Saturday, January 21, 2024

• No notes to work from so…. today we explored Dotonbori!
• Had some additional qualities of the hotel, which continues to grow on us by the minute –

• Morning coffee courtesy of Hoshino Coffee, one of our favourites, especially for their “egg slut” breakfast option and exceptional coffee.

• Some items of note – Cafe Sporty, awesome little coffee shop that sells American basketball merchandise wall to wall, Horai 551 (an iconic pork bun store), random adult-themed gachapon machines (that we still don’t know what the prizes were), an arcade with UFO catchers filled with fake fries and nuggets, and the Sanrio-run Cinnamaroll Café.
• We also headed over to visit our first-ever hotel in Osaka, which wasn’t available this time around – Lions Rock Hotel.

• Lunch was a wagyu burger place called Samurai Burger – not bad, for fast food!

• We also visited a place I was half convinced wasn’t real – Shinsaibashi Big Step. A shopping arcade built down into the ground, looking like a meteor strike in the middle of Japan. The layout was so wild and memorable, but the name so forgettable, I hadn’t been able to track it down online. It wasn’t helped by MBW not having visited last time we were in town.

• One of the coolest places in Big Step (for me, at least) was BamBam GameMonster Osaka, an SNK (and especially King of Fighters) speciality store. As much as I enjoy Street Fighter and the Capcom store in Shinjuku, this place felt even more special.

• For dinner, it had been far too many days since the last time we’d had yakiniku, so that was the answer!