Hello Osaka!  For the, um, 6^th time we think?  Anyhow, again, nothing special planned for today so we do our normal morning routine and then head out into the pier area a little after the ship is cleared.  Wow – this is a whole new port facility!  The last time we were here there wasn’t much of a facility, just a large room underneath the mall. They have built an entire port building which we walk through now to gain access to the outside.  Once on the streets in Tempozan, we easily make our way to the subway – there are directional signs everywhere for those who don’t know where they are – find a great manhole cover (told you it was a thing!) and pop into into Osaka proper and Dontonbori specifically in a jiffy.  Commence wandering.

Dontonbori is, well, over the top, and always so fun. We meander across one of the bridges for photos, ending up in the high dollar area of Osaka.  Oops – about face!  We do not need or want Gucci or Prada or any of this stuff.  Heading back to the bridges, we pass a shrine located beneath a massive modern hotel. Really?  Oh, well, yeah, the hotel built the shrine too – totally Disney World.  Quick, back to the safety of Dontonbori craziness!

It is so early, lunch is but a mere suggestion at this point, so we stop at a non-Starbucks coffee shop (sigh) called Hoshino (turns out this is also a chain, but at least it’s Japanese) for drip coffee.  Score.  It’s expensive, but they are serving morning breakfast and you can get a selection of food along with the coffee – for the same price as the coffee.  Huh? Well, we really don’t want food, but that’s a no brainer.  So, 2^nd breakfast on the way.  A nice piece of toast and egg for Ed, toast with red bean paste and whipped cream for me.  And lovely drip coffee.  Nice way to waste an hour.

Moving on, we wander the streets until….the mother lode of Kit Kats!  Yes.  This store has the absolute mother lode – and we take full advantage buying way more than we should – but how can we resist Halloween flavor?  Or Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip?  Or Mt. Fuji berry cheesecake? Well you can’t – I tell you – you just can not.

Back out on the streets we simply meander about, looking at everything, snapping pictures of all the fun madness – the massive caricatures of whatever a restaurant or store is selling affixed high up doorways, traditional izakyas stuffed in between massive modern (and cartoonish) structures, lucky Billiken statues (the “God of the way things should be) everywhere, more manhole covers.  It is fun just to watch the world and the wackiness go by as we traipse about.

Getting on time for lunch – how could we eat again?  Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki is how we can eat again!  We found a great restaurant with a Takoyaki exhibition stand out front (where we saw Byron and Kelly, our stalker Canadians who we know see everywhere) and a huge menu that includes my favorite as well – Okonomiyaki.  Game on!  We are seated at a great little table downstairs (lucky table #7) in a room all by ourselves (turns out most people want to be in the room that fronts the canal – we don’t care!) and order our favorite foods! The best!  The Takoyaki is huge, fresh, big pieces of octopus and of course looks like it is alive with the bonito flakes on top.  The Okonomiyaki is perfectly cooked with all the excellent sauces – and kept warm on the hot griddle.  Yay – cravings complete!

We’re done here.  In absolutely the best kind of way!

Back to the subway we go, back to the ship, with a diversion to a little park at the end of Tempozan we never knew existed. Probably for a reason.  What could be a lovely little park is what we are calling the park that Tempozan forgot.  While there is lots of green surrounding some nicely tiled open spaces, everything is overgrown and just run down. Totally un-Japan-like.  Just weird. There are great statues and beautiful tiled murals and a fabulous view of the ship. The entry sign talks about how the park has been a landmark guiding ships into the port and how it attracts lots of people for the cherry blossoms when in season. We just hope they do a little clean up and landscaping before cherry blossom season!   It is a nice little interlude in great weather – and filled with more school children eating their lunch – so nothing wasted, but still.

Still not wanting to go back to the ship yet, we peruse the mall in the port facility – specially not buying the wasabi Kit Kat (which I know I will regret!!!) because we have so many already in our backpack.  But we do buy this great reusable tote bag with scenes of Mt. Fuji – it was really cheap and you know I can always use another bag! 

Then finally we hit the ship with our haul (oh yeah, forgot to mention we bought more socks – they are too cute to pass up!) to watch a nice sailaway from our balcony. 

Afternoon activities, Lido for dinner, it is the magician’s 2^nd show, so cabin for the evening and we are almost done with the part of our adventure.  Wild.