I had exceptional excitement about visiting Osaka. I’m not even entirely certain why this was. Perhaps it was just visiting a Japanese city I hadn’t been to before, one which was meant to be very different from Tokyo. Osaka has also been called the food capital of the world – it’s the home of takoyaki, one of my favourite Japanese foods.
It was very grey the day we arrived, I guess that comes with a winter vacation. But it was OK because Osaka was delicious, and much prettier at night.
We started the day at the Umeda Sky Building, it’s near the Osaka station, so is a good start if you’d like to get a view of the whole city. The trip up the tower was pretty cool, and don’t feel like you need to enter the observation deck (paid entrance) to enjoy it, you could just take a trip up to the ticket booth and back and still get to ride the crisscrossed escalator.
So far, my only encounter with okonomiyaki in Japan is at Mizuno, which specializes in it, but I still feel warranted in recommending the place. The food was excellent, the staff were extra friendly and it has been run by the same family for three generations. It’s tiny! There are only about 10 seats, and by the time we got in after a 20-ish minute wait the queue was still growing.
Tomorrow, Kraków. Polish will be the fourth language I’ve had to try an adapt to in just as many weeks. Wish me luck!
