Den-Den Town is like what if Akihabara was awesome
February 22, 2025.
Day 9 was a Saturday and our last day in Osaka. We got up early to hang out with my family for a while (my Aunty returned from Australia late the previous night so I didn't really get to see her until this morning). After another insane breakfast at the executive lounge we made our way back out into Namba and towards Den-Den Town!
Den-Den Town is Osaka's version of Akihabara. But instead of being dirty, disgusting, overpriced and overcrowded, it's clean, spaced out, cheap and surprisingly non-degenerate for a male centered otaku area. Anything icky or R-18 is hidden kindly behind curtains or on a separate floor from the main goods. It was also about a 3:2 ratio of men to women which made shopping feel a lot less uncomfortable (as opposed to the Akiba ratio of like 5:1). The shops here were also amazing. So much cool niche anime and nerd stuff. A lot of the stores were more like museums and art galleries than shops. We even found a women's doujin shop and I got my hands on the Nu: Carnival officially licensed doujin anthology!!!
We also ate a lot of street food again today. Osaka is awesome for street food. On our way back to the hotel to pick up our suitcase and repack we got the most adorable Sukkimo Gurashi crepes. Once we got back to our base, we hung out with my family for one last time before getting back on the train and then the shinkansen back to Tokyo!
Den-Den Town was everything I hoped Akihabara would be and I highly recommend going there over Akiba. I think the only downside was that the vast majority of stores didn't allow any photography. Which is understandable I 'spose! Nara was the biggest highlight of the entire trip. I really would like to go back to Osaka and spend more time there.
