Hello! I am back for the trip update again! Below are the links:
So to continue from day 3 shopping because a night would not be able to finish all the shopping at Shinsaibashi district and Dotonbori food district. So a daylight picture of Dotonbori.
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| Not sure whether that is the famous crab restaurant at Dotonbori. |
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| The famous food district - Dotonbori |
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| Can you spot me? |
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| I always like their design for restaurants - Big signboard and billboard just look damn nice |
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| yes of course we tried the fried dumpling also! |
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| See what I'm trying to say, it just make it look so lively! |
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| And of course, freaking hot weather deserve a cooling ice cream. |
And I forget to take pictures of Shinsaibashi district. I mean who would remember when you see sales and discounts everywhere in all of the shops! Unless you are some dedicated blogger. Im sorry, I tried to be but shopping still come first especially when we are in Japan. I can show you some of my loots and how CHEAP it is! Probably because we choose to come in the changing season because it is close to Autumn soon so everywhere is having summer sales! Like the photo below, The bodycon dress from forever 21. I bought it at 190YEN. YES 190YEN!! Thats like less than SGD3?! The label is attached, definitely not some cheap clothes. You can find shoes selling at 1000YEN which is approx. less than SGD12?! How cheap is that! Of course there are shops that sells clothes that are abit pricey as well but it is definitely good and worth the time to visit each shop especially those simple ones that you might not go in! You never know what goodies you can find. That being said, I didnt spend crazily as well; not the kind that just buy everything that is cheap and spend like crazy. So I probably only bought like a few tops and bottom and 2 pairs of shoes. Wore some of them during this trip so I probably would highlight to you guys as well!
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| Japan Takashimaya. huge... |
Then we left Shinsabashi to Nipponbashi - an electronic and manga anime district. We walked there by the way. My point of being there was to see if there really are cosplay or anime cosplay on the street and also to find some maid cafe or anime cafe. So we went to have a look.
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| and yes we some some maid cosplay spotted on the street. |
There was nothing special about Nipponbashi unless you are looking for electronics to buy so we just headed straight to find our maid cafe that we planned to go. Along the way, of course we stopped for bookstore because my sister is an anime manga fanatic. Tons of comics at home. And their bookstore is at least 2 storey high with merchandise, posters, dvd. I was surprised also by the fact that they actually cater one storey for homosexual comics and manga. Don't talk about RA because definitely there is a section catered for that. But homosexual is very popular among the ladies as well. Couldn't take any photos of course because it is prohibited. Anyway head to our maid cafe. Here's the name and location:
Mel Cafe
4 Chome-9-９ Nipponbashi, Naniwa Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 556-0005, Japan
There is a time limit of 90minutes of dining and no photography of maids are allowed.
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| Dessert at the Mel cafe |
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| My honeydew cake |
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| My sis went to take a polaroid picture with the maid for memorial sake. |
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| There, the polaroid. |
In my opinion, it wasn't that bad experience. We were the only ladies in the cafe thou. The cafe wasn't very nicely decorated as I expected and there were only two maids around. The food are not very cheap if I never remember wrongly and definitely the polaroid cost some money as well. Maybe my expectation was high. That's why I didn't say this is a bad cafe. And so with that, we headed to Shinsekai. I wanted to go there because it just look like the scene in the Japan famous movie - Chihiro; Spirited away. The spa world and the shops. In case you want to go to Shinsekai, it is just near my hostel station - Shin Imamiya station on the JR loop line or Dobutsuen-Mae station on the Midosuji subway line (remember I said the confusion of the lines, just treat them like our MRT lines; the Red line and the circle line).
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| Shinsekai |
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| Look at that, look at that. Doesn't it remind you of spirited away? |
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| The Tsutenkasu tower. The symbol of Shinsekai. |
Found one local food shop and went in for the experience of dining at a local shop which usually is very small and can probably hold 5 or 6 guests at one time.
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| Okonomiyaki. |
A good experience for a local shop like this. I like the ambience and the food was pretty nice as well except that it was abit salty to my preference. I had a small hiccup at Shinsekai earlier in the evening. There wasn't alot washroom available in Japan that I realised and especially for a language barrier me I had trouble finding toilet when I wanted to. So this happened in Shinsekai. I was actually quite urgent for the washroom and my sis was shopping for some local goodies to bring back. So I told her I would go and find the washroom. I walked out and looked around nearby for the toilet to no avail. I went back to the shop and ask my sis for help. She taught me how to say washroom in Jap and I asked the shop assistant as well. She vaguely told me the direction and I tried my ways to find them. Nope I did not manage to find any. So I walk around asking for washroom but most of the stall assistant or host do not understand. I was badly in need of washroom. Not sure if there is a Japan culture or so but I just went into a restaurant and ask for toilet. Lucky they did understand as I pointed to the sign, if not I probably pee in my pants any time. I thought it would not be very nice to use their washroom if you did not dine in. To hold on to your pee and panicking to find a toilet is definitely not a good experience when you are out overseas in a foreign country with language barrier. Off we go, walking back to our hostel to end our 4th day. Kyoto next! Till then!
