Exploring Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi in Osaka

After leaving Tokyo, we took the 3 hour 30 minute shinkansen bullet train ride to Osaka.  

Japanese high-speed trains regularly run up to 200 miles per hour.  There are 2 classes of seats for the train: ordinary and Green Car.  Green Car is like business class on an airplane with rows of 2x2 seats.  We sat in the ordinary seats that had rows of 3x2 seats.  The seats were very comfortable.  If you are traveling in a big group, the seats can be rotated 180 degrees to face each other.

Osaka is the second largest city in Japan (Tokyo being the largest) and we had a lot of fun exploring the city and surrounding cities.

Dotonbori

Dotonbori is the most famous entertainment district in Osaka.  This area is filled with illuminated signboards, robotic storefront signs, restaurants, food stands, shopping and nightlife.  The best time to visit is at night when the area really comes alive with neon lights and people.  

One popular local landmark is a big illuminated billboard of a running man for Glico, a Japanese confectionery company.  

This sign has been up since 1935, although it has changed slightly over the years.  I’m not sure what the big deal about this one particular sign was, but everyone seemed to want to take pictures of it.  

While Dotonbori gets really busy and crowded, we found it very relaxing to walk alongside the canal.   

 

Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade

Located just next to Dotonbori and across from the Glico sign, the Shinsaibashi shopping area is filled with luxury department stores, hip boutiques and retail stores.  

The 600m long shopping area is covered by glass ceilings, preventing the area from getting too hot or too cold.  Although this area was packed full of people, the crowd keeps moving at a decent pace.

We loved walking through and eating around Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi.  Our son kept looking around at all of the colors and lights.  I’m sure his visual system was very stimulated everywhere we went.  If you ever find yourself in Osaka, you have to check out these areas!

Our last day in Tokyo: exploring Muji Shibuya, Tokyo Station, Tokyo Imperial Palace and more

Muji Shopping Center in Shibuya

When looking for children’s activities in Tokyo, I stumbled upon this blog post from Roam The Gnome about the Muji Shibuya store playroom for kids.   Muji is a Japanese retailer that sells various housewares, clothing, and other consumer goods.  

They also cater to families with children.  The 5^th floor of the Shibuya Muji store has a special children’s play area. 

This fun little area has wooden décor that gives off a very soothing and peaceful vibe.  The whole play area is filled with all sorts of wooden toys. 

There are wooden animal magnets, rocking horses, ramps, as well as a wooden egg ball pit.  

The little tables and chairs are all made of wood as well.  Our son loved stacking all of the wooden figurines and rolling around in the wooden ball pit.

There is a nursing area with baby changing tables right next to the play area.   

We grabbed lunch at the Daylight Kitchen, a short walk from the Shibuya Station and one of the most child friendly restaurants around Shibuya.  Here they serve fresh and healthy organic food.  The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating in a peaceful atmosphere.  

Daylight Kitchen was one of the very few restaurants we visited in Japan that provided high chairs for our son.  

We ordered the chicken set meal.  The chicken was sautéed with vegetables and included 3 sides (no idea what they were but it was tasty).  Our meals included organic salad, barley rice, and miso soup.  Everything tasted great and was much healthier than anything we had eaten in Japan up to this point.

Tokyo Central Railway Station

Our next stop was a visit to the Tokyo Station, one of the busiest stations in Japan.  Tokyo Station was recently renovated in 2012 with beautiful construction inside and out.  The station has many underground passageways filled with shops and restaurants.  You can easily spend half a day just exploring all the stores the station has to offer.  The outside of Tokyo Station is built with red bricks and a clean design, dating back to 1914.  

The station is located in a business district, surrounded by skyscrapers and tall buildings.

Tokyo Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace is the residence of the Emperor of Japan.  Gardens, trees, moats and walls surround the palace.  

A bridge leads to the main gate of the palace.  Unfortunately, the palace grounds were closed on the day we visited so we could only admire the palace from a distance.  Still, it was fun and peaceful exploring the outer gardens with the palace in the background.

Tokyo Ramen Street

After exploring the outer grounds of the Imperial Palace, we made the 5-minute walk back to Tokyo Station for dinner at Tokyo Ramen Street.  We enjoyed the ramen at Tokyo Station so much the last time we went to visit Tokyo that we went there for dinner on two separate occasions.  This little corner of the station has 8 of the best ramen restaurants in Tokyo all lined up side by side.  It can be hard to decide which ramen restaurant to visit with so many good options! 

We came early and since it was off peak season, there weren't any long lines. 

We found a restaurant we all agreed on and ordered from the vending machine prior to being seated.  

As expected, the ramen was very flavorful and filling.    

Locals and tourists flock to Ramen Street to grub on steaming bowls of delicious ramen.  You can read a nice summary of all the various ramen options on the Tokyo Cheapo website here.    

After dinner, we all agreed that we had seen enough of Tokyo and were ready to head out to Osaka the next morning.  

April side hustles 2017

The great thing about doing side hustles to generate extra income is that you can hustle on your own terms.  The more hard work, time, and creative effort you put in, the more extra money you can make.  You can hustle as little or as much as you want, whenever you want.  It’s your extra money, and you can choose how you want to spend it.  Instead of focusing on what ideas don’t apply to you, try focusing on different side hustle ideas that you can implement to work for your situation.

Welcome to May, did everyone have a good April?  

As usual, we spent our free time trying to find fun activities for our son.  We also made sure to spend time with our friends and family.Our son is now 22 months old and almost a toddler (2 years old).  He has so much energy and loves to run around.  We seem to be always chasing after the little guy.  

He loves running around our neighborhood walking paths and grassy areas.  

Benjamin loves water and we picked up a water table for him to play with.  He loves to splash the water around and get himself wet. 

Our son enjoyed his first Easter egg hunt.  He wasn’t as interested in getting as many eggs as possible like the other kids.  He found two eggs that he liked, and then he just sat down on the grass playing with them.    

He also wasn’t very interested in the Easter Bunny.

This past weekend, we went to the Discovery Cube of Orange County.  This science museum has over 100 hands on exhibits that children can observe and interact with.  To keep everything fresh and interesting, the Cube regularly introduces new events and exhibits every month.  Our son loved exploring and running around the museum.  

We will definitely be back as we picked up a 2-year family membership and 1-year parking pass ($5 per visit) for $124 after a $10 discount for me being a teacher and $5 discount on parking. 

It’s not easy finding free time between working, raising our son, taking care of our dog and balancing out our social activities.  Until we reach financial freedom, that’s life.  This is why we continue to save and invest towards our future.  Life is too short to spend most of it working.    

Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of April.

Cash back

On 4.6, I received a $119.99 statement credit on my Barclaycard Arrival Plus credit card.  This covered our one night hotel stay at the Narita Hilton Hotel.  I now have 3,459 miles in my account, which is equivalent to $34.59. 

The annoying thing about Arrival Plus miles is that to get their full value as a statement credit to offset travel purchases, they need to be redeemed in 10,000 mile increments at minimum.  Redeeming the miles for gift cards is not worthwhile as it would cost 5,000 miles to get a $25 gift card.  To extract value from my remaining points, I would need to earn another 6,541 miles, which would give me 10,000 miles or $100 worth to spend on a travel related purchase.  To earn 6,541 miles, I would need to spend $3,270.50, since this card earns 2 miles per $1 spent.  I won’t be keeping my Arrival Plus credit card after the first year due to this inconvenient rewards redemption.

On 4.11, I received a $25 statement credit on my American Express Blue Cash Everyday card.  This was a promotion I took advantage of where I added an authorized user (my dad) and spent $250 to get a $25 statement credit.  That temporarily made my Blue Cash Everyday card a 10% cash back card (up to $250).

Rental Income
On 4.4, we received a net profit of $450 from our rental property.  Comparable rental rates are going up in our rental property neighborhood and so it was time to increase the monthly rent by $20.  Our tenants had no issues signing another lease, because they are in a great location and the rent increase was minimal.

With no roommate in our house, it’s kind of nice to have 100% privacy again.  The downside is that we won’t be receiving an extra $700 a month of side income.  We may be open to the idea of having other temporary housemates in the future.

Monthly Totals:

We earned $144.99 cash back

We earned $450 from rental income

All of this totals $594.99 from our side hustles for the month of April.  Not our best month, but some income is better than nothing.