Shopping, shopping and more shopping
Today was a day to explore the different neighbourhoods of Osaka.
From my hostel in the Minami (southern) district, I headed to the electronics neighbourhoods to see rows and rows of cameras, cell phones, and every appliance imaginable. Den-Den Town is the area where all the shops cluster together, screaming at you in Japanese about all the latest innovations, presumably.
From there, it was lunchtime, so food shopping was in order. Luckily I stumbled upon Osaka’s biggest market street, with fresh food of every variety. Fruits, vegetables, fish, tofu, and all sorts of things that were difficult to identify lined rows and rows of stalls.
After lunch, I jumped on the subway and headed to Kita, the northern section of Osaka. Here, the boulevards are wider, the streets are quieter, and the malls are everywhere. Literally. The entire section of the city is one shopping mall after another after another. Restaurants, small boutiques, every chain store that we have, and then some. I wasn’t really that interested in shopping, but the magnitude and concentration of the stores made it interesting. Oh, and people in Osaka dress to shop just as they dress to go out. I walked into one department store, and promptly turned around and walked out after getting dirty looks from the well-heeled clerks. Yes, they’re friendly in Japan, but jeans and sneakers don’t get you too far.
A sushi experience
For dinner, I got to experience automated sushi. These restaurants, which can be found all over Japan, feature conveyor belts where plates of sushi rotate around all night. If you see something that you want, you take it, and at the end, the waitress counts how many plates you have stacked in front of you and bills you accordingly. What’s really funny is if you order something special, which you can do from your seat by punching a touchscreen. When it appears, it starts beeping to let you know it’s your special order. How does the sushi know? It just does.
Prices in Japan
Many people believe that Japan is an expensive country. So is it? Well, it can be. The trains aren’t cheap, and the good food is certainly pricey. But there are definitely ways to visit Japan on the cheap. The hostels aren’t any more expensive than in most other developed countries, and there are places where you can get bowls of udon noodles for around a hundred yen. Vending machine noodles… gotta love em!
Up next: Koya-san.