This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the very beginning, click here.
From Umeda Sky Building, it is quite a distance to walk to Osaka Station. There is a long underpass where you go beneath the train tracks. Once you exit the underpass, you are in the midst of the many skyscrapers in Umeda. It is really nice to walk along the open plaza area and take in the atmosphere. The area between Intercontinental Hotel and Osaka Station is especially nice.
(that’s Grand Front Osaka on your left and Osaka Station up ahead)
(there’s even an outdoor skating rink)
(this strange building is shaped like a ship)
We planned to look for this cheesecake shop called Uncle Rikuro’s that is really famous and is highly recommended by bloggers. It is located inside Daimaru in Osaka Station. But the problem is that Osaka Station is a massive, sprawling complex with many buildings and sections. And they actually have two Daimaru inside…
So to avoid walking around aimlessly looking for the directory, I went straight for the tourist info centre.
Even with clear directions and a map, it wasn’t so easy to find the basement food hall in Daimaru. After some wrong turns, we finally saw it near one of the exits.
The shop only sells one item, which is the cheesecake, and there was a pretty long queue. When it came to our turn, we had to wait an extra 5 minutes while the latest batch of cakes were baked. As soon as they come out of the oven, they are branded with the logo.
(you can see the joy in the face of the girl on the left, looking at the cheesecake)
We bought two cakes, one to eat now, one to eat later in the hotel.
But we couldn’t find a place to sit and eat, so we went upstairs to Starbucks. Most coffee places here and Kyoto have a ‘one-person-one-order’ policy, except Starbucks. So we ordered two lattes and opened our cheesecake.
All I can say is that it tastes really good. It is soft and fluffy, the texture is a bit like cotton candy, but with more body to it. There isn’t anything here in Malaysia that tastes close to it. The four of us finished the whole cake almost immediately…
From Osaka Station we went back to hotel, we passed by the Hanshin department store basement food hall, it was really packed with locals.
We also saw this long line of people queuing to buy from a particular store, guess what were they selling?
Next – Dotonbori & Ichiran Ramen