Osaka is a great city to experience a few uniquely Japanese things. Namely, tour the Yamazaki Distillery, go to a baseball game at Koshien Stadium and drink perfect mugs of Japanese beer.
We flew Peach Air from Taoyuan Airport to Kansai Airport’s Terminal 3, the one dedicated to Peach Air. The flight was pretty much flawless because I made the genius decision to pay a little extra for seat selection.
I nabbed one side of the exit row, which meant my 6-foot tall travel companion had more than enough legroom to flex his knees and ankles.
After flying Peach three times, I can confidently say Peach is my favorite of all the low-cost carriers. Everything was comfortable and organized. And there wasn’t that stench of we-don’t-give-a-crap that’s typically wafting around during a budget airline flight.
Oh, and this. Fast forward a few days to this view in the Terminal 3 waiting area when we left Osaka for Tokyo. It’s so beautiful I want to cry.
Our itinerary in Osaka was pretty loose. The only things on the agenda were the Yamazaki Distillery tour and the baseball game, which I had booked over a month earlier.
The rest of the time was spent wandering aimlessly around the Shinsaibashi shopping area, keeping an eye out for good places to grab a cold beer.
The number of people in the Shinsaibashi area was insane. The malls stretched on and on, but you could duck into narrow alleyways and find the teeniest restaurants and bars with just a few seats.
We didn’t look up specific restaurants to try and left it up to the travel gods to lead us in the right direction. To be honest, I think it’s incredibly hard to have a bad meal in Japan. There’s great Japanese food and equally delicious Western food.
Just pick places that have English or photos on their menu, or enough busy tables so you can point and order the same thing as the non-clueless locals.
One meal, just to mix things up, I ordered a Hoppy and shochu mix. Hoppy is a retro low-alcohol beer that’s kind of flavorless.
We also tried just about every kind of beer for sale in the convenience stores, except for the alcohol-free ones. It’s interesting that they’re so prevalent.
The nightlife in Osaka is probably epic. We didn’t stay out late enough to see the action, but if you’ve seen this documentary, you know what I’m talking about.
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Osaka Part 2: The Yamazaki Distillery Tour
Osaka Part 3: Tigers Baseball at Koshien Stadium