The biggest tourist attraction here is a shopping street called Dotonbori. It’s famous for its restaurants and the elaborate signs that most of them use to attract customers.
The crab is animated, and the fugu lantern is apparently decades old. The most famous sign though is this one for Glico candy:
It’s so famous it’s apparently an icon of Japan to the Japanese! It’s not original though; this is a recent LED replacement. But the art is the same 🙂
We of course visited Dotonbori in daylight, but you can imagine how it would look at night. Sadly we can’t do everything, but see below for an idea of how attractive this street would be with everything lit up.
A short walk away is Osakas electronics/otaku district called ‘Den Den Town’. We spent hours there and sunk more than a few ¥ into the local economy!
And we ate local cuisine 😉
When we got back to the hotel there was a candle festival going on! The streets were lined with ‘1000000’ candles (so said the sign, but I’m deeply skeptical) and many art installations based around candles. It was very pretty.
Here’s a shot of a restaurant just near the hotel to show how beautiful everything looks all lit up! I’ll have to go out and take some photos in Tokyo when we get back…
