Osaka

🎐 Osaka in my dreams… Travel with a smile, melt your heart with the smell of takoyaki 🧡 If Japan is a big mochi…Osaka would be the sweet filling in the middle, soft and smooth, you will smile without realizing it when you bite it. Many people often say that Tokyo is very fashionable, Kyoto is elegant and gentle, but Osaka? Osaka is like a best friend who is funny, cute, friendly and always understands us. 🍥💬 So visiting Osaka is not just “come to visit”, but it is like visiting the house of a close friend who we have never met before, but we feel close from the first smile when he gives us takoyaki. 🐙 ⸻ ⛩ Osaka Castle – Magical but not threatening, just stepping in makes my heart beat Start the day softly by walking at Osaka Castle A classic landmark with a luxurious aura like a kind samurai. The white castle is clean, contrasting with the gold and green of the castle top. So elegant that you have to look up and look at it in a daze for a long time. The curved wooden bridge The moat crossing also gives the feeling of walking into another era. 🌳🍃 Around the castle, there is a green park. Japanese people walk their dogs, children play football, and old people ride bicycles. The atmosphere is so warm that you want to move closer. Going inside, there is an exhibition about Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the samurai who built this castle. The top corner offers a 360-degree view of the city. The cool breeze blows by, the sound of birds chirping softly, and the view of Osaka below is a moment that melts your heart without having to add ice. 🍃🕊️ ⸻ 🍡 Dotonbori – The smell of takoyaki and neon lights that make you hungry every five minutes Dotonbori is an area where there is no such word as “quiet” or “boring.” This place is like a foodie’s amusement park. There are many restaurants lined up, with lights and sounds hitting your eyes without stopping. When you walk past any shop, the smell hits your nose, and your mouth tells your brain to walk in right away! Let’s start with the famous takoyaki. It’s crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and has a bouncy squid filling. Pour sweet and salty sauce, sprinkle with soft dried fish on top, so cute that I didn't dare to eat it, but I ate it in the end (finished the whole box in 1 minute). Not far away is okonomiyaki with crispy dough, lots of ingredients, not stingy with ingredients, made fresh on the pan in front of you. Eat and watch the chef show off his skills, so much fun! Of course, when you get there, you have to stop and take a picture with the Glico sign, standing with your arms raised like a runner reaching the finish line, a symbol that anyone who sees it knows "Osaka!" 📸🏃♀️ ⸻ 🐳 Kaiyukan Aquarium - An underwater world so cute that you want to be a fish Anyone who loves the underwater world will definitely fall in love with this place 💙 Kaiyukan is the largest aquarium in Japan (and the cutest in our opinion). When you walk in, it's like entering a bubble adventure. There's a tall aquarium with a 360-degree view. The highlight is the huge "whale shark" that swims past you slowly, as if showing itself all the time. There are also cute, chubby penguins and seals rolling like buns. Jellyfish that glow like a fairy tale and strangely colored fish that we have never seen before Walking around from the top floor to the bottom is like diving into the deep sea together. It's an experience as soft as a warm blanket. 🐠🫧 ⸻ 🧺 Shinsaibashi & Amerikamura - A land of fashion lovers, cafes, and cute knickknacks Shinsaibashi is an area that girls love! Cute Japanese brand clothing stores, Korean cosmetics, Korean-style cafes, and knickknacks that you can't finish walking around in one day. Every corner is full of cuteness. There are gift shops selling cat-themed notebooks, teddy bear dolls, shiny stickers, and cute souvenirs that you'll want to buy everything in the store. 🐻✨ Walk a little further and you'll reach Amerikamura or "America Village", which is full of hip fashion shops, cool graffiti, retro-themed cafes, record stores, second-hand hat stores, and people who dress up in the hottest fashions in every alley. Stop by a cute secret cafe and eat pancakes shaped like cat faces with foam milk as ears. Decorated with paw-patterned chocolate sauce, press the camera once and your heart will be ten percent full. ☕🍓 ⸻ 🍙 The city of endless delicious food Osaka never makes anyone hungry... because just walking through one alley is enough to fill you up. 🍴 • Takoyaki, various styles, including cheese, seaweed, and spicy. • Kushikatsu, fried food on a stick, eat it and dip it in the sauce once, don't dip it again! • Ramen, rich soup, chewy noodles • Beef rice bowl, topped with delicious sauce, topped with raw egg. • Desserts, daifuku, matcha ice cream, bear-shaped cakes, pudding bread Every meal is a legend, every bite is a story you can chew. 😋 ⸻ 🚃 Traveling in Osaka... is as easy as walking into a cafe. Osaka is super easy to travel to by subway and JR. There are both main and secondary lines that connect to almost every place. Just use the ICOCA card, no need to buy a ticket. Or if anyone plans to travel fully, I recommend Osaka Amazing Pass. You can enter many tourist attractions for free and also take a sightseeing boat. The station signs are in English, the icons are clear, and the Japanese people are very cute. Even though they don't speak English well, they smile better than us. 🥹💕 ⸻ 🧸 Summary - Osaka... a city that is like an embrace from someone we don't know. Osaka is not a city that is perfect and magnificent, but it is a city that has its own rhythm. There is the laughter of children, the smell of sauce, the light reflecting on the water, and the kindest ordinary people in the world. It is a city that does not require any effort, but makes us smile almost every second we are there. Osaka is not just a place to visit... but it is a place of small happiness. When we come back, we will tell ourselves softly... "We will definitely go back again." 💛🎐 ⸻ #Osaka #TravelAbroad