A Doutor egg and ham salad toasted sandwich and an iced coffee was my breakfast preference this morning.
We were leaving Kurashiki today but decided to leave at lunch time as we still had a few things left to do here.
Our first port of call was the Bikan Historical Quarter.
I just had to to try the blue soda from Denim Street. A very refreshing drink topped with frozen Gardenia fruit costing 300 yen.
Ella realised she needed to stock up on something Kurashiki is famous for, Washi Tape. So it's basically masking tape made with washi (Japanese paper) and in Kurashiki it's available in hundreds of different designs.
There was quite a few of these washi tape store in the Bikan Historical Quarter.
Somewhere I was keen to visit one last time in Kurashiki was the Kushikatsu shop in the shopping arcade.
Everything was really reasonably priced, I decided to buy a selection.
My favourites were definitely the horse mackerel and the shrimp.
The horse mackerel tasted so good!
This was the sausage and potato, very tasty too.
We collected our luggage from the hostel and started our journey towards Osaka.
On previous trips to Japan we had our JR passes and we could travel using the Shinkansen from city to city in no time at all. On this trip we were using local trains though so our journey would take 3.5 hours and involve catching four different trains.
Thankfully the ticket office kindly printed the trip details out for us when buying the tickets.
A selection of snacks for the train journey.
This egg, squid and fish onigiri was rather tasty.
So were these bum head sweets!
Anpanman chocolate biscuits kept us going until we finally reached Osaka.
So three weeks after arriving in Osaka we were back here again for the remainder of our trip.
The next two nights would be spent at Drop Inn where a double room set us back £45 per night.
The room was traditional Japnaese style with tatami mats and futons.
Shinsekai, meaning ‘New World’ is on the doorstep of Shin Imamiya Station not far from Tennoji, it's a neighbourhood that was created in 1912. The area is considered by locals to be Osaka's most dangerous area. However, Shinsekai's status as a dangerous area owes much to criminal activity that flourished in the decades before the 1990s.
The streets of Sinsekai are lined with restaurants which all really stand out due to their impressive signage.
Anyone for gyoza?
The 103 metre high Tsūtenkaku Tower is the centrepiece of Sinsekai, there's an observation deck at the top. The tower was opened in 1956 to replace the original tower which once stood here, it was severely damaged by fire in 1943.
There's lots of street food to be found here. These chocolate covered dango were difficult to resist, so delicious!
We bought a beer from 7-Eleven and sat down to take everything in. It's a fascinating area with so much to see.
I decided to buy some takoyaki from one of the many places serving it. The lady warned me they would be hot and even after leaving them to cool for five minutes I still got a huge shock as I popped one in my mouth. These things really hold their heat!
Yeah I know, but you just have to try these things right?
The rainbow toast was a beautiful sight but the sweet tasting cheese inside I'm not so sure about.
There's also a narrow shopping arcade nearby which seemed to be the place to go if you wanted to buy x rated vending machine gifts.
The arcade is also the place to visit if you want to play Shogi (Japanese chess)
You can also try your luck at the rifle range, there's Japanese snacks to be won if you're a good shot.
Somebody on instagram told us to visit a Mega Don Quijote discount store if we saw one. We finally found this one a short walk away from Shinsekai so went to explore it.
It seemed to sell pretty much everything here ranging from video games to snacks. Ella stocked up on Milky chocolate lollies and I bought some Kit Kats and a giant Anpanman chocolate lolly.
There was also a grocery section which sold the thick fluffy bread we'd eaten so often for breakfast, love this stuff!
Afterwards Ella went to explore a Daiso store across the street. I waited for her whilst sipping a beer on a wall, the perfect opportunity to people watch whilst watching the sunset.
The beer I bought from Don Quijote for just 88 yen!
We couldn't leave Shinsekai without seeing it at night time!
If you're visiting Osaka I strongly suggest adding Shinsekai to your list of places to explore. Some reviews said it wasn't worth visiting but I totally disagree, it has heaps of character and is visually something not to be missed!
We spent some time exploring the Fukushima district but we were feeling pretty tired so bought some snacks and headed back to the hotel.
It had taken me three weeks to finally get around to buying a 100 yen sausage from the 7-Eleven hot counter. These are delicious and come with a sachet of ketchup and mustard.
Whilst planning what to do tomorrow we munched on some rice snacks.
Osaka Expo Park and the legendary Izakaya Toyo
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