Day 4: Retail Therapy in Osaka
25 February 2023, Saturday
It was the day to move back to Osaka for some well-deserved retail therapy (as quoted from le sister), but before that, breakfast at Hotel Keihan to refuel for the day.
A mediocre selection, not differing much from the previous day, but that's fine.
We arrived in Osaka-Umeda station via the JR line which took about half an hour from Kyoto station. Upon arriving, we just knew we were right smack in the city - crazily crowded and huge station. I mean, its not like we haven't been to this part of Osaka, but I guess it never fails to amaze me with the crowd each time (it felt a lot like Orchard road). haha.
Massive departmental blocks (Hanshin, Hankyu, Daimaru) and they were all kind of linked via a level 2 walkway.
We were too early for check-in when we got to our hotel so we started our retail therapy right away after dropping our luggage.
First stop, Pokemon Center for some Scarlet & Violet goodies.
Pokemon Center Osaka
Map: Japan, 〒530-8202 Osaka, Kita Ward, Umeda, 3 Chome−1−1 大丸梅田店 13F
Crazily crowded, probably because its a Saturday, but still... madness. I was overwhelmed by the crowd but my excitement for Pokemon SV triumphed. I was hoping to find Pawmi-related merchandise but I didn't see any. Unwilling to leave the store empty-handed, I decided to bring my Violet starter (Sprigatito) and the cute little Fuecoco home.
After braving the crowds at the Pokemon Center (and disappointed that I couldn't enter the Nintendo store because there was a time-slot allocation to ease the queues), it was time to just sit down and take a break.
Raffinato
Map: Japan, 〒530-0001 Osaka, Kita Ward, Umeda, 3 Chome−1−1 大丸梅田店 14F
Located just a level above the Pokemon Center, we found an Italian restaurant. Reminiscing about the pizza we had during our Hokkaido trip back in 2013, I just had to try pizza in Japan.
Was it astounding? - no. Was it bad? - not really.
I have no clue how to describe the experience, except to say that perhaps, pizza is just made differently to suit the locals taste buds. We decided to take the pair set which came with one choice each of pizza and pasta, with drinks and appetisers.
We had Margherita & a Bolognese pasta, that came with salad. Salad was pretty good. Pizza base was a lot more chewy (like mochi) than what I was accustomed to, while the pasta tasted a bit off (I probably prefer cream-based pastas a lot more than tomato/bolognese-based ones.
After lunch, we went back to our hotel to check-in. The process took a lot longer than we thought it would, as the staff seemed to have a lot to explain to the local guests. 😂
Hotel Monterey Le Frere Osaka
Map: 1 Chome-12-8 Sonezakishinchi, Kita Ward, Osaka, 530-0002, Japan
We rested for a bit and headed out again to Umeda station to grab dinner. We did contemplate to travel out to our favourite Namba, but considering we had a long day (Klook Tour day!!) ahead of us, we decided it was better to just be in the area and prepare for an early night.
Walking around endlessly between the 3 big departmental buildings, we were walking around the basement (without much clue as to where we were exactly), and came across this store. Great time to have some yakiniku beef we thought, so, we went in and got seated. The menu had a QR code that referred patrons to the English version, and it was only then we realised, we ain't in a typical yakiniku beef place - it was a beef tongue specialty store. 😱😱😱
I think we had a good laugh during our meal as I shoved the tongue portions (slightly underdone in Miso & Shio) into my mouth. It wasn't bad, I just couldn't get the image out of my head, that we were eating the tongue rather than the meat. LOL
Sendai-Gyutan & Osake Morinoya
Map: Japan, 〒530-0012 Osaka, Kita Ward, Shibata, 1 Chome−1−3 阪急三番街 B2F
