With afternoon naps had by all, except me, we were ready to head out and see Dotombori and
the surrounding district as it was meant to be seen. At night.

The sun sets very early in the Japanese winter, so with it already dark, we left the hotel at 5:30pm and headed north east. Once we reached the outskirts of the shopping and eating districts, the contrast between daylight and night time popularity of the region became apparent.

The sheer number of people going in an infinite number of different directions in and around Dotombori is a fantastic experience. Wall to wall people, every shop lit up as brightly and blinkingly as physically possible just to attract customers. Spruikers and advertisors were out in front of many of the stores, loudly and proudly announcing, well, something, in the hope to get people into their restaurant, instead of the 5000 alternative restaurants in a 500m radius.

This was actually one area where being an illiterate foreigner in Japan works to your advantage. Announcers stop announcing, and flyer distributers stop distributing, until you pass by. We did not receive one pamphlet or flyer all night, despite passing possibly 100 people handing them out.

We wandered through the crowds, visiting many of the sights we had seen earlier in the day, now lit up in all of their glory. For manmade structures of concrete, glass and neon, the district was an impressive sight when lit up. The canal, with the mirror reflection of the neon, was particularly impressive.

Wandering back through the crowds to find somewhere to eat, we first stopped for coffee, hot chocolates and people watching, before setting off again to look for an old favourite, Coco Curry restaurant, which we knew was around somewhere. Luckily we found it, and sadly, it was a restaurant inside a cupboard. It had no more than 6 seats at a single bench, all of which were taken. So we moved on.

We went back to Namba Parks, a giant new shopping complex near our hotel that we had visited earlier. The 6th floor was apparently the food floor, so we gave it a go. I'm glad we did. We chose a tonkatsu (cutlet/snitzel) restaurant where I had the best prawns I've had in my entire life.

Zero english was spoken, so after a series of grunts and menu pointing we eventually got the message across as to what we wanted, and when our dinner came out it didn't disappoint. Veronica had the Katsu Curry, both girls had a kids meal, and I had the prawn and stuffed chicken filet meal, which came stuffed with ham and cheese. A bonus novelty was the dish of toasted sesame seeds which the customer could grind up and mix with tonkatsu sauce to make the most unbelievable dipping sauce. This meal has set the bar fairly high for the remainder of the trip, as far as meal quality is concerned.

Some rooftop photos, in the lit up gardens, and then down to the ground floor for ice-creams for some stupid reason (with the temperature as cold as it was), and we decided to return back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we leave this hotel, and move to another Toyoko Inn. We have Osaka castle and park planned for tomorrow. Then it is onto Kyoto!