Ikea Bus by Mitikusa via flickr

Unfortunately from today, the shuttle bus from Taisho to Ikea will be cancelled.  I can only imagine that it is due to cost cutting or problems with parking permissions, as there were definitely enough people using the service. I’ve been Ikea a few times and bought way too much stuff and always took the shuttle bus from Taisho (Sangenya) so it is sad news for me.  You can still get the 108A or 72A city bus to Tsuruhama though.  Unfortunately those buses take a long time because they make a lot of stops.

The shuttle bus from Namba is still operating.  More details here:

http://www.ikea.com/jp/en/store/tsuruhama/storeInfo#shuttle_bus

Strangely, what hasn’t been publicised is that IKEA will be opening up a store in Osaka. Not far from where I work in fact. I guess they don’t want to steal the thunder of the Kobe store so soon after its grand opening. I found out by chance when I was talking to a friend who works at IKEA. Here’s a link to the Osaka store place-holder page on the IKEA site. It has a map but no details of opening date or opening hours.

Word is that it will open sometime in August so there’s only another few months to wait. I’ll post more information when it is released.  I’m really looking forward to shopping (or just window shopping) there.

BTW. Don’t be mislead be the map, it is quite far from Taisho station and the Osaka Dome.

Well according to wikipedia it is the largest Korean town in Japan, larger than the one in Tokyo.  You can eat yakinuki Korean style, you can buy as much kimchi as you want and even find the traditional chima jeogori dresses of Korea in the shopping arcade streets.  It is well-worth spending an afternoon walking about the place, finishing with some nice yakiniku in the evening.

Getting to Tsuruhashi is really simple, there are no fewer than 3 stations.  You can go by subway on the Sennichimae line (Pink) (station number S19), or by JR Loop line (outer loop from Osaka Station) or by Kintestu Nara or Osaka lines.  I personally recommend either taking the subway or JR.

If you’ve been to Tsuruhashi, leave a comment and share your experiences with us.

Unfortunately, the map is only available to guests staying in the major hotels in Umeda. If you’re one of the lucky ones, don’t forget to ask.

There are still a few details to sort out but I am thinking that if the seller creates a web page in which the items to be sold, (pictures, prices, other details)  are displayed then I will just link to the page free of charge.  If the seller wants a page to be made up I can do so for 500Yen.  They just need to send me photos and details.  The money will be used for hosting charges of this site.

Details required would be name, rough location in Osaka, contact details and end of sale date (has to be less than 3 months).
What do you guys and gals think of the idea?

There are two bookstores I recommend, one is Junkudo and one is Kinokuniya. Kinokuniya is the shop that is beside the recommended meeting point Big Man while Junkudo is in Dojima in a big building called Avanza.

Of the two, Junkudo has a better range of books especially design and IT-related books, and is definitely more relaxed. You can take a book and sit in the book reading areas and skim through books. Kinokuniya is convenient (meeting point). Price-wise they are about the same, which means books are a little more expensive than I’m used to.

Because Junkudo might be a little hard to find by foot, I’ll add a map below:

Junkudo Bookstore Location

Ask for Ahmed and tell him that Ian recommended you. And yeah, if you are looking for phones with English predictive text input he can tell you which models have them. They do have a web site but it is all in Japanese which is disappointing. I’ll include the link because there is a map and contact details which might be useful even for non-Japanese speakers.

[Update]  Ahmed’s moved to the Namba Ebisubashi branch.  Although the Shinsaibashi branch may have English speakers I’ve had my fair share of problems with some Japanese staff.  Mainly they don’t explain everything, just things they think you need to know.  And another thing, they have an annoying habit of asking for my Alien Registration Card info when I am waiting in line.  What’s that all about??

Anyone have suggestions as to where he can find a good bike shop that might sell a bike he’s looking for? Please leave a comment below if you do. Thanks!

The other place I would recommend for sheer convenience is Yodobashi Camera. It is in Umeda and although prices are not the cheapest, they are pretty low. They also run a point card system in which you get from 10 to 20% worth of purchase price in points. They sell everything from laptops to washing machines to home theatre systems to video games systems. They have one of the largest selections of digital cameras around. I have other recommendations for where to buy serious camera gear like DSLRs and lenses but I bought my wife her pocket digital camera (Panasonic FX-30) from Yodobashi Camera. They have some (but not many) staff that speak English.

It’s open from 10am until 5pm, but will be called off if there is rain.

To get there use the Chuo line (Dark Green) and take it to the last stop Cosmosquare (C10).