It’s my last weekend in Osaka. I haven’t quite grasped that next weekend I will be in Hong Kong, and the weekend after that I will be home. This entire experience has been surreal, and I thought there would be nothing better to appreciate how lucky I have been this past semester than by spending my last day of my last weekend on a whirlwind revisiting of my favorite places in Osaka.
I started off the morning in Osaka Castle and Osaka Castle Park. The park is massive, with some busy areas like Osaka castle itself, but also many other quiet areas where you can relax and stare out at the city or at all the wildlife.
It was very hot outside, so I stopped at a vending machine in the park to get ice cream. Little did I know the type I got would be little balls of ice cream!
I then went to Shinsaibashi and spent a large chunk of the late morning to early afternoon shopping all the way from Shinsaibashi station to Namba Station. The shops are endless, and I bought way more than I should (I hope it all fits in my suitcases!). I made it all the way to the famous bridge over Dotonbori river in Namba.
I told a coworker (who isn’t actually in my lab but we have lockers near each other and she is lovely to talk with) that I was planning to go to Namba, and because it is one of her favorite places in Osaka, she actually came back to me with a printed out map with the best places to visit and her favorite sushi restaurant in the area! (The sushi there was amazing and even better it wasn’t very expensive.) One of the sites she recommended was the famous Running Man billboard.
After I hit up Umeda and Osaka Station Shopping area for buying yet more clothes and souvenirs.
For dinner, I went with a woman in my dormitory to get Sukiyaki, beef cooked in soy sauce soup. It was just as delicious as it looks. You were also supposed to dip the beef into raw egg before you ate it to give it extra texture.
To cap off the day, I headed back to Namba to experience the Namba nightlife I have grown to love. There are bars everywhere blaring music, people in all directions, the river is lit up from the buildings, and gyoza (Japanese dumplings) can be found here for only 2.60$!
It was a long day, but I am so glad I got to see all my favorite places again. I am going to miss such a big city. When I first was accepted and looked up the size of Osaka, I was stunned at how over 8.6 million people can live in one city, but now I have gotten to love how big the city is and how much there is to do. I really want to come back to Japan, but even if I am able to come back it makes me sad that I will only be a tourist, limited to a couple days to see all the sights and experience all the places that are now so common place to me.
