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Took cab to airport in the afternoon. Once arrived in Terminal 3, I then proceeded to the "Changi Recommends" booth to collect the WiFi router to be used in Japan.
4fingers Crispy Chicken
Decided to have 4fingers as lunch. This fast-food restaurant is located at basement 2 of Terminal 3 (left photo below). Ordered a combo meal which came with three pieces of fried drum sticks, seaweed fries and a soft-drink (right photo below). This meal cost SGD 11.95.
Singapore AirlinesBoarded SQ 616 and the flight took off on time at 1355 hours (left photo below). In the middle of the flight, snacks and beverage were first distributed to passengers (right photo below).
Inflight meal of braised chicken was then served (left photo below) and followed by vanilla ice-cream coated with chocolate as finale (right photo below).
The flight touched down at about 2130 hours.Hotel Check-in
There was a long queue at the immigration custom which took more than one hour for us to clear. To add on to the misfortune list, the complimentary shuttle bus provided by the Kansai Airport Washington Hotel was full due to overwhelming number of passengers. With no other alternatives, we had to pay JPY 500 each to board a night bus to the hotel.
Finally checked in to the Kansai Airport Washington Hotel and had a good rest.
Day Two
Woke up early and checked out from the hotel. Thereafter walked towards the Rinku Premium Outlets at about 9.30 am.
Rinku Pleasure Town Seacle
Rinku Pleasure Town Seacle is a large-scale shopping complex that has to be passed through before reaching the outlets if walking from the Rinkū-town Station direction (left photo below). There is a giant ferris wheel for both adults and children which has become a landmark in the area (right photo below).
Rinku Premium OutletsRinku Premium Outlets is the largest outlet shopping center in western Japan and it is located across from Kansai International Airport. This Premium Outlets is just 6-mins walk from Rinkū-town Station.
This Premium Outlets is built in the style of the old American port town Charleston where the 2-storey building houses over more than 210 shops (photos below).
Famous brands and popular sport shops from both inside and outside of Japan, welcome visitors with a full line-up of clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, men's and children's and daily sundries in a spacious locale at reasonable prices (photos below).
Since we arrived in the outlets early in the morning without breakfast, we then went to Tully's Coffee located in a food court (left photo below). Got myself a bacon cheese lettuce sandwich and a cup of latte at a total of JPY 560 (right photo below). Overall was satisfied with this simple breakfast.
We went to shop for almost two hours in this large outlet mall. After which decided to have our lunch again in the food court. Saw a ramen stall that seemed to be good from its food photos (left photo below). Ordered a chashu ramen at JPY 1,000 (right photo below). Quite regretted as the broth was so salty that I had to literally drain off the noodles and chashu from the broth.
Opening hours of the Rinku Premium Outlets from 1000 hours to 2000 hours daily.We left the outlet at about 1.30 pm. While passing through the Rinkū-town Station, we saw a Tourist Information shop and managed to get our ICOCA card at JPY 2,000 and Osaka Amazing Pass at JPY 3,000 from there. Thereafter we gotten our luggage from the hotel and then proceeded back to the Rinkū-town Station.
Transportation Route to Namba
| Action | Route | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Depart | Rinkū-town Station 「临空城駅」 (NK31) | - |
| ⇣ | 🚅 Nankai Airport Express (bound for Namba) | 43-mins |
| Transfer | Namba (Nankai) Station 「難波駅」 (NK01) | - |
| ⇣ | 🚶Walk | 12-mins |
| Transfer | Ōsaka Namba Station 「大阪難波駅」 (A01) | - |
| ⇣ | 🚋 Kintetsu Nara Line Express (bound for Kintetsu Nara) | 1-min |
| Arrive | Kintetsu-Nippombashi Station 「近鉄日本橋駅」 (A02) | - |
Checked in to the Hotel Sunroute Osaka Namba and thereafter began to explore the nearby area.
Kuromon Market (黒門市場)
The Kuromon Market, also known as "Kuromon Ichiba" in Japanese, is a public market that stretches around 600-meters parallel to Sakaisujidori street (left photo below). It has about 150 shops that predominantly selling fish, meat and produce, with other shops also retailing traditional sweets and low-priced clothes and homeware (right photo below). The market was just 2-mins walk from our hotel.
Do look up while walking as the arcade is decorated with giant sea creature sculptures mounted on the ceiling. There is a total of seven in each area in the shape of a long tooth grouper, a red snapper, a tuna, a lobster, a crab, a puffer fish (left photo below), and an octopus (right photo below).
Just by looking at the food displayed neatly outside each stall already made me hungry in the late afternoon (photos below).
We then walked about 6-mins from the market to the Dotonbori Street.Dotonbori Street (道頓堀)
Dotonbori generally refers to both the Dotonbori Canal and to the Dotonbori Street that runs parallel to the canal's southern bank (left photo below). It is one of the most colorful areas and an absolute must-visit location when traveling in Osaka (right photo below).
Restaurants with Interesting Display- Kani Dōraku is a Japanese restaurant chain known for their traditional appearance and the large animatronic red crab above their main entrance (left photo below).
- Kinryu Ramen has three restaurants, one at each end of the street and one in the middle. It is notable for its giant three-dimensional golden dragon billboards (right photo below).
- Otakoya is a popular Takoyaki stand that has a large prominent display of an octopus above its entrance (left photo below).
- Zubora-ya is a fugu (河豚) restaurant that has a huge pufferfish lantern hanging out at its front stall (right photo below).
- Genrokuzushi Dotonbori is one of the oldest conveyor belt sushi stores. The restaurant attracts its customers' attention by the large hand-rolled sushi display (left photo below).
- Gyoza Ohsho is a Japanese restaurant chain known for serving gyōza and other food from Japanese-Chinese cuisine. Lage display of a plate of gyōza is one of the main attractions to the restaurant (right photo below).
Famous landmarks and sights
- Probably the most recognizable image of Osaka is the Glico Man. It is a symbol of Glico candy and is depicted as a giant athlete on a blue track (left photo below). First installed in 1935, the current version is the sixth version with LEDs installed in Oct 2014 (right photo below).
- Ebisu Tower Ferris Wheel is the world's first oval ferris wheel attached to exterior building of the Don Quijote store (left photo below). The ferris wheel stands at the height of 77.4-meters and each of the 32 cabins can hold 4 people. Its façade is decorated with an image of the mythical god of fisherman and luck known as "Ebisu" (right photo below).
Our main purpose was to shop in this Don Quijote store (驚安の殿堂) to get most of our food souvenirs. Don Quijote is a popular discount chain store in Japan and branded as "Don Don Donki" outside Japan.
Ichiran Ramen (一蘭)
The Ichiran Ramen is a Japanese ramen chain specializing in tonkotsu ramen. Saw one of its outlets along Dotonbori thus decided to have our dinner there (left photo below). Similar to most ramen restaurants, food order is taken from the ticket machine where dollar notes are to be inserted and a receipt will then be generated after payment (right photo below).
The restaurant is famous for providing a solo dining experience where each customer has a small compartment behind a bamboo-woven curtain (left photo below). Even water dispensing for tea is self-serviced. This is to allow diner to focus on the ramen instead of the surroundings.
I selected a Classic Tonkotsu Ramen which cost JPY 970 (right photo below). The soup is rich and creamy with tender pork and green onions to add to its flavor.
Shinsaibashi-Suji (心斎橋筋) Shopping StreetWe continued our shopping along Shinsaibashi-Suji. It is an approximately 600-meters shopping arcade with covered roofs (left photo below).
Even with no intention of shopping, it is still worth taking a walk along the busy street to see the interesting locals who prowl this place. This street is also a "training ground" for shopping stamina with its large number of crowds and bright lights from the shops (right photo below).
Hard Rock Café OsakaThe Hard Rock Café Osaka was located at Minami-Honmachi Street that is a few hundred meters away from the Shinsaibashi-Suji (left photo below). The rock shop in the café offered limited-edition merchandises and displayed rare collections (right photo below).
| ✍ Update: |
|---|
| Hard Rock Café Osaka is permanently closed on 31 Jan 2021. |
We followed the same route back to the hotel for rest.
Day Three
7-Eleven Premium Gold Series: "Ippudo" (一風堂)
Probably due to the delicious dinner, I then bought a bowl of instant noodles as breakfast. This Premium Gold Series of "Akamaru New Flavor Noodles Hakata Tonkotsu" is a tie-up between 7-Eleven and Ippudo Ramen and produced by Nissin Food. It had five packs of ingredient mix beside the dried noodles (left photo below). The soup was rich and flavorful especially with the tender sliced pork belly.
However this bowl noodle has a short expiry and its flimsy packaging made it difficult for me to bring back to Singapore.Left the hotel at about 8.20 am and walked to Namba station.
Transportation Route to Ikeda
| Action | Route | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Depart | Namba (Subway) Station 「難波駅」 (M20) | - |
| ⇣ | 🚇 Osaka City Subway Midosuji Line (bound for Senri-Chūō) | 9-mins |
| Transfer | Umeda (Subway) Station 「梅田駅」 (M16) | - |
| ⇣ | 🚶Walk | 6-mins |
| Transfer | Umeda (Hankyu) Station 「梅田駅」 (HK01) | - |
| ⇣ | 🚋 Hankyu Takarazuka Line Express (bound for Takarazuka) | 20-mins |
| Arrive | Ikeda Station 「池田駅」 (HK49) | - |
CupNoodles Museum - Osaka Ikeda (安藤百福发明纪念馆 - 大阪池田)
This CupNoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda is a museum dedicated to Nissin Instant Noodles and Cup Noodles (left photo below). A statue of the instant ramen inventor 'Momofuku Ando' (安藤百福) is located outside the museum (right photo below). The creation of instant noodles has been called to be one of the outstanding inventions in the 20th century and have changed the diet of people throughout the world.
Instant Noodles Tunnel
- Approximately 800 types of Nissin's product packages were displayed chronologically in this tunnel (photos below).
Starting from the first Chicken Ramen, in red packaging, that was invented in 1958 (photos below).
The tunnel ended with the latest Nissin products (photos below).
- Personalized cup noodles of selected soup flavor and ingredients can be created in this factory (left photo below). The first step was to buy an empty cup noodle container from the vending machine at JPY 300 each. After hands washed, participants could freely design the space on the middle of the container using color pens provided (right photo below).
Here were my miserable drawings on the cup (photos below).
The colored container was then handled to the staff at the counter (left photo below). After which it was placed in a machine where each participant had to turn the lever several times to get the dried noodles pack to drop into the container (right photo below).
Next participant got to choose one from the four soup flavors: regular (soy sauce), seafood, curry and chili tomato, and four from the twelve ingredients including freeze-dried shrimps, crab-flavored fish sausage, Chinese-style barbecued pork, cheese and corns (photos below).
Following were our final selections (left photo below). The cup noodles container was then top sealed with aluminum foil (right photo below).
- Chicken Ramen can be made in this factory; from kneading, spreading, steaming and seasoning the wheat flour to drying it with flash drying method (left photo below). Do note that reservation is required for this factory experience.
The Birth of Chicken Ramen
- A faithful recreation of the work shed was displayed in the museum. It was where the world's first instant noodles, chicken ramen, was invented (right photo below).
- After seeing an American buyer split the instant noodles into a paper cup and poured hot water in it, the brilliant inventor, Mr. Ando, was hit with an idea to create "noodles in a cup" in 1971. Other ideas also took shaped where the design of "middle suspension" in the cup (left photo below). This suspension helps to prevent both noodles and cup from being broken during transportation and allows uniform dehydration of the noodles when hot water was poured in.
Outer Space Instant Noodles
- The world's first instant noodle product was launched into outer space on 26 Jul 2005 from the space shuttle "Discovery" (right photo below). It was specially made to be edible using hot water at 70˚C which is the boiling point in outer space.
The museum can be reached within 5-mins walk from Ikeda station on the Hankyu-Takarazuka Line. Opening hours from 0930 hours to 1630 hours (closed on every Tuesday) and admission is free of charge.
We left the museum at about 10.30 am for our next destination.