OK. If you're coming on the train from Kobe then you'll end up in Umeda first, which is in the north of Osaka. There are quite a few arcades here, but I'm less confident about arcade locations as Namba was my usual hangout. There's Joypolis (near the big red ferris wheel at Hep Five) and Round One, and a few small ones in the covered walkway near Round One.
I'd say it's worth a trip down to Namba, it's only a few stops on the Midosuji subway line. Definitely try out the subway if you haven't already, it's very impressive. Clean, cheap and on time.
Some good fighting game arcades (bear in mind I'm doing this from memory and things may have changed - I don't know if they have SF IV as I went home before it came out, but they probably will!):
Downstairs at Game Museum in Namba - outside Nankai Namba station there's a crosswalk with 2 covered streets nearby, you want to head down the one that's kind of to the right of the station and not directly opposite (i.e. not the one that leads to Toho cinema).
Sega Arcade in Nipponbashi: starting from the same location, look around for Muji and then just keep walking down that road, it'll be about 100 yards or so on the left.
Club Sega, Dotonbori: Hard to miss, this one's just opposite the famous giant crab. If I remember correctly there's quite a few fighting games on the 3rd or 4th floor. Come to think of it, it may have been the next one I was going to mention, but it's only a short walk away:
Club Sega, Shinsaibashi-suji: from the Dotonbori crab head north across the river and then keep walking down the covered walkway. It'll be on your right near a Uni-Qlo. There's another arcade nearby too but I don't know if it has any fighters. It did have a great IIDX cab in the basement though.
There are a couple of others but I can't think of how to describe how to get to them - if you wander around the Nipponbashi / Namba / Shinsaibashi area you'll surely find some others.
I'm afraid I can't really advise on shoe shops as my feet are size 13/14 US, which meant that there were no shops that stocked my size, so I just gave up looking in the end. They top out at about size 10/11.
Other stuff you should experience:
Food:
Sushi (obviously)
Yakiniku
Katsudon
Okonomiyaki
Karaoke
Osaka aquarium (has a whale shark, very cool)
The otaku / electronics / game shops all up and down Nipponbashi (Den Den Town)
Kyoto - check out Kinkakuji and Ryoanji, and Ginkakuji if you can, before heading down to Gion at about 6pm to see if you can spot any geisha
If there's time, head to Nara - ancient capital of Japan and home of the Giant Buddha statue and loads of other temples and gardens, really beautiful place.
Bars stay open pretty late and trains start at 5am, so you can party as hard as you like. In Namba, some good bars that I can remember are Blow, Cinquecento, Balabushka, Hub (English-style pub), Torikizoku (yellow sign with red writing, snacks and drinks, everything 280 yen). In Umeda, Sazae is a pretty good club. Hope this helps!
Last edited by mintsauce : 08-20-2009 at 03:28 AM.
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