Osaka: Arrival, hotel and dinner
We arrived at Shin-Ōsaka Station (新大阪駅) 🗾 on the Shinkansen Sakura 562 (さくら 562) after about 2 hours and 40 minutes, around 8:5 PM. From there, we took the Midōsuji Line (御堂筋線) subway to Namba Station (難波駅) 🗾. We thought we’d walk to the Cross Hotel Osaka (クロスホテル大阪) 🗾, but we got somewhat disoriented around the train station because of its many exits leading straight into an underground mall. Confusion set in (really, the only time during the trip). It was late, dark, and we were tired, so a taxi was the solution. Later, we realized it was really not that far. In fact, when leaving Osaka, we walked from the hotel to Namba Station (難波駅) 🗾.
The hotel is a modern, boutique-style hotel. It has nice rooms, a good restaurant, but otherwise somewhat limited facilities (not that we needed anything else). The location was just about perfect. About a block and a half to cross a bridge and read the famous Dōtonbori (道頓堀) 🗾 district, and a Don Quijote right across the street. Lots of restaurants around as well.
After settling in, we walked around to find some dinner. We did not do much walking because we were tired, but settled on dinner at Ramen Makotoya Shinsaibashi (ラーメンまこと屋 心斎橋店) 🗾. Just two blocks away, a bit of a chain, but open, available, and filling. We did actually like it quite a bit.
After dinner, we continued down the street a bit, turned right, and crossed a bridge into Dōtonbori. Known as one of Osaka’s principal tourist and nightlife areas, the area runs along the Dōtonbori canal from Dōtonboribashi Bridge to Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba district of the city’s Chūō ward. We explored briefly before returning to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Kuidaore (食い倒れ) is a Japanese word meaning to ruin oneself [go bankrupt] by extravagant spending on food or, more pithily, “eat until you drop.” It is part of a larger proverb: “Ruin yourself with fashions in Kyoto, ruin yourself with meals in Osaka” (「京都の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ」), reflecting local priorities (and artistry) in the clothing and food of Kyoto and Osaka, respectively.
The phrase is associated with Dōtonbori, and is often used in tourist guides and advertisements. It can be seen in the names of several locations in Dōtonbori, such as the mascot Kuidaore Taro and the defunct restaurant Cui-daore.
We saw what I remembered from some 25 years ago as “the dancing crab,” which is the front billboard of a restaurant called Kani Dōraku (かに道楽), so my memory is still working!