KitKats and Castles
KitKats are huge in Japan.
Around 2000, Nestle started marketing weird flavors of KitKats for Japan and then rolling out new flavors all of the time. They’re now really popular as gifts, especially around Christmastime. I had no idea of this before I came here and started seeing odd KitKat flavors in convenience stores. I picked these up out of curiosity:
citrus kitkat – didn’t like this one
matcha kitkat! so green but so good!
Here is an article talking about the KitKat program Nestle has in Japan😃
They even did this last year.
So, after I arrived in Osaka, I discovered that there are actually 8 KitKat Chocolatories in Japan, which ONLY SELL SPECIAL KITKATS! Suddenly, purchasing chocolate became my number one priority on my Osaka tour!
This Chocolatory is inside a Daimaru, which is a really nice department store chain, and (like all of the department stores) has a food speciality floor on the basement level!
kitkatzzz
kitkat ‘museum’
kitkat chocolatory
Ten minute wait in line, snaking around stanchions, and I came away with these:
pretty packaging
💚
these flavors!!!
chocolatory
The flavors I purchased: Butter, Pistachio Raspberry, Green Tea & Kinako, Chili & Passonfruit, Strawberry Maple, Orange Cocktail Noir, and Sakura Green Tea!! I’m trying them and sending the rest home as gifts😊
As a footnote (because this is wayyyy less exciting than the KitKat store, I’m ashamed to say): Osaka Castle. Very grand and beautiful, and because it’s white, I found it interesting because it looks a lot different than the other structures I’ve been seeing in Japan.
osaka castle
osaka castle painting – how it looked in the 1500’s
osaka castle moat
osaka castle
osaka castle moat
Please let me leave you with the funniest sign I’ve ever seen
what happened to this guy to get him so pissed off about drunk, tattooed exercise freaks?
Next up: CAMBODIA
Osaka Night Lights
Vibrant, bustling excitement = Osaka
Osaka is like miles and miles of Times Square, up and down 10 different streets. Now I know why everyone says that Osaka has the best nightlife in Japan.
minami area bridge
It’s a fun place to be, also a little trashy, and great food😆 I tried this place called Tako Tako King (their speciality is takoyaki), and it was a very loud but inviting little restaurant/bar, where the guys who work there are constantly shouting out orders and welcoming people in. Super fun, even though I had no clue what they were saying. According to their menus, it’s a blues/jazz place, but they had the music on an American Country music FM radio station the whole time I was there😄
Tako Tako King
takoyaki (octopus balls)
rice-egg-octopus-bacon-pickled beets-yum
The Minami area is where a lot of the hubbub is centered, on a street called Dotonbori, which runs along the canal. Tons of shops for anything and everything, restaurants and bars/clubs.
the riverwalk on steroids
moi
dotonbori street
street in minami
Craziness…
The Glico running man sign is famous, I have since found out:)
The exterior of the restaurants are over-the-top decorating, adding to the fun atmosphere…
storefront
storefront
A few streets over are all the high-end shops (think: Apple Store, Louis V, etc), with Christmas lights:
shinsaibashi shopping district
My hotel has nice views of the city:
night view
daytime view
I’m only here less than two days, then back to Tokyo…
Next up: KitKats & Castles
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