Depachika under Osaka StationPhoto: Kojach / CC BY 2.0
Depachika are department-store food basements, and they are the most concentrated food retail in Japan: counters of prepared dishes, pastry, pickles and bento, staffed by people who will explain what everything is.
Checked · Visited in person · times from official timetables and operators · Takumi Yamada
Department store basements the size of supermarkets, entirely prepared food, staffed by people who will hand you samples. The best-value food shopping in Japan and it packs for the ship. Daimaru Umeda, directly above JR Osaka Station, is open 10:00–20:00 daily.
- 2 hr 30 min door to door needs a 4.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Depachika under Osaka Station and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 2 hr 30 min goes
The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 40 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Routes that already include it
Finished days timed from the official timetables, with this stop in them.
Castle and kitchenNeeds a 7-hour call · ~5h door to doorAbout 5 hours ashore, so a 7-hour call or longer
Kyoto, and back in timeNeeds a 10-hour call · ~8h door to doorAbout 8 hours ashore, so a 10-hour call or longer — the Kansai port where Kyoto genuinely works
The rainy-day OsakaA wet day · ~4h door to doorWet weather — and Osaka is unusually good in itWhat to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
Eat · ~2h incl. subwayTakoyaki on Dotonbori, standing
Invented in this city in 1935 — batter, a cube of octopus, turned in a cast-iron dimple plate with a pick.
See the detail
See · ~3hOsaka Castle
Hideyoshi built it, the Tokugawa destroyed it in 1615 and rebuilt it, lightning burned the keep in 1665, and the current tower is 1931 concrete with a lift to the 5th floor.
See the detail
Eat · ~2hKuromon Ichiba, grazed
580 metres of what Osaka calls its kitchen.
See the detail