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
OMG, Sumo !
I’m a fan.
Homarefuji Yoshiyuki – one of my new favorite athletes
does he really weigh 360 pounds????
from the event program
So, obviously, the lady at the Tokyo hostel who totally hooked it up! There were around 1,000 people at the event, and when I arrived at the ticket table, before I told anyone my name, the women at the table saw me and started nudging each other and whispering. So I hand over this paper the lady at the hostel typed up for me, to tell them who I am and I’m that there to pick up my ticket. But before I can even give it to them, they hand me an envelope with my name on it and the ticket inside! I guess they knew that ‘Stephanie Harris’ would look exactly like me??😂
super stars
I can add this to the list of sports that I like to watch😊 This was a sumo exhibition, where the professional stars of the sport are there to be seen, sign autographs, and be funny (I can not believe how limber they are).
Then, the lower-level guys are actually wrestling each other for real, even though I don’t think it counts on their official records.
They did a skit with an actor… most of them just stood there and laughed:)
I missed the part with the kids wrestling against the pros, but it was at least cool that I got to see the little ones in the sumo garb😄 They also did the traditional stuff from a match / tournament, which includes singing… I guess to be a sumo wrestler you have to be willing to sing in front of thousands of people??!!
This was held in a small town in Fukuoka Prefecture, and it was five hours round-trip on the train to get there! It was totally worth the trip though… this was a bucket-list experience that I have now done and not been disappointed😍 Here are the rest of the pictures from my day.
messing around
they’re famous
the crowd
explaining technique
cool costumes (kesho mawashi)
big boys
squatting
beating up the ref
Next up: Osaka
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