After the big quake, business as usual in Osaka, Japan

We arrived in Osaka Sunday night. This was a trip I was hesitant to take because of the wrong timing: we planed in two days after the devastating earthquake slash tsunami that rocked Japan. And the cherry blossoms won’t show up till end of March yet.

A few factors that made me decide to push through with the trip: my expiring Japan visa and a non-refundable, non-rebookable ticket. So much for promo fares that don’t protect you otherwise from acts of God and natural calamities. My only consolation is that we booked for Osaka which is far from the chaos and power outages of Tokyo. And our flight into Kansai via PAL was the smoothest ever, thanks to the good weather.

A few Osakans I talked to told me the March 11 earthquake gave them the scare as well, but it didn’t seem evident in the coffee shops and the streets where it was business as usual.

I enjoyed wandering through the covered walkways of Namba and Shinsaibashi. Osaka (like Tokyo) is expensive, if you want it to be, but there are also cheap finds, if you look closely. I was just aghast that a cup of coffee remains at $4 or more 😀

Osaka is a bike-friendly city.

I delighted in taking pictures of the girls in all kinds of fashions.

I spent more than an hour wandering through the eight-storey Tokyu Hands Osaka. Like Muji, Tokyu Hands is a lifestyle store but probably better since they offer do-it-yourself workshops. Mostly, I gravitated towards the store’s enticing bento collection.

KitKat in different flavors for the kids. The array of KitKat choices in Japan is simply amazing, and they vary with every store! Some flavors in our bag: Kobe pudding, caramel pudding, purple sweet potato, yuzu citrus and Japanese chili, green tea! by the way, all yummy 😉

You know you’re in Osaka when….. you see the Glico running man! ( I dunno why they say this, I saw a few Glico men. And somehow, the Glico man wasn’t lit up the night we strolled through Dotonburi)