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Dotombori (2 hrs)
Dotombori is one of the main tourist destinations in Osaka. It is a single street, running alongside the Dotombori canal between the Dotonboribashi Bridge and the Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba area.
Dotombori was known for its historic theatres. Nowadays the area is famous for its shops, bars and restaurants, and of course for its many neon and mechanized signs.
In one of the many small restaurants you can eat your heart out. They serve dishes for reasonable prices. You can taste dishes from local cuisines like: okonomiyaki (pan-fried batter cake), takoyaki (octopus dumplings), udon (noodle dishes), as well as regional sushi and other traditional Japanese foods.
You can easily go there with several metro lines to station Namba. The place is good for shopping and eating from morning until late evening.
Don Quijote duty-free shopping (1 hr)
Don Quijote (also called Donki) stores sell duty-free goods for foreign shoppers and offer credit card facilities. Its merchandise range is so broad, with over 40,000 different products, that it is difficult to typify, but the company’s website describes it as ‘electrical appliances, miscellaneous household goods, food, watches and fashion-related merchandise, sporting goods and leisure products, DIY products and other items.’
A Don Quijote store can be found in almost any busy shopping area so of course there’s a Don Quijote shop in the Dotombori area as well. It is located along the dotombori waterfront just behind the main street with all the restaurants, at 7-13 Soemoncho Chuo-ku. It has great opening hours, from 10 am to… 5 am.
Shinsaibashi shopping arcade (1-2 hrs)
North of Dotombori and parallel and east of Mido-suji Street you will find Shinsaibashi-suji, a long covered shopping street.
According to our Japanese crewmembers that’s real Osaka and it is a must do. It is a very long arcade with hundreds of small shops and boutiques, which is of course a great place when the weather is not good as well. There are small boutiques selling local goods and there are a lot of shops of all major luxury brands.
America Mura (1 hr)
If you like to see the Japanese youth culture or like to buy some of their clothes or accessories, you should go to America Mura. It is nearby Shinsaibashi, and west (so on the other side) of Mido-suji Street.
America Mura is an American-themed shopping area and centre of Osaka's youth culture. You will see many small boutiques and some galleries and studios where the young artists produce their goods. If you like to go here by metro, take a train to Shinsaibashi.
Osaka Station City Mall (1 hr - 1 day)
Umeda is the main commercial and central business district in Osaka. It is a great neighbourhood with huge modern architecture buildings. But it’s also a perfect place for shopping.
Of course there’s the enormous Osaka Station Mall, but you can easily go to Yodobashi, Hankyu, Hanshin and much more in this area. If you are a shopaholic, you can easily spend a whole day here. Business hours are from 10 am to 9 pm. At their website you can download floor maps of the mall.
This mall is one of the easiest malls to go to. All express trains and many local trains stop at the station under the mall. There are many hotel shuttles stopping here. And there are many metro lines connected to the mall (stations: Osaka, Umeda and Higashi-Umeda).
Tennoji shopping area (2 hrs)
A part of Osaka's rich past, the place is reinventing itself with the upcoming shopping malls and new stores. It's a complete shopping labyrinth, which holds department stores and a posh underground shopping mall Avetica.
The Kintetsu Department Store is the pride of the place and is located above the terminal station. The store deals in clothes, groceries and antiques. The west end of the shopping street is house to the fashionable shopping building Abeno Lucias, which includes a cinema complex within its premises.
The jewel in the crown in the area is the Tennoji Mio Shopping Mall, a shopping centre with 230 boutiques and an exclusive range of restaurants dealing with local cuisine and international delights. Many metros and trains go to station Tennoji.
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Language of the world
Of course you like to speak a few words of the local language onboard the plane or at your destination. Here you find some simple basics of the main language spoken in Osaka.