Osaka and surroundings

Day 13: In the morning we went straight to Osaka as they were nothing more to be seen in Hiroshima. We arrived at Osaka around 10am. We thought of going to Kobe but the weather was just too miserable to be going there.

We then head to downtown Osaka which includes Umeda, the sky building. We didn’t go to the underground shopping mall as we’re not in the mood to shop, so we went to Shinsaibashi and Namba. There were just outlets, go there if you want to go shopping but as it was not our intention, we found it quite boring. 

Umeda Sky Building. As seen on Fugitive Plan B (for those who watched it will know it).

Umeda underground mall is located below the building which has the wheel

Namba walk, Namba, Osaka

Dotonbori St, Shinsaibashi, Osaka

Shinsaibashi, Osaka

Then, we went to check in our hotel and later we went Nipponbashi for dinner. We had sushi which was mostly raw fish. There were some boiled fish and that’s what we ate. It was very fresh and though I was not a fan of raw fishes we got a good deal for our meal as it only costs ¥105 per plate. It’s quite cheap actually. We wanted to shop for souvenirs but most of the shops were closed. 

Nankai Namba Station at the back

 Day 14: Luckily today the weather was being nice to us. So we head to Universal Studio Japan. The park opened at 9am but when we arrived at 8.30am there were so many people. It’s a good thing that we bought our ticket the day before as the queue to buy the ticket was so long. Even to enter the park, there’s a long queue.  

USJ = Universal Studio Japan

The first thing that we rode was a roller coaster named Hollywood Magic. This roller coaster was very unique as you can select the song that you want to listen to during the ride. After a year of no theme park, this ride gave me a shock as it turned out it was the no1 ride in the park. But I enjoyed it anyway. We wanted to ride on it again but the queue was too long and we didn’t have enough time. 

Then we rode on Jaws where all of the explanation was in Japanese. For someone who has zero knowledge on Japanese, I couldn’t understand anything that was going on. When the people screamed and laughed I just stayed there and smile. Then we watched terminator 2 in 3D and went on Spiderman ride after 70mins of queuing. I really enjoyed the Spiderman ride as it felt so real. 

While waiting for the Terminator 3D show to start

70 mins queue for Spiderman 3D ride. The ride was awesome~

Next, we rode on the back to the future ride which was just like the motion ride at Genting Indoor Theme Park and watched a short performance on Wicked, based on the musical with the same name. Then we rode on Jurassic Park ride and watched Sesame Street 4D which we mistook for Shrek 4D show. Lastly, we went on the Space Fantasy Adventure which turned to be the best ride in this theme park. No wonder the queue was always long for this ride. Even when we queued at 6pm, it was nearly an hour before we got on the ride. The ride was like roller coasters cum teacup ride as it also spin some parts of the journey like a teacup ride.

We didn’t stay for the parade as we’ve seen enough parade and lights. So, we decided to go home and eat takoyaki (Octopus Ball) and maggi (instant noodles) as we didn’t have much to eat today except popcorn and chocolate.

Back to the future ride

Follow the yellow brick road to Oz

70 mins queue for what we thought to be Shrek 4D, but it turned out to be Sesame Street 4D. And it was freezing cold.

City walk outside USJ

Day 15: In the morning, we went to Himeji but we were disappointed as the Himeji Castle was under restoration until 2014 and we can’t see the main tower where the princess (Princess Sen) used to live with her husband. We only went to the Nishinomaru Long Corridor area where the servants lived. 

Himeji Castle

The red area indicated the areas not open to public during the restoration period which is expected to finish in 2014.

The long corridor

The view from the maid's room

Portraying Princess Sen having a good life

Himeji Castle main building under the cast undergoing restoration

After we walked around the castle ground, we went to have black sesame ice cream. On the way back, we met this grandpa (60 years old) who’s learning English and he wanted to practice speaking in English. He used to work at a local supermarket, but now already retired.

After Himeji, we head to Nara. We arrived there at 2pm, but we managed to go to a few places. We went to the 3 and 5 storey pagodas, Isuien Garden, Yokikiren Garden (free entrance) and lastly Todaiji Castle.

With the 60 years old grandpa who's currently learning English. He practiced speaking English with us.

Nara's mascot

5 story pagoda in Nara

Tokondo hall

There's also a lot of wild deer here

Sarusawa Pond

Isuien garden which cost 600 yen (AUD6). But it was beautiful.

Inside Isuien garden

Tea House at Isuien garden

Yoshiki-en garden next to Isuien garden. This garden is free for foreigners.

Todaiji temple

At the entrance of Todaiji temple area. I was head butt by a deer while taking picture for Hana

So many deers were present here and got head butt by one of them as I had my map was sticking out from my sling bag. We also got lost on the way back but we managed to find our way. We also bought souvenirs and there are many nice souvenirs here. 
 

Ukimido at Sagiike Pond, Nara

Day 16: Today was our last day in Japan. In the morning, we checked out and left our luggage at Shin Osaka Station and we went to Kobe. There was nothing much here and due to time restrictions, we only went to Harbourland and Meridien Park. If we had more time, I’ll take the rope way to a hill behind Shin-Kobe Station.

Kawai~

Mosaic

Street mall at Mosaic. They're not open yet.

Kobe tower and maritime museum

Emigrant monument

After that, we head to Kyoto again for some sourvenir shopping beore heading back to Osaka. We had our lunch at one of the shop in Osaka before heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Gold Coast. 

Kyoto again

Last udon meal

AUD3 sushi yang diseludup naik flight sebagai bekal

We rushed everything today as we didn't want to miss the flight. In the end, the flight delayed for 3 hours. If I knew the flight will be delay then maybe we could have taken things slow and explore more of Kobe.

Well, this concludes my Japan trip. It was an enjoyable trip and Japan is a beautiful country. I wish to go there again in the future if I have enough money.