Started our day with a train ride to the Ikedo neighborhood to check out the Cup Noodles museum. Yeah, *that* Cup Noodle. I visited my last trip and found it nostalgic and fun.

We strolled the tunnel of ramen which covers Cup Noodle packaging, from various countries, over time.  We watched kids color custom ramen cups and observed some ramen-making classes.  The My Cup Noodles Factory is a must-do: for Y250 you can get a basic cup, color/decorate it yourself then select 3 items to go with the noodles.  I did this my last trip and it’s a fun (and tasty) souvenir.

Check out the apartment building with built-in planter boxes.

B-Side Label, a local sticker company, is always a fun place to visit. They have such crazy stickers – I go for the girly-skull, sugar-skull and moto- inspired images, but have to look at everything anyway. 🙂

The gal working this afternoon was like a Japanese TV host – rapidly speaking heavily-animated Japanese to everyone in the shop.

Wrapped up things in Shinsaibashi with lunch at Gyozo no Osho, a local Chinese restaurant chain that I’d been to several times on a previous trip. Though it looks monochromatic, it’s decent Chinese food.

After relaxing for the afternoon – this is, after all, vacation – we decided on Garage 39 for our last dinner in town. You just can’t argue with what they’re doing. I’m certainly inspired to start the summer grilling season after watching the Grill Man tend the grill these past two visits.

We took the subway back from dinner to burn the rest of our ICOCA card fare. This is what the subway looks like for the last 2 stops, at the end of the line, on a Saturday night outside the shopping district.

We fly home tomorrow through Incheon. Long trip, though we arrive at Sea Tac about the time we depart Osaka thanks to the 16 hour time difference.

Thanks for coming along!  For the record, that was 88.2 miles of walking (213,400 steps) – so, I think it’s OK to not count the calories consumed.  🙂

Until next time – kanpai!