Oh Osaka…

A little over a week ago my friend Emma and I decided to take a day trip to the big city of Osaka.
Lucky for us, Kyoto is actually very close to Osaka. It’s only 15 minutes away by shinkansen (bullet train), and about an hour away by standard train.

Being the poor university students we are… the standard train was the way to go. It only costs 390 yen to catch the Hankyu line train from Karasuma Shijo station to Osaka Umeda, and if you manage to get on one of the express trains it only takes 40-50 minutes! However, if you get one of the ‘local’ trains or even the ‘semi-express’ it can take from 1 and a half – 2 hours…
I made this mistake once.
Never again.

Here are some shots of Emma and I on the train:
(We bought snacks!)

Once we made it to Umeda things got a little more tricky… The station is SO much larger than Kyoto station, so we ended up having to ask a lovely young lady for directions. The people are so helpful here. She even drew a little map to our destination!
So off we went again…

Here are some quick shots from inside the station building:

(I don’t understand what these posters are advertising… All I know is I needed a photo)

And now a classic one of the station:

After exploring around Umeda station area for a bit, we caught the subway to Shinsaibashi with the intention of emptying our wallets and filling or bags with frilly goods from the various Japanese fashion shops in the area.

The first store we went into ended up costing me over 20,000 yen…

Mission accomplished.

The name of the store was Atelier Pierrot. I didn’t get any shots of the place, as most of these stores have a strictly no photography policy. But I did take a photo of the skirt I bought! It’s a Juliette et Justine item, one of my all time favourite Japanese brands! This is the first thing I’ve ever bought from them, so it’s quite special to me. (And the fabric is amazing)

Next up was Innocent World. Once again, no photos allowed. But they had a special blouse sale on, so I bought one to match the skirt.
(I apologize for these terrible photographs by the way)

Before we embarked on our journey to these magical and whimsical shops, we needed to refuel. Walking down a random side-street we found what we thought was a hole-in-the-wall kind of sushi place. It looked cheap and inviting enough, so we went in.
Much to our surprise the restaurant was actually 4 or 5 floors high, with a different kind of dining area on each level. And it was incredibly cheap for the amount of food you get! We both got sushi sets that came with a side of udon soup and some dumplings, and there was free unlimited iced tea! The fatty tuna was sooooo goood! Now I’m not allowed to eat anymore engangered animals while I’m here or else I am definitely going to hell. I’m sorry fishies!

We also drank some beer in a seedy little bar where you had to purchase food and drink tickets from a vending machine. The only reason we went there was so Emma could use the bathroom, but they said customers only… so we were like “hey why not?” Beer in frilly dresses. The best way to drink!

Then it was back to more and more shopping! We came across a couple of funny store names, some dogs in tutus, and followed some fashionable looking girls to Bodyline (of all places!), then made our way up some seriously shady looking elevators to even dodgier looking corridors. At one point we found a second-hand lolita shop in a really seedy looking building, and it was positioned right next to a creepy-looking tarot reading place and a shop that seemed to specialize in all things marijuana-oriented…

After a very eventful day we finished off in true lolita-style – with tea and cakes.
Delicious!!

Well it was definitely one of my best days in Japan so far. Ate a lot, spent a lot, met a lot of people and just in general had a great time.
Will definitely be going back sometime soon.

Goodnight Osaka… until next time.