Kansai Day 2, 15 Dec 07 - Shinsaibashi, Osaka

As with most of our vacations, hubby and I took it easy and slept till mid morning. Shops won't be open till 10 or 11am anyway.

Day 2 was shopping day!!! Yeah! We took the entire day exploring Shinsaibashi and adjoining streets.

The billboards look different during daytime, intimidating nonetheless.

For the price, we were pleased with the choices and quality, eating plates and plates of our favourite Ikura sushi and other seafood. The shop even offered Takoyaki sushi. I think we managed 35 plates of sushi in total!
After lunch, it was shopping and exploring all the way. We passed by this snack store and couldn't resist picking up one of these cute little mochi sandwiched with red bean and strawberry. Quite yummy :d.

Passed by Afternoon Tea, one of my favourite Zakka cum cafe brand in Japan. Just look at these irresistable cakes! Too bad we were too full to try :( The bakery/cafe/cakes/dessert culture in Japan is thriving and evident from the number of cafes offering delicious looking confectionery and bake goods.

For dinner, we were back at Dotonbori. This eatery with a cutesy mascot seemed to be popular and many people were seen posing with the mascot. I had omelette rice and hubby tonkatsu curry rice. Jap food usually doesn't go wrong and curry rice tasted good during winter :D

End of Day 2 and back to hotel for packing as we would be leaving for the other Kansai regions the next few days.

Travel resources

• Shinsaibashi Shopping Street Promotion Site http://www.shinsaibashi.or.jp/
• Osaka Tourist Guide http://www.osaka-info.jp/en/

For early lunch, we decided to have sushi :D This is yet again a popular conveyor belt sushi chain in Osaka, offering 'All-You-Can-Eat' sushi at 1260 yen for ladies and 1575 yen for the gentlemen.