After a few stops.. we finally arrived at the JR Tenma stop and it was pretty desserted (by Japanese standards).
There was a cool wall which resembled the backdrops used in a typical Daft Punk music clip.
We then made our way through the "WALK" which is a long underground tunnel joining the JR Tenma station to the other side (populated by the other private subway lines as well as the main retail strip in this part of Osaka). What do you know.. we stumbled on yet another bakery :)
It's not long now before I go on my pastry detox diet when I get back to Aus.
After another couple of hundred metres under this "walk" way... we started seeing more people (coming in and out of the private subway lines). My guess is that hardly anyone uses the JR Umeda station as it is so far away from the main areas of interest that people just catch the private lines. (We've been walking for close to 15 mins by now.
Halfway through the tunnel, we saw a statue of a whale doing a Yoga pose...
This tunnel went on...
and on...
Until finally we made it through to the other side. We headed south and started making our way to the Electrical/Hobby stores... We then encountered a store we wouldn't enter... Everyday High Prices doesn't seem like a place for bargain hunters like us :) - They need to speak to Big W to get a few pointers.
There were a few traditional stores along the way which sold artistic hand fans, traditional Japanese thongs/shoes as well as Kimono stores.
About 10 minutes walk from the station.. you start to see the strip of Electronics and Hobby stores.. It really is a baby Electric town.
There were hobby stores everywhere... I paid a visit into one of these smaller ones which had a massive selection of figurines and collectables.
I purchased some Final Fantasy figures as well as Sora from Kingdom Hearts
A pic of one end of Nippombashi from a pedestrian overpass.
and here's the other end.
Here's a whole building dedicated to the Gundam merchandise... I've been inside and it's massive!
We started making our way back to our hotel to drop off some stuff we've bought this morning before we went to the next shopping destination. I saw a dedicated Tomica shop and just had to visit it... Didn't leave empty handed either :) This time I picked up 2 extra Tomica cars.. An Evo X and a Race spec GTR35.
Our next stop was the Tenjinbashi-suji street markets at Tenma. This is apparently the longest street market in Japan as it spans about 3km in length. We walked to and fro and covered about 6km by foot on this strip alone. Tenma station is about 2/3 down one end and we had absolutely no idea where to start... Both directions of the strip stretch well beyond the horizon.
The shopping here is intense... The pricing is about half the price of similar garments found in Tokyo.. however, although there is a huge selection to choose from.. They lack the cutting edge fashion found in Tokyo... But it still made for really good shopping.
After about an hour of walking... there was still no end to the tunnel in sight.
It was now lunch time and we were keen to try something different today. We saw this little restaurant amongst the shops. It was called Pac Pac... we'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Plastic models of food in window... Check...
When we sat down... we instantly noticed there was something odd about the tables.. each one of them had a hot plate on them... Now that was a surprise!
The waiter took our order (Pork fried noodles and bacon okonomiyaki). To our surprise.. the waiter switched on the gas to the hotplate on our table... We were suddenly going to have Teppanyaki without even knowing it... I wasn't prepared for it... If he throws a raw egg at me today...
However, this was a simple Teppanyaki place and it was pretty much cooked for us on the plate without us needing to do anything. The waiter popped by every 5 minutes to touch up the meal and he let us know when it was ready for us to scoff down.
I've tried this dish in the past and it tasted too seafoody... This time around though, the Okonomiyaki was nice, fresh and full of flavour. It's changed my attitude towards this dish.
One we finished lunch, we tried to see if we can cover the strip in it's entirety (we needed to work off that lunch after all). Here's another Kimono shopfront with some beautiful Kimonos on display.
We were at an intersection and we saw a barber shop which looked like they cater for midgets judging by the size of the entrance/door.
The strip stretched on for AGES.
Until we finally made it to the other side! Mission accomplished (and dammit my appetite is returning again)
Here's what the other side of the market looked like... nothing much out there.
When we walked back, there was a little kiosk selling some deep fried stuff..
Jeez did this line grow in the last 5 minutes we passed it...
Soldering on to the station again.. we came across this ramen shop which sold MASSIVE servings of Ramen.
In front of our hotel was this NICE RX7... It's amazing that a car like this is about 17 years old yet it still looks as modern as the cars coming off the current production line.
In the evening, we did a bit of shopping in Osaka/Umeda. Osaka is a HUGE city.
There was a record store in this Cylindrical building I wanted to check out called Tower Records.
The reason I wanted to visit this record store was because of this album. It's a Japanese DJ who remixed a whole heap of songs I listened to in one of the clothing stores in Kyoto yesterday. I did a bit of googling last night and found the actual album I was hearing. I've tried about half a dozen CD stores today in an attempt to locate it without any luck.
Unfortunately Iwalked away from Tower Records empty handed as well.. I may need to place an order for this album online.
We spent a brief moment in the Hanshin Shopping Centre and left pretty much immediately as it was one of those premium department stores.
Standing at a distant footbridge, you can see how large Osaka station is (there's a Daimaru on top of the station.
In the distance on the same footbridge, you can see a large ferris wheel within a shopping centre. We may pay that place a visit tomorrow.
In the distance on the same footbridge, you can see a large ferris wheel within a shopping centre. We may pay that place a visit tomorrow.
The Yodabashi is a MASSIVE shopping complex which is more electronics based and has a huge level for hobbies and collectables in the upper floors.
I wanted to get this Camera (Panasonic TZ7) - But due to the bad exchange rate, it's actually cheaper for me to buy it from home ($585AUD compared to the $700AUD in Japan under the current exchange rate).
Time is now about 8PM and it was dinner time... We were on the "SWEETS MUSEUM" on the 7th floor of the Yodabashi complex and decided to have a small dinner so that we could enjoy a dessert afterwards. There was nothing "small" up there aside from this tiny burger joint which tried to be a Mos Burger. It was called Big Man burgers... My dinner was calling me :)
I had a Bacon and Egg burger with chups.
Here's the dessert... Two sweet crepes... Ee opted for the Strawberries, cream with chocolate ice cream and I had the pineapple, peaches, cream and vanilla ice cream crepe. Awesome way to end the night :)
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