After having an amazing first night in Osaka, I woke up bright and early the next morning to do something really special for breakfast: a challenge to see how much convenience store food I can get for 1500¥, which is a little under $15 U.S., the amount I would spend on a good breakfast in my hometown of Miami. I couldn’t wait to get started! Come along with me on my breakfast food challenge in Japan!
Convenience store food is pretty high-quality in Japan and is a popular first meal of the day. Most of it is portable and easy to eat on the way to work. There are three main convenience store chains in Japan: 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart, and they’re everywhere! I literally turned the corner and found a FamilyMart, so I went inside to see what I’d find.
There, I bought two onigiri: salmon and spicy pollack roe. I also grabbed some tuna sushi rolls, a cold coffee, two bottled waters, a strawberry mochi, a mango juice, two bags of dried squid, and a pork bun. My total was 1788¥/$16.05 U.S., so I went over a bit.
I tried and failed at finding a park, so instead I set up on a stand on the side of the road. I dove into the pork bun, which is actually Chinese! It was super fluffy and the pork inside is nice and juicy and is complemented by the onions inside it. I love pork buns. They are incredible!
Next up was the salmon onigiri. Remember to open it carefully so you don’t rip the seaweed, as it’s packaged separately. I loved the sticky rice and the nice, crunchy seaweed. The salmon inside is also wonderful!
I went with my mango juice, which was nice and fresh and contained some mango pulp. I never drink juice from a carton, but this was really good!
Up next in my Japanese breakfast food challenge were the sushi rolls. I didn’t have any chopsticks, but I made do with my hands. I had it with some soy sauce and artificial wasabi. It was incredibly fresh and light, with big chunks of tuna and not too much rice. It was perfect! The wasabi was nice and hot and the quality of the rice was fantastic!
Next was the spicy pollack roe onigiri. I ripped the seaweed a little, unfortunately, but it was still amazing. It was completely different from the salmon and had some nice heat to it, and the roe contrasted nicely with the seaweed.
I went with the dried, grilled squid legs next. It was way too hard and very salty, so I moved on from that with the smoked, shredded squid, which was still tough, but not as tough as the grilled squid legs. It was like a delicious smoked fish jerky!
The Black Boss cold coffee was next. It was a nice, strong espresso coffee! Then, I moved on to the last item, the strawberry mochi. I love mochis so much. They’re one of my favorite desserts of all-time. This one was made of a nice, gooey dough and had powder on top. It had whipped cream and cake inside and was so good! I’d never had a mochi like it before.
After my Japanese convenience store challenge, I took a 20-minute walk to Tsūtenkaku Tower, a 103-meter-tall tower that is also one of the most popular attractions in Osaka. I bought a ticket to the observation deck (700¥/$6.29 U.S.) and rode two elevators to the top.
The deck was all gold and bronze and was less interactive than the one in Kyoto Tower, but the views of the city and mountains were incredible!
I went up to the highest observation platform, the Skywalk, which cost another 500¥/$4.49 U.S., which is outdoors and 95 meters above the ground. There’s no glass here and there are displays that show what you can see from certain vantage points, so I highly recommend it! I had no idea how expansive Osaka was until I went up there!
I hope you enjoyed my 1500¥ Japanese convenience store breakfast food challenge in Osaka! If you did, please give the video a thumbs up and leave me a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already and I will see you in the next travel food adventure!
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