19 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 10: Walk, See, Buy, Eat and Drink at Dotonbori

After having so much fun with our Hedgehog "friends", we decided to simply take a relaxed walk around Dotonbori area.

As it was a Sunday, the place was buzzing with people.

When we felt hungry or greedy, we would buy some snacks to eat.

And when we felt tired, we simply hopped into a cafe for some coffee and cakes.  :-)

At about 5pm, we walked back to our hotel for a short break before heading to Shinsekai.

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19 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 10: Hedgehog Themed Cafe "Harry Wood"

On our first day in Osaka, we visited a Micro Pig Cafe and had lots of fun.  We have not had enough so today, we decided to make friends with some adorable Hedgehogs in Harry Wood Cafe in Namba. 

We booked a 30-minute session with these cute little creatures.

At Harry Wood Hedgehog Themed Cafe, we could hold and play with these cute hedgehogs and take pictures.  The two Hedgehogs that were given to us by the staff were extremely active throughout the session.  One of them even "peed" and "pooped" halfway through the session, so funny.  There were other visitors in the cafe but unlike ours, their hedgehogs simply laid on their laps without moving around much.  Watch the video below and you know what I mean.  :-)

We had an enjoyable session with our two new hedgehog friends.  See you next time!

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19 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 10: Nipponbashi and Den Den Town

Nipponbashi is a popular destination for Anime lovers in Osaka.  It is a paradise for lovers of contemporary Japanese pop culture, where you can get your hands on merchandise and collectibles related to your favourite Anime series.  We went to Umeda Animate Store yesterday and the one in Osaka seems bigger which spans multiple floors.

Once again, Jerlene went wild after seeing rows and rows of Anime merchandises, comic books and figurines.

And she got what she wished for since the start of the trip, a figurine of Hatsune Miku, her favourite character from a Manga series.

Situated parallel to Nipponbashi is Den-Den Town, which is Osaka’s answer to Akihabara’s Electric Town.  There are many shops here selling electronic products and video games.

There are also quite a few maid (and themed) cafes around.  We did not visit the maid cafe but instead, we will be going to a HedgeHog Themed Cafe, which I will share in my next post.

While we explored the many interesting shops around, we saw a group of people driving go-kart on the road, and everyone was in Super Mario Bros costumes.  This is Mario Kart race in real life!

We had our lunch at one of the many dining places around and never regret the decision.

After lunch, we slowly walked towards Namba and paid a visit to our much-anticipated HedgeHog Cafe.

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19 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 10: Namba Yasaka Shrine

Today was our last full day for our Osaka/Kyoto trip.  Our first stop was Namba Yasaka Shrine, which is a short 5 minutes' walk from our hotel.

There is an enormous lion head-shape building around the shrine ground that makes it one of Osaka’s most distinctive places of worship.

While the shrine itself isn’t all that large, it’s the 12-meter tall, 11-meter wide lion head-shaped building that’s the main draw here.  Apparently, the huge open mouth will swallow any evil spirits plaguing you, leaving you only good luck for succeeding in business or school-related ventures.

This place is also popular for local to take wedding photos, which we saw one couple did during our visit.  Best time to visit this shrine is during Cherry Blossom season.

Below is the main entrance to the shrine.

After the short visit to the shrine, we walked to Nipponbashi and Den Den Town area via Namba City.

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