspired by Brahms (and using some Brahms themes) by local composer Yohei Tamamura. The main orchestra played an overture, a double concerto for violin and cello (featuring two extremely talented young performers) and a symphony (No. 2, which I was not previously familiar with). Our seats were in the second row, which was interesting but I don’t think I’d choose to sit that close again. The concert lasted until nearly 8 p.m. so we got quite a lot of music for our money. I think we were the only non-Asian people I saw there, but people seemed accepting of our presence. It was a really fun night.
After the symphony, we struggled to find a restaurant due to the late hour and being a holiday week with many smaller establishments closed, so we came back to Shinsekai and shed any refinement we might have picked up at the symphony to chow down on a street food shrimp cracker, vending machine beer, and then some very tasty vegetarian izakaya food. It was a really fun night.
Summary
In addition to the fun outings above, we’ve been enjoying learning more about cooking with Asian ingredients at home, including miren, ponzu, yuzu and more. We’ve learned that Japan has the best sweet potatoes, which you can buy already roasted and warm at most grocery stores. We took one trip up to Dotonburi, the other big tourist zone in Osaka, but find we like Shinsekai much more withs its retro vibes. We’ve also been watching Japanese comedy movies from the director Juzo Itami, which have been fun. Japan is holding strong as our favorite country and Osaka is a fantastic home base from which to enjoy it.
