This is the third and final post of a three post series of the Kansai district. At the end of this post, there will be an ultimate, shortened itinerary for Kansai,

The other two posts in this series give details of our time in Kyoto, with Fushimi Inari, the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, and our experiences in Nara, where the world famous bowing deer live, and Kobe, with the world famous beef.

This post picks up right after our morning, and part of the afternoon, in Kobe. After we finished in Kobe, we headed back to spend the night in Osaka.

The Majestic Osaka Castle

First stop was Osaka Castle, one of the original shogunate castles in Japan. As it was a military castle designed to ward off attacks from rival clans, in the few hundred years of its existence, it has sustained a lot of damage, and the castle had been burnt down. So what you can see now is largely a reconstruction. However, the peek into old Japanese culture is still worth the trek to see it.

Around the entrance of the castle, there was a craft sale with lots of wonderful ornaments, Japanese style decorations and handmade artwork. The wood craft motorcycle was the most impressive thing by far, with all the parts intricately sculpted.

After wandering around the area, there was a side path that we went down, and it appeared to be a small shrine with a samurai guarding it.

After we went into the main lawn of the castle, we thought about going up into the castle itself. We saw people at the top area, looking over the castle grounds, and it looked so cool! However, the line was extremely long, and there was only about an hour left before the castle closed. So to save time and money, we opted to wander around the grounds.

We also saw some boat tours in the moat surrounding the castle. We found out the Osaka Amazing pass, which has a lot of tours and value for an inclusive price, would have covered that. We chalked it up to a bad travel decision, but enjoyed the sight of other people taking the boat tour.

Amerikamura- aka “America Town”

If I was a reader at home, I would be wondering why the travel blogger, who happens to be an American, would want to go to a place called “Amerikamura” in Osaka. Isn’t the whole point of travel to get away from your country/area/region for a bit of time, and see new things? Well, I had always seen America from the inside out, and I wanted to see it from the outside in!

As we walked down the street, we heard lots of current American rock and pop music blaring out of open shop doors. It gave me a strong sense of being home, which was pretty disconcerting. One thing that reminded me where I was though, was the line for bubble tea that was at least 100 people long! Definitely something you’ll only see in Asia (and the occasional college campus!).

We wandered around the building a bit, but as it was mostly shops with stuff we could get back home, we decided to bypass it. However, we had to go into this pinball arcade with literally dozens of old-time pinball and bask in pop-culture nostalgia!

We ended up playing the game pictured below, which was a live action version of Pong. It definitely tested our reflexes and the strength of our relationship (just kidding! or am I?), but it was totally worth the few hundred yen for a couple games.

When we left that area, we heard something that sounded like a concert! We went to check it out, and it turned out that it was a Japanese rap concert, at the entrance of the mall. We enjoyed it for about 20 minutes, and took a few videos to prove we saw it. Although it was too quick for us to understand much, we enjoyed it, as the Japanese language is melodic enough to go well with rap! The link to see one of the rap performances is here on my Instagram channel!

After seeing the performance, we were thinking of going to the Philly cheese steak restaurant on the bottom floor of the mall, but I wanted to go to try okonomiyaki, an Osaka specialty, so we headed to a restaurant that was nearby. It turned out to be closed, so we decided to find a restaurant near the Dotonbori River, which was a short walk away.

The takoyaki shop we saw on the river also had okonomiyaki. It was about a 20 minute wait, but the long line meant that the quality was great, so we decided to go for it. Fun fact; the literal translation of okonomiyaki is “whatever you want fried”. The Osaka version of this dish is with fried cabbage (although we couldn’t taste it), and it was amazing! The Hiroshima version apparently has fried noodles (or yakisoba in Japanese) inside.

We got two different ones and shared them. One was double pork, and one was cheese and egg. Both were super delicious! The shop, as many others do, topped them with mayonnaise and bonito, dried fish flakes. In the heat, you can watch the fish flakes “dance” on the grill that the okonomiyaki are put on in front of you.

After this delightful dinner, we walked along the shops parallel to the river and enjoyed the interesting signs to draw in customers, some of which were moving! We also were caught by one of melon bread (melon pan) with ice cream in the middle and ended up enjoying the freshly baked dessert with a big smile on our face!

There was a big souvenir shop there that we went into, and I debated getting something from the “Glico” brand. I wasn’t exactly sure what they sold, but the famous Glico running man meant that it was well known. I opted against it, and I’m glad I did. We did get to take a picture with a prop Glico man outside though!

I later found out that Glico is the company that makes the famous Pocky chocolate covered sticks and Pretz savory sticks, so I’ve had their products many times! I’ve also gotten the chance to try the original Glico product, a caramel almond candy, but I got a whole box at a candy store for less than 120 yen, so it was very cheap!

After this, we went to a video game bar called Video Game Bar Space Station. We played many games, including Sonic on an old Nintendo 64, Donkey Kong on a barrel shaped tabletop game, and we helped some people get unstuck from a two-player Playstation game called Ibb and Obb! It’s a great strategy game. We played for a while after they left, but we eventually wanted to head back to the hostel. Side note…. we got lost on the way back to our hostel, but we were able to find our way back eventually. And Japan is one of the safest countries on Earth, so we didn’t have to worry about walking around at night.

After a while, we got tired and headed back to our hostel, Guest Home Koma, mentioned in my Kobe/Nara post! In the morning, we had to decide what to do before going back on the shinkansen. We had originally planned to go to the Golden Temple in Kyoto, Kinkakuji Temple, but the distance was a bit far away. So we opted to go to Osaka’s Korea town instead!

We got into the Korea Town and almost immediately went to the Korean pancake shop. We got one cheese and one honey walnut, and even though they were small, they were amazing.

We walked up and down the area, and saw a few kids games, like winning goldfish and ring toss. However, our real focus was on the cheese corn dogs! It’s a new Korean fast-food that has stringy mozzarella cheese inside. We both got them covered in potatoes and put ketchup on top. Mine had an actual corn dog inside, and Christian’s didn’t. However, I liked the one with only cheese inside better.

While we were trying to get the corn dogs, they asked for our name. Interestingly, the people working there (mostly Koreans) couldn’t pronounce my name, and kept insisting I was “Joey”. After emphasizing the Z over and over, I decided to let it go as close enough to my real name. Maybe the Korean language doesn’t have a lot of “Z”s or hard “S”s.

There was also a very popular tapioca shop there. I opted to get one with coconut milk, and it was the perfect compliment to the meal!

After we finished up in Korea Town, we headed to Kyoto Station for the shinkansen. We had bought a ticket for a friend to come back with us, but she couldn’t make it. She passed it off to another friend of hers who wanted to go to Tokyo, and after we met him in the station, we headed back with him, making sure to get our drinks before getting on the train.

Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for! (This is not exactly the same as our itinerary, but has some of the mistakes corrected!) All estimated times do not include travel time, but are times to take at the sights themselves. This also assumes a home base of Tokyo for the travels, if you are flying out of there or living there, like I was!

The Ultimate Itinerary for Kansai: Nara, Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka

Day 1: Tokyo- Kyoto

• Take the shinkansen to Kyoto
• Grab dinner in a restaurant of your choosing
• Go to Gion- the historic district of Kyoto
  • Grab a dessert at a cafe, buy some authentic Japanese souvenirs, and enjoy the historic buildings mixed with modern ones
• Check into your hotel/airBnb/hostel/Couchsurfing location (recommended to be in Kyoto for the first two days)

Day 2: Kyoto

• Early morning- head to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
  • Also, enjoy your time by the Katsura River nearby!
  • Grab lunch here too at the shops nearby
  • Estimated time here: 2-3 hours
• If you have time, go to Kinkakuji Temple (the Golden Pavilion)
  • Estimated time: 1 hour
• Afternoon- go to Kyoto International Manga Museum
  • Estimated time: 2-4 hours
• Evening- go to the Maranouchi Spicy Street for dinner
  • Get whatever type of food you like there, including tantanmen, gyoza, chicken wings, or other spicy goodness!

Day 3: Kyoto

• Morning- head to Fushimi Inari Temple
  • Estimated time: 3 hours, with going up to the top of the mountain
  • It’s recommended to get “Inari zushi” at a local supermarket and take it up there for the hike up the mountain
  • You can also get breakfast and/or lunch at the shops at the bottom of the mountain
• Afternoon- head to Nishiki Market for snacks and/or dinner
  • Estimated time: 2 hours
• Evening- head to lodgings in Osaka, for a more centralized location for further travels
  • We’d recommend the Guest House Koma, as we had a great time there!
  • Stop by an izakaya (Japanese pub) if you have time!

Day 4: Nara

• Morning: head to Nara Train Station
  • Rent a bike if you want to go around the city and see the architecture (highly recommended)
• Spend most of the day at Nara Park
  • See the Nara Deer, and grab lunch if you want
  • There are also many museums in the area
  • You can also see the biggest Buddha in Japan if you want at Todanji Temple
• Late afternoon: Go to the Nara Craft Museum
  • Estimated time: 30 minutes to 1 hour
• Evening: go to Sakura-dori Street
  • Also try “Kakinoha zushi” , sushi wrapped with persimmon leaves, a Nara specialty!

Day 5: Kobe/Osaka

• Morning: go to Motomachi Street
  • So many local snacks to try!
  • Estimated time: 1 hour
• Mid-morning: Go to the Port of Kobe, and the Earthquake Memorial Park
  • You can also go to Kobe Tower if you want to see the seaside views!
  • Estimated time: 1 hour
• Afternoon: Go to Chinatown for lunch and to try many different types of Kobe beef and other dishes!
  • Estimated time: 2 hours
• Mid-afternoon: If you have time and the weather cooperates, go to Nurobiki Falls
  • Estimated time: 1.5 hours
• Afternoon-evening: Go back to Osaka
  • Amerikamura: estimated time: 1- 1.5 hours
  • Dotonbori and trying Okonomiyaki- 2 hours
  • Go to a video game bar! We liked the one called “Space Station” near Amerikamura.

Day 6: Osaka-Tokyo

• Morning: go to Osaka Koreatown
  • Have breakfast and/or lunch there
  • Estimated time: 1 hour to 2 hours
• Afternoon: go to Osaka Station to catch your shinkansen back to Tokyo!

I hope you enjoyed this post series! Feel free to leave questions or comments, and subscribe to my newsletter for more posts. Don’t forget to keep the stars in your eyes!