Osaka (2016, October)

Osaka is the first city in Japan I set foot in, which is good, because unlike metropolitan Tokyo (which I went to a few days after), Osaka felt suburban and rather laidback.

Located in the Kansai province, it's famous for being a place where you can find good food and funny people. It's a lovely start to experiencing Japan.

Itinerary

See: Check out the map I used for the whole trip here.

Getting around

See: More general info on getting around in Japan

The hotel we stayed at was close to a train station with many connecting lines (Umeda) and there's even a bus stop pretty much outside the hotel, so getting around was pretty easy.

Cycle

Cycling is very popular here (as it is in many parts of Japan), and most areas especially in the outskirts are cyclist-friendly. Some shops sell/rent bicycles, so this may be a funner, greener and cheaper option to roam about. I didn't get to cycle because of time constraints, but I hope I could if I come to Osaka again!

Bus

Buses are a cheap way to go sightseeing if you feel a bit tired/have some free time but don't particularly feel like walking. They're not the fastest way to travel around though, because they depend on traffic and weather conditions.

On our first day in Osaka, my parents and I took the bus while waiting for the hotel to let us check in. We went a full circuit, which ran for about an hour, and we got to watch the locals - interestingly enough, mostly the elderly - commute to/from neighborhoods, shops, and hospital. It was a fairly simple but interesting ride.

Some things we learnt were:

• Each trip, no matter how far the distance, costs 120yen. 
• You pay as you get off the bus, using cash or a valid travel pass. 
• Bus stops would state which and when buses will stop to pick up people, but stop names on the sign and in the bus are written in Japanese, so if you can't understand Japanese, remember to count the number of stops (or inform the driver) if you have a specific place to get off at.

Subway

The best (and fastest) way to travel in Osaka is by subway, and it's quite easy to use even if you don't speak Japanese. 

Each subway line is indicated with a specific color and an alphabet, and each station is labelled with this color, alphabet, as well as the station number. For example, the station nearest to our hotel, Higashi-Umeda, is the 10th station on the purple Tanimachi line, so the station name is T10. So, even if you can't remember where to get on/off, you can indicate line/station by its color, alphabet, and number of your stop.

To travel by subway, you can either use a ticket, coupon, or travel pass. It's quite easy to purchase your ticket at the ticketing machine:

1. check the fare for your trip by scanning the huge subway fare map directly above the ticketing machine area (or ask someone if it seems confusing)
2. head to one of the ticketing machines
3. click on the 'English' button
4. insert your cash
5. select how many tickets you'd like (if more than one pax), 
6. select your fare, 
7. collect mini ticket(s) and your change at the bottom.of the machine.q 

Other modes of transportation

I only used rail once in Osaka to get to and back from the mosque closest to our hotel, and found it a bit confusing compared to the subway system. I have to study a bit more on before I get the hang ouf it, especially which operators handle which lines, how/where to purchase tickets/travel passes, etc.

If you'll be travelling a lot on the same day, do use a travel pass, like the 1-day unlimited day pass (for subway) for 800yen. Be careful to check the limitations of each travel pass though! My mom and I thought this travel pass could be used for rail too (long story) and we were scolded sternly warned by the security guard near us, haha! I didn't use any other travel pass/card for the rest of our stay in Japan though, because we knew we weren't going to be using more than 800yen on subway on the same day.

These sites have been immensely useful for me to plan public transport options in Osaka:

• Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau: details on Osaka's mass transit system, including the fares you'll most likely have to pay. The site also contains a summary of prepaid/postpaid travel cards if you'd rather skip buying single tickets for every trip.
• OsakaInfo: lists out more than 15 travel passes that cover different combinations of travelling by bus, trams, subway, train, rail, and some even give you discounts to attraction sites in Osaka, e.g. 1-day visitor's ticket and Kaiyu ticket. The site also has excellent transit maps of Osaka/Kansai as well as a list of tourist attractions in Osaka for your planning and geeking out purposes.
• Tripadvisor: a good summary of public transport as well as other means of getting around in Osaka
• Lonely Planet: compilation of info on Japanese train system (though tbh skimming through it is quite overwhelming, ha).

Although a lot of people have suggested Hyperdia, I didn't use it because Google Maps and the free maps I found around train stations seemed adequate for me... probably because I didn't travel much within Osaka though.

Food

Price range

The hotel we stayed at in Osaka provided breakfast and on some days we have lunch (provided with the full-day tour, so we had to spare money for 2 lunches and 3 dinners.

Food in restaurants can be a bit pricey in Japan, especially if you have limitations in your diet. In Osaka, the food prices I saw were generally over 200yen for a bowl of ramen, and a bento set is over 600yen at normal restaurants. Higher-end restaurants charge much much more than this, obviously.

During our nights in Osaka, we just bought sushi from the kombini (convenience) stores like 7 Eleven and Daily Yamazaki near our hotel, because:

1. we were too tired to go elsewhere, 
2. they are quite filling, and 
3. they're cheaper than eating at the restaurants, e.g. sushi packs are usually under 200yen, for reasonably-sized 3 or 4 pieces of sushi.

We did try some gourmet food too though, which is of course a lot pricier. On the day before we left to Tokyo, we had lunch at Kanidouraku Dotonburi-Honten in Namba, which specialises in crabs -- mom's favorite. In all honesty, I found the food to be good, but not great. Eating there was quite an experience though - the array of dishes served for each set were all daintily-decorated, and watching the staff running around in kimono was nothing short of amusing. A set of crab dishes and a plate of grilled king crab came to around 5,000-7,000yen. Check out their menu if you're curious.

If you have dietary restrictions

See: Travelling Muslim

As Muslims who eat halal food, we usually stick to eating vegetarian/seafood whenever we go abroad. As in all places, a safe rule of thumb when buying food if you have a particular diet/medical concern is to ask about the ingredients and/or what something is cooked with.

Case 1: Onigiri

Japanese sale assistants are particularly helpful, even if they don't fully speak other languages. 

Once, when I wanted to buy what was labelled as tuna onigiri (riceball), I asked the guy at the counter, "ve-ji ii desu ka?" (Broken Japanese: (Is this) good for vegetarians?) just to be sure. 

After scanning through the list of ingredients, he replied in Japanese, which I didn't fully understand. When he saw me looking confused, he said, "chicken, inside". 

 

Case 2: Tempura

On our second night in Osaka, we decided to eat out. As we sat down to order at a small restaurant, we saw the cook plopping battered veg and a few pieces of meat (including what looked like pork cutlets) into the same round pot of frying oil.

Since my family and I are quite strict about not eating food that is cooked together with non-halal items, and since it was a tempura store (and thus we didn't have anything else we could order), we decided to leave before the staff took and prepared our orders. 

Our leaving process didn't go very smoothly though, because I spent the next 10 minutes explaining to the confuzzled waiter (and then the cook) why we couldn't eat there, using broken Japanese, pseudo-sign language, and some simple English words.

Eventually, the head chef came out from the back to see what was going on. When he saw us I explained to him, "Watashitachi wa Musurimu... pooku tabemasen... tabemono ga kuuku soko... tabemasen *points to oil pot*" (In broken Japanese: We are Muslims. We don't eat pork. Food is cooked there. We don't eat.). Hearing this, the chef looked at the pot, and then to us, and asked, "Ah, haraaru?" (Ah, halal?), to which my parents and I nodded hard. We left soon after apologising for causing the slight commotion.

Since then, we avoided tempura places which also served fried meat dishes (and I suppose they now know why Muslims may not be able to eat at their restaurant).

Expenses

See: My post on financial stuff, which may be relevant to this section.

Currency conversion

My simplified conversion on-the-go formulae in Japan at the time were:

Japanese Yen (JPY) to Malaysian Ringgit (MYR): add decimal point to last two digits of JPY, then multiply this by 4.
e.g. JPY100 is approx. RM4.00

Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) to Japanese Yen (JPY): divide MYR by 4, then get rid of the decimal point.
e.g. MYR12.00 is approx. JPY300

Budget

My daily budget for the Osaka was 6,000yen (approx. USD60 / RM240) to cover food, local transport, gifts/souvenirs, and other expenses like tickets for attractions. 

For this Japan trip, my dad treated me to the flight, shinkansen (bullet train), tours, and hotel because he had a little extra money to spend, so I am quite thankful.

I added 8000yen (on top of my total budgeted 42,000yen) in cases of emergency, so my overall budget for the 7-day trip was 50,000yen. I spent most of my money on food, gifts, and souvenirs. We didn't have time to visit any museums/art galleries due to our supertight schedule. :(

In all honesty, 6,000yen/day per person is more than enough if:

• your international/regional and accommodation arrangements have been paid;
• you don't mind eating cheap/mid-range food; and
• you don't travel too much/far using public transport.

In summary:

• Transportation around Osaka = below 2,000yen
• Food (e.g. meals, snacks, ice cream, mochi) = below 2,000yen
• Souvenirs = below 3,000yen

Total expenses (roughly) here: approx. 7000yen.

So yeah.

I may update this again later after I properly go through my travel journal, but for now this is all I have to share. Thanks for reading!

See: Other posts I've written about Japan

Last Updated: 2016-11-07