We reached Osaka before sunrise. It's an overcast day. 
Breakfast aboard the Sunflower starts at 5:30 and ends at 6:15. For this reason we are some of the few passengers who are in the dining room this morning. 
We woke up at 5 am and are in the buffet line promptly at 5:30. My selection consists of scrambled eggs, curry rice, and toast. 
For 750 yen or about $4.85, it's a great deal for a breakfast buffet. 
Retro Toaster
Cute Cutlery for Breakfast Buffet
When travelling with others, our morning conversations usually start with the question "How did you sleep?" This morning the Wongs replied that they woke up several time due to the rocking of the ship. “I’ll be glad to sleep in a regular room tonight. No rocking” says Lisa.
The rest of our group must have found the rocking to be sleep inducing. All in all taking the ferry was a terrific experience. “I never would have thought about doing this” says DeAnne. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience.” Normally we would have taken a three and half hour train to Osaka and booked a room for the night but by taking the overnight ferry we had transportation and hotel for price of the ferry ride. Plus our group didn't have to make any decisions about where to dine. We chose western style beds for our stay. We passed by a cabin that featured the Japanese style futons. 
The atrium is empty so we have some fun taking photos. 
By 6:40 we head to our cabins to grab our bags. "I saved the slippers from the cabin for a souvenir. It's a nice slipper" said DeAnne while we were waiting in the atrium for departure. Mike ran back to our cabin to grab our slippers as well. 
I hadn't wanted to add more bulk to our bags, but DeAnne was right, the slippers were better quality than the slippers from our hotels. For passengers on foot, we departed the ferry the same way we came in, strolling out with our bags through the entrance of the atrium. We said goodbye to the friendly reception staff member who had been so helpful to us. 
As we leave the ferry terminal we watch all the big rig trucks coming off of the ferry. 
The Osaka Sunflower ferry terminal is fairly new and at this hour it's not busy. 
A train and one transfer gets us to the station near our Holiday Inn Express -Osaka City Centre-Midosui. 
We are staying at the same hotel as our prior trip in April. The Louies recalled how difficult it was to find an exit and not being able to find an elevator or escalator while leaving the station with their bags. When the Fongs and Gees visited Osaka one week later, the Louies had warned us about the problem. Luckily Norman put his navigational skills to good use. He was very observant and when he noticed a delivery person using a door next to a cafe, he decided to check it out. It led to a sloped walkway with an elevator that led to the street level of the building above the station. 
The signage for the exit was not well marked; its location and walkway configuration made it more of a delivery entrance. It’s too early at 7:45 to check into the Holiday Inn Express, so we stow everything with our bags that we had shipped ahead that had arrived yesterday and were already in the lobby waiting area. 
We walk through a long shopping street, Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street to reach Dontonbori the famous tourist and nightlife spot of Osaka so that first time visitor, Teddy, can check it out. 
The iconic Glico Running Man towers above us and we adopt his famous pose. 
Dontonbori comes to life at night so the only activity this morning are the unloading of delivery trucks and business owners or staff cleaning or prepping before opening. At a seafood restaurant, Teddy and Lisa eye dinner.
The World Expo is coming to Osaka April 13, 2025 and the Louies and Fongs will be coming back to in April! 
Without the crowds we can leisurely take photos of the famous food signs but what's lacking is the view of the eye catching signage lit up at night. 
After the quick stroll (for some of us)
we head to Don Quijote, one of Japan's largest discount store. 
All the stores on Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street don’t open until 11:00. 
The Louie’s split off and head to the Namba walk, an underground corridor filled with stores and food stalls. They enjoy a tempura lunch.
Some of us go to McDonald's to get a little snack. 
We eat slowly since we have to wait thirty minutes for the stores to open. I shop at GU, a clothing store and buy a couple of small items. We can’t check into the hotel until 2:00 but we head there early. A majority of the group is tired from our early morning start and are content to sit in the waiting area of the hotel until they can check in. I am determined to visit the Semba Center Building to check out stores and drag a reluctant Mike along. Semba Center Building 10 is where I first found the special Yamaroku soy sauce that son Cameron had asked me to shop for during our April visit. The store is across from Daiso. On this trip, there are plenty of Yamaroku soy sauce on the shelf. 
The Semba Center has 10 buildings and about 600 stores selling wholesale fashion and food. It's lightly raining as we head there so umbrellas come out but once we reach the first building we put away the umbrellas because the street crossings are covered by overhead tracks. 
For the next hour we pop into one building after another, strolling through the aisles, browsing at storefronts on both sides. Besides wholesale fashions, there are wholesale fabric and sewing supplies. 
I checked stores selling wedding and formal wear to look for a dress to wear as the mother of the groom for my son’s upcoming wedding in December. 
An attendant told me that I needed to make an appointment and one was available later in the day. Since you could not buy off the rack I decided not to bother. As our 3 o’clock check in time approached, Mike was anxious to head back to the hotel and as each building seemed to have the same type of stores I decided that I had seen enough and we headed back to check in. Our trips to Japan have always included dining at least once at our favorite beef cutlet restaurant, Gyukatsu Motomura. Norman suggested it for our last dinner of the trip. This is the second time for our group on this trip. 
We had dined at this chain restaurant in Fukuoka. 
There was a queue so we waited about half an hour. 
After having dined at this chain numerous times, this was the first time that we found out that you can ask for a bib to keep any splattering of the sizzling beef from hitting your clothes. 
My favorite part of this meal is the dessert, warabi mochi. It is delicately flavored, mildly sweet and I find it to be a refreshing way to end the meal. It may be an acquired taste, much like the sweet red bean soup or black grass jelly that some Chinese restaurants offer at the end of the meal. Mike hasn't acquired a taste for it so for a change I get his portion. 
I'm not a big fan of the roasted soybean flour so I shake off the excess. The rest of the evening was spent shopping. Earlier, DeAnne had bought a jacket that had been marked down at great discount at Uniglo. We returned to Uniglo to look for ones in our sizes. Shirley was the only one who found one to buy. Our group finds a store selling the snowflake cake dessert that Janet had found at Costco back home. It's a seasonal or limited Asian item at Costco. The brand is Yuki and Love and the strawberry flavor from Costco is sold in packages. It's an addictive snack. At this store, the "cakes" were sold individually and in a variety of flavors. Our group mulls what flavor to bring back home. 
Teddy can be seen giving shopaholic, oops, shopper, DeAnne some advice which I would guess went unheeded. 
You'll Need Another Suitcase!
This featured blog entry was written by Helen K. from the blog South Korea and Japan.
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