Yup…Time for sight-seeing at this Japan oldest and one of the most bustling shopping destination – Shinsaibashi-Suji! After having checked into hotel, I went to Shinsaibashi-suji for sight-seeing and dinner.

On a clean street in a cool, breezy weather, it was relatively more relaxing to walk in this bustling shopping destination than in hot weather. Glittering with street and advertisements lighting, you would be bewildered by hundreds of advertisement boards. It was iconic for travelling in Japan.

There are two major shopping destinations in Osaka, Japan. They are Shinsaibashi-suji and Tenjinbashi-suji. I love sight-seeing and street photography. You can see so much in street photography, like how locals wear, their daily activities, local brands, local arts and cultures and foods, etc. Usually, I just resize the photos and very very few I added colors. You see what you get. No surprizes.

The best tips here is to go Shinsaibashi-suji website to browse what are the shops you want to visit most like top 10 BEFORE you travel to Japan. Foods, fashions and accessories, souvenirs, specials, etc, it will take a whole year for you to try every cuisine here.

Time for dinner! I was going for the cheapest Udon in Shinsaibashi-suji, Sanuki Udon Hanamaru. It is one of the largest Udon restaurant franchise chain in Japan and has many outlets all over Asia. People maybe are more familiar with Yoshinoya brand (beef bowl) under the same company.  I had it once in a Taipei shopping mall in Taiwan. I didn’t know its name until I came to Japan.

I ordered the soup Udon with tempura. It cost like 500-600 yen, around 5-6 USD. The one below was dried beef udon with an onsen egg.

The one in Taipei didn’t cast any impression onto my mind. But this one kinda surprized me. The soup was so much nicer than Taipei outlet. I think most likely due to the source of raw materials for the dishes. The soup tasted nicer than in Taipei outlet. The beef was nice at its price range.

Courteous reminder with cute manga and 4 languages (English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean) was pasted on the wall. Even if you read none of the four languages, you could still understand it with a glance on the cute manga.

Finished dinner and time for a walk! Iconic Glico Man billboard at Dotonbori.

And this is the Dotonbori Bridge and Dotonbori canal during night time! Surprizingly, this place was so bright as the illuminated billboards lighted up the place.

You can have a Tombori River walk or taking Tombori River cruise.

Something is eye-catching to me! I had been passing by it many times. Atariya Pachinko & Slot in Shinsaibashi-suji!

What is Atariya Pachinko & Slot?

It is a parlor for Pachinko game. Pachinko is a type of mechanical game similar to pin balls machines but with NO PIN. Lawfully, you need to be 18 to play this game in parlor. Practically, it has barely been practised. Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan. Balls won in Pachinko game will be exchanged for tokens and prizes then these tokens and prizes could further be exchanged for cash! Funny, right?

“By 1994, the pachinko market in Japan was valued at ¥30 trillion (nearly $300 billion).[1] As of 2015, Japan's pachinko market generates more gambling revenue than that of Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore combined.”  From Wikipedia

So Japan government finally said this, “Yo! Let’s cut the euphemism, Bet it all!”.

Despite the fact that nearly two-third of Japanese populations protested and opposed against opening casino ideas, Japan government has been drooling over on the big explosive leap of capitalizing on gambling industry.

Intriguingly, Pachinko game gives me some reminiscent feeling of Gashapon. Gashapon is highly popular vending machines which dispenses capsule toys (usually in egg shape) among kids.  It can be found in many Asian countries.

There are many famous outlets in this shopping destination, like H&M and well-known Pablo Mini Cheese Tarts, etc. I think there are like 2-3 Pablo outlets in this place.