Osaka 4 Dotonbori & Dinner

 Here there are a few places I would like to go, but there have been delays, and frankly I'm a bit pooped.  Here we check into the APA Hotel & Resort Osaka Umeda Eki Tower.  It's located close to the hotel, within walking distance probably less than 10 minutes.  However, the station is a city, so I'm having difficulty finding my way out.

The APA hotels aren’t my favorite, the rooms are adequate but the check in process is dehumanizing. No one checks you in, you check yourself in at a computer. Interestingly, they can never find my reservation on the first try, so someone has to intervene. In the end it spits out your room card with a receipt with your room number on it. It’s sort of efficient but not my favorite. 

I drop off my bags and head out to Dotonbori. It’s a cool little retail area with over the top signage. It’s located on a canal with a food stalls and shops. 

This is a little alleyway next to the hotel.  I don't know how they make money, each little bar / restaurant is maybe 10" by 6" wide.

They are already putting Christmas lights up for December.  I expect when I hit Tokyo on the way back there will be more of what they call, illuminations located around the city.

As I exit the stop for Dotonbori, the Takashimaya department store, what a beautiful building.

We have arrived to Dotonbori.

It is packed with tourists even at 7 at night.

I've searched for this history of the running man but, it looks like he was sponsored by a candy company.  They were trying to use him to illustrate that you can get enough energy from a caramel to run a marathon. I have no idea if it's true.

Even though it's packed with people, no one is pushing, and it's relatively easy to navigate.

Here is the canal where you can take a wee boat ride.

Crazy signs

More Christmas lights

These are so cute I just can't...

Here's where I made some questionable choices for dinner.  Honestly I didn't want to go out for dinner, I thought something simple, when I see this frantic line forming.  Of course, I jump in. This would be something my mother would do, look there's a line, it must be good.  This is how she picked restaurants in NYC.  She was right every time. Oh, it's that jiggly cheesecake, I'll have a slice.

Hardworking bakers that have sold out of their cheesecakes, well done.

How wonderful, I can't tell you how many youtube videos I've seen of bakers making this cake.

  I pay, and it's a bit heavier than I thought it would be.  

Oh dear, I've purchased an entire cheesecake.

Let's not panic, let's use google translate to see the nutritional information.

It's not all bad, look 32.1 grams of protein, let's stop reading and call this a win.

Oh and for dinner.. Look at how healthy this pizza looks. I really should have purchased the health insurance before coming here..

I can make it up elsewhere, I'm certain of it. The pizza is getting eaten, I did not have lunch. Here's what we'll do, we will eat 1/3 of the cheesecake for dessert, that's not horrible calorie wise, and another 1/3 for breakfast, and we'll leave the rest for the cleaning person.

That works for me.

Tomorrow... Kobe & Tamano (Uno Port)