Day 4 - 14 Dec 2017
Headed to Osaka! We had breakfast at the lounge then took a taxi to Pudong airport, travelling to Osaka via China Eastern. Had to take a bus from the terminal to the plane too. We were served lunch but it was a bit suspicious so I hardly ate haha. Landed in Japan after a short 2h flight and my mood was immediately lifted by the courteousness of the Japanese airport staff. (Quite a stark contrast to China)
We took the JR line to Shin-Imamiya, then changed train to JR Namba which our hotel is connected to. Gotta say, the Japan train system is EXTREMELY confusing. There are subways and private rails, multiple stations that are in the same area but serving different lines (there's a JR Namba, Osaka-Namba & Nankai Namba all within like 5min walking distance of each other). And for each 'route' on a platform, there are local, express, rapid, special rapid lines - and it isn't written anywhere which stations are skipped!! Stress x1000.
The hotel lobby was very nicely decorated for Christmas vibes, and check-in was smooth, but the room is TINY. The bathroom felt like an airplane bathroom with a bathtub.
I made a mistake while reading the itinerary and thought we were supposed to head to Shinsekai even though I planned it for Monday, so we ended up there first. Had to take a train to Shin-Imamiya, from where it was a 20min walk through some random residential areas to get to the area. After awhile the tower was visible, but the place in general was strangely quite devoid of people and quite a few shops weren't open too. It's quite an interesting place though - very old school. We bought a crepe too cos we were hungry!
Next, took the train to Shinsaibashi, the main shopping district of Osaka. Tried to shop, but still only winter wear everywhere.
It was around 7+ by then so we headed to find food. I randomly googled 'best ramen in shinsaibashi' and realised we were 1min away from the place called Ramen Zundoya so we headed there. You have to write your name on the clipboard outside, and the waiting area is bigger than the restaurant. The wait wasn't too long for us, around 20min (albeit in the cold) since it was just 2. Must always go to Japan in small groups because their restaurants are often tiny. Our orders were also taken while we were waiting so we were served almost immediately when we went in. Gotta say, the ramen was bloody freaking amazing. One of the best I've had, and I've had quite a few good ones in sg. We also ordered the gyoza and karaage.
After the satisfying dinner, I rushed to the Disney store to snap up everything with piglet's face cos I'm a huge fan heehee.
Decided to walk back to hotel to burn off the calories. Also walked past Dotonbori but it didn't seem very happening haha.
Day 5 - 15 Dec 2017
Universal Studios Japan day!
We got our tickets from our hotel lobby as Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka happens to be a USJ partner hotel. The theme park was a pretty short 30min train ride away.
We reached around 915am (opens at 9am) and people were running haha. We just followed the crowd, expecting that everyone was headed to the Harry Potter part first. Indeed! It's actually surprisingly small - just 1 street with 1 'Hogsmeade' with all the shops and the Hogwarts castle. But it was still greatttt. Especially since it was winter!
I started with Flight of the Hippogrith as it had a shorter wait time than the 4K3D ride. It was a surprisingly fast roller coaster!
Headed to the 4D harry potter ride after that. The queue was stated as 80min but I think it was really around 45min. And then the best thing ever happened on the ride because somebody activated the safety function while we were super near the end, so we got to go again! Best deal ever haha.
It was hard to snap pics when we were in the castle itself so this was all I got. The iconic moving portraits!
We managed to catch a performance too!
By then it was around 11 plus, so I went to queue for butterbeer (in a proper plastic cup as souvenir!)
And then headed for lunch at Three Broomsticks. The lunch was surprisingly good - expensive, but decent.
After lunch, I needed to rest my stomach, so headed to Ollivander's Wand Shop. There is a queue because it is technically an attraction, where there's a mini performance by 'Ollivander'. It was really like the books so super fun! Like someone in the crowd will be chosen to try the wand and when he/she tries flicking, stuff will really move in the room!
Didn't really manage to take a pic of the performance but this is a blurry pic of the outside.
From there , I started to tour all the shops - the wand shop, honeydukes, zonko's joke shop, robes shop, owl post etc. I got a keychain of a mini wand because the real wand is 50bucks and what am I even gonna do with it haha. Also bought Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans and the chocolate frog (I just opened mine and I got Salazar Slytherin's card D:) Would have loved to get marauder's map and the house scarf but everything is blooooody ex.
The monster book that moved in the book? It REALLY was moving haha.
Moaning myrtle toilet haha!
After almost 4h, we exited Harry Potter world at almost 2pm and headed to the rest of the theme park with 7h left. The Jaws area wasn't interesting. Jurassic Park was next and I went for 2 rides - 1 water ride and 1 roller coaster called the flying dinosaur so the initial position is hanging. Pretty fun! Oh and because my mum is scared of roller coasters, I went on single rider queues for these and it's the best. So worth it.
It was around 320pm then so we rushed back to the jaws area for the 330pm water show. Everything is in japanese so we cant understand much haha, just lots of water and fire.
And then made the huge mistake of going to this Backdraft simulation thing which was a lame screening of how the fire effects in the movie were made and a very lame and short demonstration. It was dark by the time we came out :( The early sunset in winter is such a wrench in the plans.
Next headed to the Despicable Me land, took a few pictures.
Then realised some Christmas show was going on so we went there but it was extremely packed so my view was only like 1/3 of the right most part of the stage. There was a lil bit of fireworks at the end. And there was a very nice christmas tree on display!
Right beside the show was The Amazing Spiderman simulation, similar to the Harry Potter one, but less fun for me because I have never watched Spiderman and had no idea who the characters were.
And then headed to the Hollywood area to take the roller coasters! It's called Hollywood Dream (the front facing one) and Backdrop, which is the same track but with your back facing. there was a single riders queue for Hollywood Dream so I got on that within like 5min, but none for Backdrop so I had to wait pretty long (around 40min?) for that. Backdrop was sooo much more fun though. Gotta say, the rides in USJ are really quite good.
It was around 7.45pm already by then, but I wanted to try the Despicable Me 4D simulation so we walked back to try that. Great thing that it was quite late so no queue at all! After that, just went to the last few parts we hadn't seen like the sesame street area which had all the kiddy rides like merry go round and teacups (the equivalent) and the rotating thing where you go up and down. Good thing we skipped those haha. I'm quite an adrenaline junkie so those rides weren't my priority.
Finally left around 8.40pm so spent almost 11.5h inside! Since it was pretty late, I decided to eat at Universal City. Randomly settled on a tonkastu place and ordered mixed cutlet set (pork, cheese chicken, ebi tempura) and takoyaki and it was pretty good! I also ordered an extra bowl of rice and it was an exorbitant 3 bucks :O
Day 6 - 16 Dec 2017
This was the 'chill day' after USJ madness.
Osaka castle in the morning! The park and gardens are really gorgeous.
We bought tickets to go into the castle which was more of a museum. There's a total of 8 floors - 8th is the observation area and 1st is the shop so 2nd to 7th for the life and times of Hideyoshi who built the castle. I loveee museums and reading about history so this was right up my alley. Was very fascinated because Hideyoshi was born to a poor farmer but rose to the ranks to become a super powerful person with the aim of unifying Japan!
Also vaguely amusing how every little nugget about a particular part of the castle would have a 'was burned down in a fire'.
It was 2+ by then so we ended up at Jo-terrace nearby to have lunch! Got a burger and a pancake + french toast combo.
After lunch, took the subway from Osakajokoen station to head to Umeda to start shopping! There was an outdoor ice rink just outside the station too! Went to Lucua & Lucua 1100, the underground malls at the stations including Whity Umeda, saw the Hep Five ferris wheel and went to the Disney store at Hep Five to buy more stuff haha.
Then went to Grand Store Front Osaka to have sushi for dinner. Yummmmm. It's super worth it - 5 bucks per plate of unagi sushi and the unagi is huge!
Also passed by Namba walk otw back to the hotel from the station, which has an art gallery!
Day 7 - 17 Dec 2017
Crazy day trip to Kyoto. I attempted to cover 4 main sites of Kyoto and failed slightly.
We left the hotel before 8, grabbed breakfast from a convenience store at the Osaka-Namba station and took the subway from Namba to Osaka station, then the JR Kyoto line to Kyoto station. From there, had to change to another subway to Kitaoji station, then finally take a city bus to Kinkakuji, aka Golden Pavilion. Had to pay money just to go in and see it and take photos lol. Cannot go in :( But it was indeed, GORGEOUS.
Also bought some amulets, then went out to realise it was snowing!! (Look at the white specks around the tree in the pic haha) Second time seeing snow this year after Switzerland :)
Took the bus back to Kitaoji station, then headed to Nijo-jo mae station for Nijo castle, which was where Tokugawa Ieyasu ruled Japan, so its like a continuation of the story from Osaka castle haha. There was some attempt at reconstruction of the interior so it was slightly more interesting to look at compared to Osaka castle. The place is huge with lots of gardens and gates that are 'important cultural treasures'.
I planned to eat lunch around the area but seemed like everything good was pretty far, so we decided to take the train to Fushimi Inari station where there was a famous udon place called Kendoya. My mum got the hot udon while I got cold udon with some egg rice bowl with tonkatsu. The cold udon was great omg. I was being quite adventurous on this trip because I normally don't even eat udon nor cold dishes!
After the satisfying lunch, headed to the famous Fushimi Inari shrine and started the climb up. At first it was ok when it was slopes. and then it became stairs and I thought I was about to collapse haha. Only managed to reach about 2/5 up before coming down because I was exhausted and we were rushing for time. We did managed to get some ok views but apparently that's not the place with the best views. And of course, pictures galore!
Lastly, headed to Kiyomizu station to start a 20min walk to Kiyomizu Dera temple. Unfortunately, it was dark by the time we reached. I read online that the temple was nice at night and I thought it would be illuminated but only ONE part was illuminated.
Thought there would be more stuff inside so we paid for the entrance tickets in, only to have to walk in the dark and rush our way through. Sigh, on hindsight, we should have gone to the temple before going to the shrine.
Anyway, headed back down and walked to the Gion area hoping to catch a glimpse of a geisha but we were also too late and they should have already been at their establishments by 7+. So we just walked around, going into souvenir shops, trying to find food. Went to the Pontoncho area too and headed to the food hall of OIOI mall but there was nothing interesting.
After much stress and deliberation, finally decided to head back to Kyoto station where there is a ramen street on the 10th floor serving ramen from 8 areas. My friend had recommended it so we just decided to head there. The 8 ramen types are different stalls so you gotta choose one. Since we were in Kyoto, we chose the Kyoto one. You gotta place your order through a vending machine, then join the queue. The soup was a bit different from the one we had one the first day, but still delicious.
And then finally headed back to Osaka and then to Namba. Gosh, this day was absolutely exhausting! I think I'll have to come to Kyoto again though because we missed the Kiyomizu Dera temple and the Arashiyama bamboo grove which was too far from the central area.
Day 8 - 18 Dec 2017
Last day in Osaka! It was chill day after the Kyoto day trip, so I woke up around 830 and left the hotel around 930. Had to check out too and left our luggage in the hotel.
Oh yes this is the view from our room.
First stop was to go to the OCAT (Osaka City Air Terminal) which was conveniently right next to our hotel to buy tickets for the bus back to Kansai airport.
Wanted to get a proper breakfast since the previous days we would just buy from the supermarket or convenience store and walk and eat (it's rude in Japan, but no choice!! Really no timeee). We wound up at a bakery called Cookhouse and ended up making friends with a Singaporean family who was also there. I swear japan is flooded by Singaporeans haha and they're so easily recognisable.
After that was just walking around the area near our hotel. The shops at OCAT.
Amemura too.
Shinsaibashi and the main shopping areas nearby.
Headed to a cafe for lunch because I got attracted by the chocolate bar which is a waffle dipped in chocolate. Also got some tiramisu pancake and mocha. Japan has a THING for pancakes lol - every cafe sells pancakes. Oh the waitress was a Caucasian so that was convenient haha.
Continued walking around, then went to Don Quijote to buy more Pocky and food stuff!
Then headed to the Nankai Namba area, explored abit before finally headed back to the hotel round 3pm to collect our luggage, repack the food, pack our thick jackets and head to OCAT for a 48min ride to the airport and its goodbye to Osaka!
Will miss the japanese courtesy and civic mindedness. Everyone in japan carries a small hanky to clean their hands with after using the toilet it's so cute. Oh and the toilet has the coolest thing ever. In addition to the sprays and what not, there's a function to play a recording of water to hide the sound from your business it's SO FUNNY.
We took Shanghai Airlines to Pudong airport in Shanghai, then SQ back to Singapore and it's home sweet home!