We stayed in a great Air bnb in Osaka, surprisingly spacious for Japan with two bedrooms (the girls on tatami mats for the first time) a kitchen and even a small bath!

We were in a superb location, in Nipponbashi. It was a fun underground scooter ride from Namba metro station, round the corner from the Kuromon market (great oniguri burgers), across the road from the National Bunraku Theatre (sadly there was not a performance on the days we were there) and walking distance to Dotonbori.

That was where we headed our first night, hunting out the giant crab (Kani Douraku), octopus, the Glico running man, dragon, cow and other lit up models outside the restaurants bordering the canal. We were a bit freaked out by the images of Kuidaore Taro (a clown) and some scary chefs.

Girls loved checking out the plastic food displays showing what you could get at each place and amazed that there would be a different restaurant on each floor of often a 12-storey building.

We had an ok dinner with our first sampling of sushi, sashimi and noodles. The next night we picked a place which specialised in tuna.

We returned to the strip on our last night to eat at Chibo, having a great meal of okonomiyaki (thick savoury pancakes) made right in front of us – they even had a gluten free option. Other regional specialities on offer in Osaka were the Tako-yaki (octopus dumplings), Yakitori and Molly’s favourite: Kaiten-sushi (conveyor belt).

It felt like a real pilgrimage trekking out to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda. For a start it somehow took us 3 hours to get there including about 4 train changes and a lot of walking. When we finally arrived, it was packed with school groups and all the explanations were in Japanese. We downloaded an audio guide which wasn’t really worth it in the end but Tom loved finding out more about his favourite food!

The girls enjoyed designing their own cup and choosing what ingredients to put inside (those pot noodles were with us for a good three more countries, eventually eaten for dinner in Melbourne I think!!) It was a fascinating lesson in successful entrepreneurship if nothing else, illustrating the journey from his initial creation in 1958 to world-domination.

We enjoyed catching a glimpse of the Umeda Sky Building and Osaka Castle from the train and on runs but didn’t visit them. In general we were quite surprised at how untouristy Osaka was and had an agreeable first few days in Japan there.