I don't even remember what I did there anymore, but all I could recall is how beautiful the place is and how much I want to go back there. I'm gonna just throwback to the trips in parts... Hopefully it gets completed, or... There's no or.
To pick up where I left off, we dedicated a full day to USJ and enjoyed ourselves a lot with all the One Piece feels, it was REALLY a great day. The third/fourth day was pretty exciting for me, it was the visit to the Osaka Castle and Cherry Blossom viewing!! One of the main reason we picked that period to travel ♡
Last two photos thanks to Life-Saving iphone app filters, lol.
Quick Travel Tip :
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this the previous post, but when you're in Osaka, you can totally consider buying their 1 or 2 days pass; They call it the Osaka Amazing Pass! It's like their ez-link card which allows you to travel unlimited for two days, and they give a lot of tourist privileges like free entrance to certain tourist spots - Osaka castle and the park beside is one of them. See the full list here.
I'm sure if you google online, there's a lot of people who blogs about this and plan an itinerary base on it, but since Michie and I weren't really into all the places, we only went to some that I wanted to go.
A few of the free facilities we went to was the Osaka Castle Museum, Osaka Castle Nishinomaru Garden (right beside), and also went on the HEP FIVE Ferris Wheel since we were in the area to shop shop at HEP Five. I had wanted to visit the Floating Garden Observatory as well but cos it was really cold that day, we had to skip it TuT
Other than these free facilities, you get a booklet of coupons where you can use them for discounts to facilities and discounts when you shop! As a cheapo Singaporean (and Japan isn't the cheapest place to tour either), all these discounts and stuffs are really really really really useful and helpful TuT
One of the places we went was the aquarium (Kaiyukan) and I was really really really happy to be there. I swear everything was so cute, and idk about everyone else, but I think Aquariums calms me down a lot. As usual for Aquariums, it's always nice to find out about Feeding time and stuff to get the best experience, but in general I think the creatures there were pretty active!
We got our Osaka 2 Days pass at the Namba Station, but apparently you can also buy them from Hotels as well.
I'll blog about Osaka Castle, Nishinomaru Gardens, Hep Five Ferris Wheel and Kaiyukan ALL behind cut, cos' it's REALLY image intensive omg lol.
The walk from the Station to Osaka Castle was pretty far, but there were a lot of maps and direction signs on the way (and tourists lol) so you'll definitely be able to find the place easily. The scenery was really nice on the way as well, I'm really glad we picked those dates to visit cos the whole place was so beautiful. 幸せの感じ～
Osaka Castle was really cool, they had a lot of historical stuff displayed. I'm not a big history geek so I wasn't too sure of a lot of things displayed there, but there were a couple of familiar names that always appeared in my Sengoku Basara games (lol) The view at the top floor was mesmerizing as well, but be prepared to wear a bit warmer when you're there as the area is really windy and cool. We were a little under-dressed for the occasion, and after walking one round at the top floor observation area, my face has never felt this tight before LOL.
Food area before the gate to enter Osaka Castle, we grabbed soft serve here because Ice Cream is necessary on a cold windy day.
They have lifts primary for disabled and elderly who can't really climb all that flight of stairs (there's 8 or was it 9 levels in total) but nonetheless, everyone was queueing for it anyway, so we got adventurous and climbed the stairs instead (regretted it right away cos' lack of stamina lol)
The View Around on the top floor!
Next we dropped by the Nishinomaru Garden for Cherry Blossom viewing!
Some random house
Some Random Closed Gate lol
After enjoying the beautiful gardens, we went over to Umeda to shop at HEP Five! Wanted to visit their observatory tower as well but it was too cold, I didn't get to visit the animate there either - biggest regret of my life lol I'LL BE BACK.
HEP Five was pretty huge and there were a lot of nice shops to walk around. A huge variety of trendy clothes, and also different styles. earth music&ecology has a store there as well, I knew of this brand only because they had a lot of collaboration with anime series (i.e. kuroko no basuke, etc) their clothing were really my style too but too bad, 胖子没得买。
TIP TIP TIP! They have a Disney store there where you can actually purchase ADVANCED TICKET to Disneyland and DisneySEA, so if you're heading to Tokyo from Osaka like we did, you can buy your ticket here first and when you reach Disney, all you need to do is to WALK IN LIKE A BOSS (not really, but you just don't have to queue there lol).
Anyway, since the Osaka Pass had free access to the HEP Five Ferris Wheel, we thought why not, and went on. IT WAS A MISTAKE LOL - FIRSTLY, I AM AFRAID OF HEIGHTS I ALMOST DIED LOL. Secondly, the day we went was REALLY cold and windy, the cabin was really cold LOL
But the view was awesome so I totally recommend it! We got on on a really good timing and saw the transition from bright to dark! It was pretty lucky and the sky was in a really pretty colour! The lights from the buildings around looked really nice from the top too.
The next day was mainly Kaiyukan（海遊館）and going Den Den Town (for the Otaku me). It was a bit of a pity that I didn't manage to visit all the shops I wanted to in Den Den town, all I managed to visit was Animate and Lashinbang, and lucky me managed to catch a glimpse of that voted #1 good-looking Animate staff that everyone was buzzing about when I was there LOL
The Aquarium was pretty far from the station but it was just one whole road down so it was really easy to find. The area is really quiet too, and had a lot of older looking shops on the road, it was a really nice experience walking on the empty street with small shops around. It was really relaxing (although I was all excited for the aquarium lol)
There's a small mall beside, with a huge ferries wheel (i think this might have discount or is free for the pass as well but I'm not sure...) - there's a food court and many small shops around. They sell more older japanese feel kind of items and some snacks etc, I think it might be a bit bit overpriced but I found some cheap steals (anime goods again lol) anyway. Hehe. It's a good rest stop to recharge yourself after the Aquarium trip!
The interior was really pretty as well, and they had a few different sections like the rain-forest section etc as well! It was really fun, it felt like everything was planned out really nicely as you walk to the different sections!
We arrived just in time for the penguin feeding and omg THEY WERE DAMN CUTE LOL THE WAY THEY WALK REALLY CUTE DIE.
And then I finally arrived at my favourite Jellyfishes (after baby seals LOL) - I think the selection of Jellyfishes are a little small as compared to the SEA Aquarium one! But they were really cute anyway *3* And they decorated the place REALLY cutely omg.
And the other fishes, that er I didn't have a huge obsession in basically LOL
And here, MEET MY LOVE. A BABY SEAL THAT WAS DOZING OFF. URGH. I LOVED IT SO MUCH I WENT TO THE SOUVENIR SHOP AND BOUGHT HIS PLUSH TOY LOL HIS KEYCHAIN HIS POSTCARD LOL
And then the most important building for Otaku in Den Den Town (the only pic I took LOL)
The area was a bit complex to navigate around cos' there's a lot of small streets and a lot of tall buildings, it took me a long while to find the shops although I've mapped out the route and even memorized how many streets to cross etc, urgh.
And for Dinner i had this HUGE Tonkatsu Curry rice lmao at Dotonbori again (lol) IT WAS SO HUGE I WANTED TO CRY WHEN I SAW IT, an iPhone 5 put beside it to illustrate how huge this was lol
And that was about all for Osaka! There's definitely a lot more to shop and discover but I was pretty satisfied! I definitely want to come back though! To visit the Observatory Tower, the Animate at Umeda, the Mandrake two streets right behind my hotel that I've never managed to visit, the billion shops I never got to eat, the river cruise (THAT WAS FREE) that I didn't managed to sit. And also the wonderful service and people I've met.
Bye bye Osaka, We'll meet again!! Next post, Tokyo!!!
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