Japan Day 1

Japan Day 1- Osaka

The upcoming posts about our Japan trip in Dec 2012 is way overdue. Dear had helpfully volunteered to blog about the trip but got his hand injured and dragged his ass over it. I refused to help and wanted to leave it to him, but the ball has come back to me now that he has helped to blog about our Taiwan trip last Dec.

The Japan trip was a tour of the Kansai region because we loved Japan so much after visiting it in April 2012 that we wanted to go back again. We covered Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, Tokyo and Yokohama over 11 days. Our longest trip ever.

So we go. First up, the costs and logistics:

Jetstar airfare to Osaka: $368.80 for 2 pax
Osaka hotel (City Plaza Osaka): 26250 Yen per pax
Bus fare to Tokyo: 5300 Yen per pax
Tokyo hotel (Sunroute Shinjuku Hotel): 47600 Yen in total
Scoot flight from Tokyo to SG: $940.55 for 2 pax

This was meant to be our anniversary trip, but somehow, we traveled with my friend in the Kansai region because she was also interested in visiting the area. And we thought it is good to have one more person to share the food to order more dishes at meal time. 

We will fly separately from my friend and meet at the Osaka airport as we didn't book our air tickets together. Our flight was an overnight one and we had a sumptious dinner at Paradise Inn in the airport. I had always wanted to bring Dear to eat there after eating there one and finding the food not bad. 

Our dinner. But Dear wasn't too impressed. 

We finally reached Osaka at around 6am. The small airport was empty. 

A sitting area where we met up with my friend and buy the train tickets to the city. 

I didn't expect it but we could still see autumn leaves as it was the tail end of the autumn season. I was wonderfully surprised and privileged to experience both the autumn and Sakura season in the same year.

One of the prettiest stretched of autumn foliage that we were able to see.

First stop of the day was the Osaka aquarium Kaiyuken. This is the world's largest aquarium. 

Walking into the aquarium.

My favourite in the aquarium. 

There were dolphins and we managed to catch a trainer performing with the dolphin in water. Think it is very cool and scary for the trainer to be in the water with the dolphin without any air supply. So many horror stories abou the animal dragging the trainer underwater. 

Big big crab. I also realised that attractions in Japan usually also provided stamp counters for you to collect chops for souvenir's sake. There are quite a few of these stamp counters in the aquarium. They are easily found along the windy wy down the aquarium. Remember to bring a note book or paper when you visit the place. 

We then went to the nearby shopping centre for lunch. There was a gimmicky section with some decors of old Japan.

Lunch was a simple affair at the food court as there wasn't much F&B choice. Then we boarded the bus to the city to make our way to Osaka Castle.

When we were there, there was a school sports day going on. Kids were preparing to race up the road to the castle. And there was also some high school kids ala SlamDunk style. Lol.

Kids racing up.

Outside the Osaka Castle

Must take photo with the castle.

There was an uncle who dressed up as a Samurai to take photos with visitors at the castle. Uncle has a cosplay hobby.

It was late afternoon by then and it was time to go to the Namba area for shopping and dinner. We wasn't sure of the way there after coming out from the train station. A helpful lady whom we asked for direction volunteered to lead us there as she was heading there too. First gesture of Japanese helpfulness that we received on this trip.

We also learnt that it is true that people in Osaka are more brash and less helpful as compared to their Tokyo counterparts who perhaps, are more conscious of face.

The namba area

The famous Glico man sign

All lit up when the night has fallen and you can see how loud all the shop decorations are. There were long queues at a lot of restaurants. Everyone loves to eat here!

Mr Octopus

Osaka is famous for okonomiyaki and we found a shop that is famous for selling it. The dish is cooked right at your table on the hot plate. You can opt to cook it yourself but of cos, we left the cooking to the waiter.

We ordered another noodles as well to share among the three of us.My conclusion: the food is nice but it didn't wow me. Guess I do not know how to appreciate okonomayaki.

In Osaka style where eating is a passion and people hop around restaurants for multiple eating sessions, we went into a shop selling kushikatsu. It is a specialty in Osaka and is basically teriyaki that is deep fried instead of being grilled. 

The setting is izakaya style where you can order skewers of food that will be deep fried and served to you to be accompanied by beer and shared with a group of friends.

Our skewers of food. I was super full by the end of the night.

Each table has a tin of sauce that you can dip your food in but you can only dip once as the tin is communal. Cabbages are also provided free of charge to offset the grease and provide crunch to the meal.

We walked around the shops and wanted to buy Universal Studios tickets at the ticket discount shops but were told that they were out of stock. With nothing much left to do, we went back to our hotel to rest and recharge for the next day.