Osaka, Japan
We arrived in Osaka on one of my favourite days of the year: Pancake Day! This meant that the number one priority of the day was finding some delicious pancakes. Luckily, we arrived in the morning and so had plenty of time to go searching.
We visited Namba Yasaka shrine on the way to the popular shopping district of Shinsaibashi. The streets were colourful and busy; it had a good vibe. Chris particularly enjoyed watching Misaki dancing in the shop window (trying to sell beauty products, nothing dodgy). It was a sight we were not used to seeing in the UK.
We wandered around the streets, enjoyed some tempura for lunch and then headed for the highlight of the day: the crepes! I found a place in the area that was a little fancy. It was a small French style creperie with a good selection but it was pretty expensive for what you got. Chris went for one of their speciality pancakes with white chocolate and strawberries which was nice although tiny. I opted for one with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Mine was much larger than Chris' and it was pretty tasty. After this, we headed back to the hostel before coming back out for some dinner.
The following day, we decided to go to the neighboring city of Kobe. One of the main attractions here is to try the famous Kobe beef. We researched a few restaurants and found one that wouldn't break the bank. As the Kobe beef was around £38 for a standard meal, we decided to have one of those and one Wagyu beef steak lunch set. Chris' set meal came with five appetizers, salad soup, bread, steak with potatoes, dessert and a drink while mine came with soup, bread, salad, quiche, crab cake and potatoes. We both loved our meals; it was such a nice treat for us to splurge a little.
After this, we headed to the earthquake museum. This museum was very well laid out: it was clearly signposted with a suggested direction of viewing and included films about different natural disasters. It was a little scary though and I am glad we did it at the end of our time in Japan (now I am worried about Indonesia!) One of the craziest things we saw was a bunch of spheres demonstrating the difference between earthquake magnitudes. A magnitude 9 earthquake is actually 31,623 times larger than a magnitude 6 earthquake! I thought this was insane!! It really helps you understand the destructive power of earthquakes.
Unfortunately, when we had finished looking round the museum, it was chucking it down and so we decided to head back to Osaka for some 7-Eleven microwavable meals (they are actually delicious).
On our last day in Osaka, we decided to buy the Osaka Amazing pass as we thought it included the train to the airport (more on that later). The Osaka Amazing pass included entry to a lot of attractions in the city as well as most of the transportation around. We visited Shitennoji temple in the morning before heading to Osaka Castle after lunch.
We went into the museum inside the castle but after 20 minutes I was nearly falling asleep as I found it a little boring (sorry Chris). It was very beautiful on the outside and had some nice views from the top; definitely worth a visit just for that. The grounds of the castle are massive with a lot of restaurants around as well as more blossom gardens.
Included in our pass was entry to the Illusions Museum which was pretty cool. They had a magic show at the end and everything. It was one of those things we probably wouldn't have gone to unless we had the pass.
The last two things on our to-do list was to visit Osaka Station and go up the Umeda Skytower. Osaka Station has had a revamp in the last few years. It now houses a few malls as well as a little garden on the top. As far as train stations go it was pretty decent. We didn't spend long there; although, Chris did find a Pokémon Centre and so we could have been there all day! The Umeda Tower is an interesting building architecturally and had beautiful views from the viewing deck as well as the outside deck. I also enjoyed an Umega Tower waffle on the top of the building! This was one of the last things we did before heading to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong.
Our track record with the trains is not so good by now. We tried to use the Amazing pass to travel to the airport, but yet again lost in translation was the fine print stating it couldn't be used for part of the journey. Luckily, this time we didn't get fined and only had to pay the difference in price.
Our time in Japan has really been amazing. The people are friendly, the cities are clean and the country has such a rich culture. We are sad to leave but also so glad that we had the opportunity to visit!
