Hi everyone! I am so excited to share this series with you. Japan was beautiful and I would love to go back to explore more. As always, I’ll share my honest thoughts and experiences. It was wonderful, but there were challenges along the way. If you have concerns about going with a lung disease and chronic pain, like I did, stick around and I will address mine. Yours too, if you share them. This week we’re talking about Kuromon Market!
Kuromon Ichiba Fish Market
Kuromon Market is located in the center of Osaka. It’s a roofed market that covers 580 meters (about 1913 feet) that has 150 different shops filled with seafood, restaurants, fruit and veggie stands, butchers, dried and/or pickled foods, Japanese sweets, and Western cakes. I even saw a flower shop, clothes, and kitchenware.
This info is from my experiences and the website for the market. Credit where credit is due.
Accessibility of Kuromon Market
Parking
I didn’t see any parking available here. We took public transportation from subway station M17 to M20 and walked the rest of the way to the market. Here are the directions on the website and where I found the map.
Bathrooms
Public bathrooms are far between here, but the market has one! The Kuromon Market Information Kiosk (located on Minami-Komonkai Street in the Tako-no-tori street) has bathrooms, changing tables, place to eat and drink, currency exchange, and paid luggage storage.
My Experience
The market is a busy and bustling place. I’ve been to a few public markets in my travels and this one was both different and similar. I know it sounds contradictory, but hear me out…all of the markets had foods stalls, produce, other things to buy, but this one had more fresh seafood than I have seen in my life. As I am from Minnesota, so that shouldn’t surprise anyone, however, there were things like giant crab legs, blow fish, restaurants where you can eat in or take out, etc…
While this market is expansive, the halls are more narrow than what I am used to in North America and this could make it more challenging to navigate. Especially if you have mobility devices or wheels. That being said, it is a flat surface, so that won’t add any difficulty. You can see in the photos that the floor is stone, but has grooves like tiles so as long as you’re good on those types of floors, you got this!
My rating
If I had to throw a rating on this activity, I would say it was easy. The market itself doesn’t have a grade (aka change in elevation) and I got around without shortness of breath. Getting there from the subway station did include some stairs, however, escalators and elevators are an option in most places. You have to keep an eye out for them in some areas of the station. The route from the station was fairly flat as well. My group did walk a little fast at times, but if you can go at your pace, it isn’t a bad jaunt.
Unfortunately, Cardybear did not come on the Japan adventures. I wanted to bring him, but he takes up my whole backpack. He was definitely there in spirit though.
Be safe out there and remember your passport! Seeyalaterbye <3
Also, if you feel called to help a sista out with her travels, check this out!
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