Our last full day at Osaka
today before heading for Kyoto tomorrow. Consolidated all my purchase
orders from Singapore (Thanks to free internet from the hotel, I was
able to receive free calls from Singapore) and headed downstairs
(Shinsaibashi) for shopping… It’s so convenient to drop our shopping
bags at the hotel before running off to Namba Park. Shops in Namba Park
Mall is relatively up class (hence not our type) and we continued our
adventure to Den Den town, which is famous for its wide variety of
consumer electronics stores, especially famous for its negotiable
prices. We ended the day in Dotombori, which is one of Osaka's most
popular tourist destinations. This street runs parallel to the
Dotonbori canal and is a popular shopping and entertainment and food
district. At night it is lit by hundreds of neon lights and mechanized
signs, including the famous Glico Running Man sign and Kani Doraku crab
sign. We visited Doutonbori-gokuraku which is one of the Japan’s
biggest food theme parks chock-full of Osaka’s various charms.
Osaka is a tourist
friendly place where the train system is not as complicated as Tokyo.
Make good use of the various day passes and you should be able to
explore Osaka independently with no major difficulties...
Location:
Japan - Osaka
Stocking up on my beloved Meji collagen supplement…
Kose counter in typical Japanese toiletries shop…
Built to resemble a natural canyon,
Namba Parks is designed to be a break of nature
amidst the sprawling urban landscape.
It features a 120 tenant shopping mall including a cinema,
amphitheatre, and a rooftop garden.
The 6th floor is made up of numerous restaurants including
some Korean, Italian, and Vietnamese places.
Namba Parks is a natural intervention in Osaka's dense and harsh urban
condition.
Alongside a 30-story tower, the project features a lifestyle
commercial center crowned with a rooftop park that crosses
multiple blocks while gradually ascending eight levels.
In addition to providing a highly visible green component
in a city where nature is sparse, the sloping park connects to the
street,
welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees,
clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor
terraces.
Beneath the park, a canyon carves an experiential path through
specialty retail,
entertainment and dining venues. Not a bad idea at all in terms of
making use spaces…
Nicely bloomed flowers...
Our general feel is that cinemas are not as widely available in Japan
(as compared to Singapore)…
Traditional show schedule… Something that we didn’t expect to see in
technology savvy country…
Inside Namba Park Mall...
Interesting Ladies Toilet, Namba Parks, Osaka, Japan For high quality version of this clip, surf to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMowehK5Yy0 and click on "watch in high quality" on the bottom right of the video
Off to Den Den Town... Den Den Town is an alternate name for
Nipponbashi,
as it is famous for its wide variety of consumer electronics stores,
and especially famous for its negotiable prices
- Unique to Osaka and the Kansai region.
Several retailers are also tax and duty free.
Japanese version of Singapore's Toto...
And yes, there are lots of porn shops along Den Den Town? Isn’t it
suppose to be a Electrical Town?
Vance:
Ehm, this' a "Man's" town mah... This is a 8 floors of a porn shop (I
should really call it building) in Den-Den Town.. *faints*
Vance wasn’t really interested in bargaining for electrical items…
In fact he was more interested in Toys!
Particularly Transformers and Macross…
Vance: Have you been spying on my collections?!?!?
More toys! *Faints*
Luckily, Vance has a good local supplier...
otherwise these may be coming home with us...
Vance: Come to think about it... I DIDN'T buy any Transformers/Macross
stuff from the "Mother Land"!
The down side of being in Japan….
Smoking is allowed in restaurants….
Here’s the smoking area in McDonald…
Japanese exclusive favours… McPork & Ebi-Fillet-O-Fish…
Self-timed car parking fees machines…
Vance: Really interesting to find out how it work ;)
Typical electronic stores in Den Den Town...
BTW, Den Den Town is sometimes referred to as the "Akihabara of West
Japan”,
analogous to Tokyo's famous electronics district Akihabara…
One of the very few foreign cars we saw….
Jap version of Sim Lim Square….
I thought the use of pictorial cards (to replace the real SD card) is
quite intelligent?
Are computer parts cheaper? Let me do a conversion…
