It was another early start on the day of our Osaka trip. We got to Tokyo Station much earlier than we needed because I was paranoid we’d miss the bullet train. After confirming that we had the right tickets, my sister and I searched around for a conbini to buy breakfast so we could eat on the train. The seats for the shinkansen were really spacious, so the entire ride there was quite relaxing. I probably dozed off at some point while passing through Yokohama and Kyoto, but the train finally stopped at Shin-Osaka Station three hours later.

We had a list of places we wanted to see, so we immediately set off for the Umeda Sky Building, which has a floating garden observatory at the top. After experiencing some minor difficulties purchasing tickets for the trains (they don’t accept Pasmo!), we got to Umeda Station. Coming out from the station, I was looking around for the tallest building in the area. Since the Umeda Building is really distinct, I was really confused when I couldn’t find it, and ended up asking someone for directions. Of course, the Umeda Building only happened to be the building RIGHT IN FRONT of me, except I was looking at it from its side view. I must have sounded really retarded.

Anyway, we followed the path towards the building, which was a 10 minute walk from the station. Along the way, I noticed that Osaka seemed a lot quieter than Tokyo. I don’t know if it’s because we were in the business district, but there were far less people on the streets than in Tokyo. I had pictured Osaka to be much more lively.

It wasn’t very busy when we paid for our tickets and made our way up to the top floor at the Umeda Building. The sky that day was a bit overcast, so the view from the top wasn’t spectacular, but still nice. Afterwards we grabbed lunch at the mall across the street before heading back to the station to find our hotel. We dropped off our bags and jetted off to the next destination on our list – the Osaka Aquarium!

The Osaka Aquarium is definitely one of the coolest buildings from the outside. The inside was really nice too, as they had an awesome collection of both fish and marine mammals, like sea otters, seals and penguins. The main highlight of the aquarium was their giant whale shark. It was huge! I think I liked the penguins the best, as there was this one penguin who stood under the ice machine while it pelted his head with ice cubes! Kawaii!

Although it looked like it was ready to rain by the time we left the aquarium, it was still lively outside as there were street performers entertaining the crowds. We stayed and watched for a bit before making our way inside to the shopping arcade. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and got checked in, then went back out to Dotonburi.

Dotonburi was definitely the kind of place I was expecting Osaka to be. Ten times more lively than the north side of Osaka! The streets kind of resembled the ones in Shinjuku, although a lot of the store fronts were distinctively Osaka, as I could recognize the giant crabs and the Glico man.

We stopped for a bit and bought ourselves some takoyaki. It was cool watching them make it, although the taste was not what I expected. But what better place to eat takoyaki than in Osaka?

We walked a bit further and made our ways towards the huge Glico man. After snapping a few shots out in the dark, we walked spent some time shopping at the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade. We bought dessert before heading back and calling it a night.

*****

Day 2 Osaka began at the Osaka Castle. We got to the station early and followed the signs towards the castle. It was a really nice day out and a lot of people were there taking their dogs for a stroll in the outer castle area. The cherry blossoms were out, so we were taking pictures like mad all the way up towards the castle. After buying our tickets, we lined up and took the elevators to the top. The view from the castle was pretty amazing, as was touring through the rest of the floors.

After viewing the entire castle, we headed down towards the park area. A lot of families were sitting in benches eating takoyaki while watching the street performers. There were also a lot of vendors selling food, so I went and bought what I thought were fish balls from one of the vendors. Unfortunately for me, they weren’t fish balls at all, but these floury balls of dough that tasted like…well, floury balls of dough. At least the sauce was good!

Anyway, we didn’t have a lot of time left after leaving the castle area, so we grabbed a quick lunch in the malls and headed back towards the train station. Another three hours on the shinkansen, but luckily we got a caught a great view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. =)

*****

Later that night we headed off to Ebisu Garden Place for dinner. We took a whole load of pictures at the Clock Square and then walked around trying to decide on a place to eat. We settled on eating at the Beer Station, which was a really good choice. Again, we were totally relying on the picture menus to pick our food, so some minor mixups were to be expected, like the plate of beef that mysteriously turned into lamb. It was still delicious though! And of course, how could the meal be complete without a glass of Yebisu beer?