Osaka Castle & Dotonburi - Day 1

Started off the day with a quick brunch at a restaurant known for their Japanese pancakes, called Happy Pancakes! 🥞
We made our way to Osaka castle, which was absolutely beautiful! I learned that this castle had to be rebuilt several times due to wars and uprisings within the Japanese country. It was finally renovated in 1997 to its current look! 🏯 We wanted to look inside but the line up was too long, so we just took pictures from the outside. 📸
Then we walked back to downtown Osaka, to the famous Dotonburi street! Oh my gosh it was crazy packed, and this was only at 4:30pm! I can see where all the hype comes from since nearly every store front sells famous street foods all people need to try when they visit Dotonburi. We first tried their okonmiyonaki, it was crazy good! We walked further along popular street to find some takoyaki (Japanese octopus fried dough balls) which were (no surprise) amazing! 😋 we found the famous Glico running man, where we stopped to take some pics.
We finally made it to dinner (actually ran to our restaurant because it started thunder storming ⛈️) We decided to go for wagyu beef J-BBQ! This was my friend Farheen’s request as it was an all halal restaurant! It was really delicious! And honestly not that expensive either! 🍗
Continuing along the river we tried Japan’s famous cremia ice cream! Let me tell you, the texture of the ice cream is nothing I’ve tasted before. The Japanese milk or cream they use to make it is definitely unique! I loved it! 🍦
As we were about to leave, we stumbled along one of Japan’s well known photo booths called Purikura! These are where you can take pictures and they are automatically photo shopped to the point where you look somewhat alien-like! 😂 It was a funny experience for sure!
Overall a long but fun day exploring Osaka! 🥰Read more