First stop...
OSAKA!
We arrived in Osaka around 4 PM and it's so COLD! It was around 13
° but that's so freaking cold for me. I was shivering and had the first culture shock. That lost in translation kind of experience. Couldn't understand and didn't know how to buy the ticket from KTX to our nearest subway station. After wondering about 15-20 minutes, we found a nice lady officer who was wearing a yellow badge that said "english". She helped us get our ticket. Thank goodness.
We got off at Shin-Osaka Station and it was rush hour. So... Many... People... We're trying to get direction to our hotel but it's so confusing. Starving, shivering and very lost, we just went to any random ramen house.
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| one big bowl of pork ramen with one portion of garlicy gyoza | |
Enough to warmth the empty stomachs and get ready to continue our quest, finding our hotel
hahaha
As we arrived at our hotel, we're only there to find out that it wasn't exactly the right hotel. It was at another branch lalala~ we gave up and took taxi to get there. The trouble wasn't over yet. We're really not sure what happened, but at our first night, we had to stay seperated. They'll gave us triple room for the next 2 days.
Ah well, after a total of 8 hours flight, 5 hours transit, 2-3 hours of getting lost while we had to carry our luggage, we'd finally arrived at the right hotel. Let's just called it a day and have a good rest... zzz... zzz...
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view from our hotel
photo by A |
Second Day
Good morning, Osaka! It's a prefect cloudy day hehehe our schedule for today was visiting Osaka Aquarium and Osaka Castle. Turned out, our hotel was 1 station before Shin-Osaka. Not a big deal hehehe we had our breakfast at the nearest convenience store, Lawson, and as for that day until 2 day ahead, I fell in love with this sweets station.
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| uchi cafe sweets |
It has many varieties of sweets; cake, bread, pastry, even mochi. I tried love the choux pastry with milk custard, very yummy ;9 breakfast finished. Let's go!
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| pretty sewer cover plate on roadside |
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan it's a huge building with bright red and deep blue color. From the entrance, we were taken to 3 or 4 floor to the top and then from there going down to the bottom circling the big tank. Here's some picture inside the aquarium, sorry for the blurry ones. My camera was not that sophisticated hahaha especially at the big tank where the big fishes hang out; whale shark, hammerhead, stingrays, etc. So, I just enjoyed the view.
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| you wouldn't miss it from afar |
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| fabulous sea lion |
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| playful little fella |
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| they look delicious |
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| glowing jellyfishes |
There's some bench where you can sit and enjoy the big fishes swimming inside the big tank. And somehow, anything else seems doesn't matter, I feel relax... Just want to sit and stay and stare at the swimming fishes hehehe
And then there's a section where you can pet the stingrays. Yesh, stingrays! I tried it, they're soft and puffy ^^
The last section was souvenir shops hahaha SO... MANY... CUTE... THINGS!!! Especially the snacks. I know it's just an ordinary butter cookies or crackers or any kind of sweets but they're so freaking CUTE!
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| want them all...! |
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stainless steel food utensils
with many type of sea animals |
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| so cute... |
After finished "kyaaaa so cute" them all, time to had lunch.We chose another random ramen house on the way back to the station. This time a typical Japanese restaurant with one very narrow line, just to go in and go out and the seat counter facing the kitchen. The ramen house was so warm and we had another pork ramen with
many pepper seed and got serenaded with Ghibli instrumental BGM.
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| delicious ;9 |
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| pepper seed ramen house |
After filling up our stomach, we're heading to Osaka Castle. Sadly, we couldn't get inside the Osaka Castle because it was already pass the entrance time. So, we're just enjoying the view from a far.
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| beautiful |
Luckily, we're just in time to enjoy the night festival at the park. Many food stalls offering mouth watering food; chicken karaage, gyutan yakitori, shitamaza zenzai, and many more. The air just filled with delicious smell hmmmmmmm....
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| where should I start... |
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| thin but very very delicious wagyu slice |
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| ikayaki (grilled squid) |
Good food hehehe now, let's get back and have a good night sleep :D
Third day
We're going to Universal Studio Japan! YAAAAY! It was Sunday and a little bit packed, but since we're too excited, it didn't really bother us much hehehe one thing for sure, everywhere there's a line queue but everything is in order.
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| beware of Titan |
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| many dedicated cosplayers |
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| Monster Hunter - Seregios |
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| entrance to Diagon Alley |
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| packed with muggles |
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| Beauxbatons and Durmstrang talent show |
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| HOGWARTS |
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| dinner - Biohazard Special Meal |
We rode the
Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey, it was AWESOMEEE...!!! 2,5 hours at the queue line hahaha if only it wasn't took that long, we would like to ride it again. And then
The Amazing Adventure of Spiderman, it was okay hehehe and last is
Attack on Titan's Colonoid.
Too bad we couldn't have the change to explore all the rides, but it was fun.
Fouth Day
We visited Namba, only to had the famously delicious takoyaki. Thank goodness(?) it was raining, so the queue line to get the takoyaki wasn't too long hehehe it was delicious. The tako was very big and they gave a very generous topping. After tried some other street food as our lunch, we're heading to Kyoto.
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| Namba Dotonburi |
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| all-about-crab bento |
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| THE takoyaki |
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Kuidaore Ningyo and his sweet snacks |
