Japan 2008- Day 3 – Osaka Day Trip

Nihon - Day 3 - Osaka Day Trip

Today we had a day trip over to Osaka – and it was a surprisingly short journey! I was expecting upwards of an hour when in fact it took a mere 25. Our train was fantastically named Thunderbird 14 although it didn’t do anything special except go hella fast.


Thunderbird 14

First stop in Osaka was Yodobashi Umeda – very hard to miss asyour train rumbles into Osaka station. It was launch day for the Nintendo DSi today but the queues weren’t massive as I was expecting – quite the opposite as they seem to just be selling the DSi on preorders not the horrific queues which look impressive but generally piss everyone off. I didn’t really buy anything today, behaved, saving that for Tokyo but there was so so much cool gunpla! :D:D:D.

Next we headed over to Shinsaibashi station where all the shops are! Em checked out BTTSB and bought a cute cup and saucer. By now I was starving and thank god there was a Freshness Burger across the street so I dragged Emma in for some food. Afterwards we header up towards Angelic Pretty & Metamorphose, stopping at a 315yen shop on the way where Em picked up some Disney bits.

Looking for loli shops...

Looking for loli shops...

All shopped out we decided some culture was in order and moseyed across to Osaka Castle. We spent a bit of time sitting in the park outside as it was such a pleasant place to be. There were dogs everywhere! made me miss Pickles a bit. The Castle itself was brilliant, we walked through some of the turrets, and climbed the Castle too, taking in the awesome view from the top.

Kawaii Emma San in the park

Kawaii Emma San in the park

Entrance to Osaka Castle

Entrance to Osaka Castle

Inside the Guardhouse

Inside the Guardhouse

Orange Qoo located!

Orange Qoo located!

Samurai James - convincing no?

Samurai James – convincing no?

Osaka Castle - such a beautiful building

Osaka Castle – such a beautiful building

The view from the top, worth every penny!

The view from the top, worth every penny!

On our way out Emma had some Yakitori from a stand to give her an energy boost for the long walk back to the station, I was still running on the orange Qoo i’d drunk earlier – first place i’ve found it so far!

Emma and Yakitori

Back in Kyoto we had an evening walk around Gion, on of the oldest districts in the city, some of the restaurants around here were insanely priced! literally hundreds of pounds for a meal! Gion pretty much leads into downtown so we ended up here.

Evening walk around Gion

A cute little shrine in the Gion district

A cute little shrine in the Gion district

Yummy crepes

We had some yummy crepes from a stand and played on some UFO machines – didn’t win anything though. We then walked back to the hotel (my stupid idea) todally booshed. Good day!

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