As usually happens, arriving back in the US at the end of May put blogging on hold. We’ve been staying very busy at home seeing family and friends and focusing on work. We’re almost to the end of our nine weeks at home and about to leave for Bulgaria. But, we had two more weeks in Osaka after my We’re Home post that I want to record, ideally before we take off for Europe.

Cerezos Soccer and Koreatown

Osaka is home to two Division 1 (the highest division) J-League teams: Gambo Osaka and Cerezo Osaka. We chose Cerezo for our match because their stadium (Sakura Stadium) is closer to where we were staying. And I couldn’t help but enjoy their branding, which is a celebration of Japan’s famous cherry blossoms and the Latin roots for soccer. Cerezo is Spanish for cherry tree, the stadium name is the Japanese word for cherry tree (or cherry blossom), and the team’s dominant color is pink.

We’d already had a park visit to Nagai Park so we knew exactly how to navigate the public transit to get there alongside the other fans. We stopped for a beer outside the stadium before going in to find our seats. 

Honestly, the Japanese football match felt very much like the professional football matches we’ve been to in other countries. While it didn’t have the bizarreness or the charm of Japanese baseball, it was a fun match that Cerezo won. The great Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa who played many years in the EPL (for Man U, boo) was wrapping up his career at Cerezo and it was fun seeing him play. 

Considering how much Chad and I love soccer, this was definitely a worthwhile activity and we’d do it again, even if it wasn’t as memorable as our Japanese baseball games.

After the match, we went out in Tsuruhashi, Osaka’s Koreatown. We tried some interesting Korean foods, including a flat pancake street food that tasted kind of like pizza and a very traditional Korean restaurant called Wagaya, where we had several kinds of kimchi, a glass noodle dish, and a spicy vegetarian dish. We were the only non-Asian customers, which was fun.

Expo 2025

Of course, we had timed our trip to Osaka to fall within the six months of the World Expo (aka World’s Fair) happening, after seeing it advertised when we were there in 2019. I’m proud of us for making that goal happen, though I have to say, the Expo was a bit of a letdown and caused me all sorts of stress. It had a horrible reservation system, was way overcrowded, and fell a bit short on the food and technological exhibits. But we also had many great moments over the course of our day, especially the fountain show followed by the drone show at the end.

We managed to get into quite a few pavilions as well. Our favorites were Poland (engaged the five senses), Singapore (solid futurism), Hungary (incredible singer), and Indonesia (free shot of coffee and layers of interest). Our favorite exterior was Thailand, which was half traditional Thai architecture against a mirrored wall that made it look whole. The inside of Thailand was also okay and we had our best Expo food there. But for most of the big countries, the lines were far too long to even attempt to get into.

Still, we got lots of fun photos and it was a memorable day. We’ll probably never do another World Expo but were both glad we did it once.  

Enjoying Food, Nature, and Shinsekai Nights

Our most enjoyable times during our last two weeks in Osaka were just our regular day-to-day life there. Some great experiences included:

A rainy date night that started with fancy Japanese whiskeys then a tempura dinner in a very traditional Izakaya then fun in an old-fashioned pachinko parlor in Shinsekai where we won enough balls to take home two KitKats.

A solo trip to the lovely Isshin-ji Temple, known for its Buddha sculptures made of crushed bones

Delicious Japanese curry at Mary Spice in our neighborhood, where someone is an NBA fan, preceded by cocktails at the Tenkaku “pubric bar” on our street (Note: this is not making fun of the l vs r challenge for non-native English speakers – it is common to see mistranslated signs in Japan that are deliberately kept as cute oddities.)

Eating lots of sushi: from conveyor belts (not pictured) to park picnics to casual lunches out to a nice dinner at Sushi Hiro, followed by creme brulee with strawberries from a food truck, of course.

Exploring Japanese grocery stores and making tasty meals at home after marvelling at some of the crazy pricing. Fruit for example is very expensive. I read an article about this little meal from the Super Tamade, our main grocery store, and finally found it one day. Our favorite side for lunch or dinner were the delicious roasted sweet potatoes you could find in most supermarkets.

Our last night in Osaka, when we finally made it up in Tsutenkaku Tower. We tried to photograph as many of the billikens as possible and recreated an earlier dinner of gyoza followed by the famous kushikatsu. We were also given some nice oragami spinners with our ice cream dessert.

Summary

Once again Osaka was an incredible choice for our long stay in Japan. We loved our neighborhood, learned a ton, and ate more than our fill of sushi and other amazing Japanese foods. We’re eager to return to Japan again soon, though we want to explore other areas of the country next time. Our time in Osaka definitely confirmed Japan’s position as our favorite country.

Airbnb review – My husband and I had a wonderful one-month stay in this apartment. We had a little trouble finding it when we arrived but the host was available to help. We appreciated being able to leave our luggage in the apartment a little early. The apartment looked exactly like the photos and was very clean. We felt it was very spacious and comfortable. The kitchen was equipped enough for light cooking and the wifi was fast and very reliable. It was great to have a washer in the apartment and space to airdry, but I chose to take our clothes to the coin op laundry a couple blocks away to dry for just 200 yen. The host was very responsive to all messages. We felt so lucky to get to stay right next to Shinsekai, our favorite part of Osaka. There are tons of restaurants and stores nearby as well as several train and metro stations to give lots of transportation options – including the retro Hankai streetcar!