Osaka

Hotel accommodation is not as expensive as many people think if you stick to what are known as Business Hotels, designed for business people staying for a couple of nights so expect small rooms, lack of hanging space but clean with good facilities. We used a number of them including MyStays, APA and Tokyo Inn and thought they were all good value. Check out the usual booking sites such as www.booking.com or www.venere.com to see what is available although some of these chains say the rates are always best through their official web sites.

We stayed at Osaka Fujiya Hotel on the edge of the Dotonbori area and it was excellent, the best hotel we stayed in during the trip. We were offered an upgrade on arrival by the manager from a small room to a larger one and having been shown both the extra £10 per night for a very large room was a no brainer. The staff spoke the best English of anywhere we stayed, the facilities were modern and the location was brilliant, it was fifteen minutes walk from Shinsaibashi subwaystation in the heart of one of the main shopping areas.

The city lived up to it’s foodie reputation but by producing the best cheap meals such as noodles, etc rather than the more expensive places, one of which as a last night treat turned out to be very disappointing.

Tsurotontan, 3-17 Souemoncho, Chuo-ku, was one of my favourite restaurants of the holiday, it is part of an Osaka chain and does the best noodles I have ever eaten. If you walk along Sakai-suji south towards the Dotonbori Canal it is the last building on the right, we saw it just after we arrived and it immediately looked appealing. We joined a queue inside, seated until space became available in the non-smoking and western style seating part became available. After 15 minutes wait and menu studying we had our seats and had some excellent Maki Sushi to start followed by the largest bowls of noodles I have ever see. One was duck with thin noodles, the other beef and vegetables with thick noodles, both excellent, with two beers the price was under £30. We enjoyed it so much we went back one evening, checking when it closed we were told 8am, yes 8am great for the party goers of Dotonbori. We requested a table in the smoking area as this overlooks the canal and were given a beautiful private room with Japanese sliding doors. This time we had the pork cutlet curry noodles, they were amazing and pork & vegetable noodles, again excellent, highly recommended.

Matsusakagyu Yakinuku M is a group on restaurants in Osaka, mainly around the Dotonbori area and specialises in Matsuska Beef. They also have a Saki bar called M300 which has hundreds of different types of Sake, offers Sake tastings and small dishes using the famous beef. We only ate in the bar but so wish we had tried one of their restaurants in Dotonbori near the wonderful Hozen-ji temple. The beef BBQ specialities look excellent. The staff are so friendly and Yoshi one the group’s managers is a great host. M300 is 1F, Inaka kaikan Bldg, 7-17 Soemoncho,Chuo-ku is just across the bridge from the Gliko Running Man. Cross the bridge from Dotonbori’s main street, turn left and it is just there.

24/7 Café Apartment, Umekita Cellar, Grand Front Building, Umeda Station, we were looking for somewhere to eat in the massive shopping development and had read that the Umekita Cellar part had some reasonable priced eating places. This stood out as there was a queue and the trays of food looked interesting. The format is you choose three small dishes from a selection of meat, seafood and vegetable and they are served on a round tray with rice, miso, pickles etc. for around £10 and you can add a decent sized glass of wine for just over £2. It was very comfortable and enjoyable.

Cinquecento, 2-1-10 Higashi- Shinasibashi, is acheap, basic, late night bar where all drinks including excellent martinis cost Y500 under £4. No frills, friendly staff and a wide range of customers. From Doton-bori street walk north along Sakai-suji and take the third on the left and it is just on the right.

Drink

Where to start, beer is relatively expensive due to the fact that the tax on beer is among the highest in the world at around 45% but is still very popular and there are well known brands such as Kirin, Sapporo and Asahi and increasingly many craft beers. Wine is becoming more popular and is cheap in supermarkets but quite expensive in most restaurants. Sake is of course the best known drink and ranges from very dry to very sweet, try and arrange a tasting to get an idea of what you enjoy. Also becoming popular is sparkling sake which is very easy to drink and relatively low alcohol. The most popular drinks in the evenings in bars are highballs, usually Suntory whisky with lots of soda and ice in a glass tankard, even nicer with a slice of lemon. Also popular are highballs made with Shochu, Japanese spirit, which is less strong than whisky, again with soda & ice but often flavourings such as plum, citrus or ginger, these are refreshing and cheap.

As I mentioned at the start Osaka was to be a no major sites, no temples etc. city after so much sightseeing but there were a couple of stand out places.

Having said no temples, we came across Hozen-ji Temples in the maze of streets around Doton-bori, it is truly magical and is close to the alley called Hozen-ji Yochoko packed with expensive restaurants and amazingly expensive bars, similar to Ponto-cho in Kyoto.

Kuromon Ichiba, it is one block east of Saka-suji and this market is where the locals come to shop for fish, seafood, meat, vegetables and much more. What makes it really fun is that many of the shops also have eating areas where you can try Wagyu beef, scallops, prawns of all sorts, and many other things you would not recognise including Puffer Fish. This was a great experience and there was some really good food to be sampled.

The Umeda Sky Building was designed by the same architect as Kyoto station and has a spectacular see through tube taking you up the last five floors of the 40 storey building. We did not go up the building and unfortunately good views of the building are hard to get as it is surrounded by a vast building site. The area around Umeda station is worth a visit, the Front Building shopping and restaurant complex is stunning and there are a number of the top department store buildings nearby.