Namba Shopping District
Our shopping day today lands us at Namba area. At the time we arrived at Namba area, most of the shops are still closed. Shops in Namba area opens at 10am. As we still have time, my friend and I went over to the Nankai Train Station to attempt to redeem our train tickets to Kansai International Airport for tomorrow when we depart Kansai. We had previously purchased the tickets online. However, at the station, we were told to head over to OCAT Building to redeem the vouchers and come back here for the tickets. Since the shops are still not opened yet, we headed to OCAT Building which took us about 10 mins walk from Nankai Train Station. After redeeming the vouchers, we headed back to Nankai Train Station and sorted out the tickets. I told my friend we were lucky that we had decided to settle our train tickets on today rather than on the day of our departure, as it would be too rush to have to sort out the tickets the next day. On the hindsight, we should not have ordered the tickets online and should have purchased the tickets at the train station instead, this will save us the time walking back and forth.
Other than the Takashimaya Department store above Namba subway station, I find shopping in Namba a tad confusing. The shops seem to be arranged overall the place, feels very different from Osaka Station (might be due to the fact that we were rather familiar with the shopping in Osaka Station, after all, we have been passing through there since day 1 of our arrival in Kansai). Unlike most departmental stores, which has only at most 2 levels dedicated to men’s section, Takashimaya in Namba has men’s section in every floor, occupying a corner of each floor. Walking through Takashimaya seem no different from the other departmental stores we have visited. We left Takashimaya and headed to Carnival Mall. Carnival Mall does not have departmental stores, it is like HEP5 Shopping Mall we visited the day before. There are independent stores in Carnival Mall. Most of the men’s stores are located on the top 2 floors of Carnival Mall.
Shinsaibashi Shopping Street
After we were done with Carnival Mall, we headed for Shinsaibashi Shopping Street. We originally wanted to take a subway from Namba to Shinsaibashi but upon seeing a shopping street across from Takashimaya Departmental store, we decided to check it out. Ebisubashi-Suji is where we ended up. Ebisubashi-Suji is a covered shopping street with shops on both sides of the street. Most of these shops are pharmacies. There seem to be a pharmacy on every street and spaced out every few shops. Most of the products offerings are about the same, some shops do not offer tax refund here.
As we were walking, suddenly the place seems familiar. We ended up in Dotonbori without us realising. That is the food street that we have been coming for the past few days. As we were a little hungry, my friend and I got the takoyaki balls that was sold out shortly after we gotten ours a few nights ago. From Dontonbori, I told my friend we do not have to take the subway after all Shinsaibashi Shopping Street is just right across the bridge.
We got to Shinsaibashi after eating our takoyaki balls. Shinsaibashi is another cover shopping street that seems no different from Ebisubashi-Suji. There are the same pharmacies that seem to be everywhere and shops selling sports shoes. The price of the goods is not any different from Ebisubashi-Suji. My friend has gotten a pair of shoes and we had gotten backpacks from the Adidas shop. After some walking, we thought the shops are getting repetitive and decided to head back to our accommodation to leave our stuff before heading out for dinner. My friend had to collect the pants that he bought the day before near Osaka Station.
Umeda Sky Building
After collecting my friend’s pants, we headed for dinner. We ended our trip to Kansai, Japan by visiting the Umeda Sky Building. Umeda Sky Building is a 10 mins walk from the nearest Osaka Station. It is pretty out of the way compared to the rest of the attraction. Umeda Sky Building Observatory is also covered under the 2-Day Osaka Amazing Pass. Most visitors come here for the sunset over Osaka City and that is also the time when it is most crowded. The journey observation deck is one of the highlights when visiting the tower. The iconic floating escalator that connects the 2 building towers had us feel as though we were floating in the sky. The observation has 2 levels, the lower level is the enclosed area where we had a 360º view of Osaka city. However, the view from the upper open observation deck is more stunning. From the upper deck, we had an almost unobstructed view of the city. The view here is much better than that from the HEP5 Ferries Wheel. As it was at night at the time we arrived, the upper level is illuminated with ultraviolet lights. These lightings have the floor illuminated looking like stars in the sky. It is windy here and from here we could see the floating escalator that we have travelled on. Looking out into Osaka City, this is a great way to end our trip to Kansai. Ironically our trip to Hokkaido last year also ended up with a night view of Sapporo. We headed back to our accommodation to pack our luggage for tomorrow’s flight home. After visiting 2 Japanese Cities 2 years in a row, we are unlikely to return to Japan until some time later. It is off to explore other countries and other cities in the world.
Panoramic shot of Osaka at night from Umeda Sky Building
Our last wefie in Osaka
