Three days of eating and shopping in Osaka, plus my flight experience from Osaka to Tokyo.

The St. Regis Osaka

After arriving in Osaka and getting off at Umeda Station, I didn’t even dare take a taxi because it felt way too easy to get lost. The subway was definitely more convenient.

This time we booked The St. Regis Osaka and redeemed two nights with FN. The bell desk is on the first floor, while the front desk is upstairs. Front desk service was good, and communicating in English was not a problem. We originally planned to check in around noon, but to our surprise they were able to accommodate an early check-in, and the front desk said the room would be ready in just a few minutes.

Check-in itself went smoothly, but we waited a long time for the butler to bring water and snacks. The butler service at this St. Regis was better than nothing, but only barely—they gave us a quick introduction to the room, and that was the last we saw of them.

You can tell the room is showing its age, but it has been maintained reasonably well. The main advantage here is the location. Shinsaibashi is only one stop away, and there’s a subway station right downstairs. After exiting the station, look for Exit 5—it not only has an elevator, but it also takes you straight to the hotel entrance. This was the most convenient hotel we’ve stayed at in Osaka.

Breakfast

Breakfast could be eaten either upstairs or on the first floor. On the first day, the upstairs dining room was full, so we went downstairs. On the second day, we ate upstairs, and only after comparing the two did we realize the first-floor option was noticeably better.

These steamed items were only available on the first floor.

The buffet spread was somewhat similar to roku.

On checkout day, we asked the bell staff to come upstairs and pick up our luggage, but they were incredibly slow. If you’re rushing to catch a flight, I’d recommend just dragging your bags yourself.

Shopping Around

Both this milk baby doll and my travel companion liked it.

There were these shops right downstairs from the hotel.

The main purpose of this Osaka trip was to buy Kirby merch for my kid, who has been obsessed with Kirby lately. At Kiddyland in Umeda, this entire floor was filled with various IP-themed stores. As soon as we walked out, we saw a rail transit shop, though everything inside was pretty expensive.

We ended up going on a pretty wild shopping spree.

Besides Kiddyland, we also went to the Kirby Cafe near Tennoji. The Osaka location is a dessert shop that only offers takeout.

After buying everything, there was an area next to it where you could eat and drink, but it was standing-room only.

Japanese malls aren’t like the ones back home, with lots of children’s toys everywhere, mostly because space is limited. But every now and then, you still come across something fun.

Hankyu in Umeda is probably the best place to shop in Osaka. You can get both tax-free shopping and discounts there. I wrote about the details in my earlier guide, “Updated 2024.4: The Japan Guide You’ll Regret Not Reading”.

In the middle of a shopping spree, our kid fell asleep. Once he woke up, we moved on to the standard itinerary item: buying him shoes. Shoes in Japan aren’t really better than what you can buy in the US, but the service is excellent. The saleslady knelt on the floor to measure his feet and patiently helped him try on pair after pair.

Hokkaido Product Fair

That day, Hankyu happened to be hosting a Hokkaido product fair. It really had everything—honestly, it felt even more comprehensive than what we saw while shopping in Hokkaido itself. We took the opportunity to grab something to eat, and the fried chicken was pretty good. You could tell just by the color.

Right downstairs from the hotel was a 6-story akachan store, so we could buy a whole pile of baby and kids’ supplies and just drop everything back off at the hotel whenever we wanted. Super convenient.

This drugstore called “瓦屋” was a fun stop. You could get a discount just by posting on Xiaohongshu. It wasn’t a big shop, but everything in it was good stuff.

Umeda, oh Umeda—every time we come here, I feel a kind of existential dread. Every single visit, we get lost. In general, getting around above ground is much easier than underground, but once you’re already below ground—or need to keep switching between street level and underground—it turns into absolute hell mode...

A few random street shots.

On the last day, we went to Nipponbashi’s anime shopping district and passed through Kuromon Market on the way.

Almost all the shops in the anime district didn’t open until 12 pm, and some didn’t even open until 3 pm. We went in the morning and ran into plenty of closed doors.

Osaka also has the same @home cafe we visited earlier in Tokyo.

                                                        Second Visit to Sushi Akazu

Kyoto really just didn’t have any great sushi options, so we kept looking in Osaka instead. After searching around, this still seemed to be the only place where we could bring a kid and still sit at the counter.

They made cooked sushi and udon for our child, and this year he sat at the little table next to us and happily entertained himself. The restaurant also had a few children’s books.

The chef’s English had improved from the year before, and from time to time he would ask everyone whether the rice portion size was right. The atmosphere in the restaurant was still very good. Nearly all the customers that day were Chinese. The Chinese staffer we’d seen before was still there, but she was mostly busy in the back handling reservations, so we hardly saw her. One of the assistant chefs had also been replaced by a Chinese woman, and we didn’t even notice while we were eating. It really felt like Chinese visitors had taken over Osaka.

As for the food, we were pleasantly surprised last year, but this year it had slipped overall. The main issues were seasoning and temperature. The flavors were heavier than last year, and I’m not sure whether that was meant to cater to Chinese diners’ tastes. The temperature was also clearly not as good as last year—most pieces were cool, and the way the warm rice and the fish’s fat came together wasn’t nearly as perfect as it had been before.

Unfortunately, sushi restaurants that both allow kids and offer counter seating are incredibly rare. This still may be the best sushi place for dining with kids.

The kinki was the same as last year.

The three tuna pieces were also the same as last year.

The added uni was actually a little bitter, and not as tasty as the regular set.

This abalone and the rice with abalone liver sauce were just as delicious as ever.

Just like last year, the hand roll came with a choice of rice portion size.

Cheers!

                                       Famous Tempura Spot - 天ぷら 大坂屋 草哲

“Kusatetsu” is the owner’s name. This tempura restaurant allows children to sit at the counter, has a 3.75 rating on Tabelog, and isn’t too hard to book.

We started with some vegetables, including one called guliang—what do you call it where you are? It was a nice lead-in to the fried dishes to come. The dipping sauces were three different kinds of miso.

Then came the ingredient presentation. The sweetfish was still flopping around.

The tempura dipping options included shiso salt, plum salt, and tempura sauce. As each item was served, the assistant chef would explain which dipping option worked best with it.

Kids can order individual items by ingredient. My child liked every item we ordered for him, and even asked for an extra serving.

For the final starch dish, I wouldn’t recommend this one unless you really like onions.

The dessert was cloyingly sweet.

Overall, I thought this place was very good. The batter was on the lighter side, with a crisp exterior and tender interior in each bite, full of juicy flavor. The ingredients were excellent, and the value for money was high. My child also ate very happily here.

Osaka ITM - Tokyo HND

Back to ITM again! This small airport is really convenient, and everything moves quickly. The downside is that there’s no duty-free shop or lounge. We had grilled eel rice and a seafood rice bowl at the airport restaurant, and both were pretty good.

The airport shops felt a lot less industrialized and mass-produced, so I wanted to buy everything I saw. There was also a massage service inside the airport, and the pricing looked reasonable.

We also came across this cafe, run by the same hotel group as the hotel we stayed at in Kobe. There was an ad for the hotel right by the entrance.

This year, the three of us bought our tickets separately, and I wasn’t careful when picking seats, so my seat wasn’t with the other two. Luckily, the flight was fairly empty and no one was sitting next to them. After takeoff, I moved over and sat with them.

My husband really liked that this plane had cameras showing different angles, and he watched them the whole way. It was definitely very cool.

As we got close to Tokyo, the weather there was bad, so we circled near Mt. Fuji several times.

Tokyo at sunset.

During our connection, we went through a separate passageway. The experience wasn’t great—there was no staff guidance, so we could only follow the signs. It seemed like we were the only ones on the whole plane connecting to an international flight. At one point we ran into an unclear sign and had to stop and study it for quite a while, but thankfully we made it onto the shuttle bus without any real trouble.

We were also the only ones on the shuttle bus. It was my first time riding around inside HND airport.

A super close-up view of planes taking off and landing.

This sink in the restroom felt a little odd somehow.

Summary

Overall, our Osaka experience this time was noticeably worse than last spring. The malls were full of Chinese daigou livestreamers, and the shopping environment felt chaotic. At VAYA drugstore, we even ran into some badly behaved fellow Chinese customers who were loudly cursing at the staff and refusing to let it go. There were also long lines outside all the luxury stores, and even after waiting, once you got inside, everything was out of stock. A staff member at a sushi restaurant also warned us that there are a lot of pickpockets around Shinsaibashi, so we should be extra careful.

At this point, we’ve stayed at three hotels in Osaka, and Umeda InterContinental is still our favorite. The rooms and the location are both excellent. The St. Regis Osaka is the closest to the subway, making shopping more convenient and making it easier not to get lost. But compared with Umeda, Shinsaibashi feels much more chaotic. The rooms at the St. Regis are also older and smaller.

Conrad Osaka itself is quite nice; the only issue is that the location isn’t very convenient.

And that wraps up our spring break trip to Japan. I started writing about it during spring break and only finished during summer break—not easy at all, so definitely time to celebrate!

About the Author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of one of our reader group members, Lazy 33’s Food, Drinks, and Fun. The posts there are all original and very well written, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow the account.