Japan Part 2: Osaka

On day five of being in Japan, I packed up my suitcase, said goodbye to Kyoto and got on the train to Osaka.

Osaka was a lot more modern and I'm not sure exactly how I felt about it. I arrived at my hostel a little early for check-in, so I dropped my bag off in the lobby and had a look around.

I found on the map that the Tennoji Zoo was not too far from me, so I figured it was a good a start as any. It seemed strange to me that there was a zoo just in the middle of a park in the middle of a city, but I love animals and figured it was a good way to kill time as any. The zoo was definitely small and I felt sad for some of the animals being in such small habitats. But there were several signs on some exhibits that the animals went 'home' after a certain time, so it made me feel a bit better that they didn't spend all their time there. There were also a lot of really cute animals, including a little monkey that was less than a year old!

I checked into my hostel, got some dinner and went out to explore some more.

Near where I was staying, was the Dotonbori area. This has a lot of shops, restaurants, nightlife and is also where the famous Gilco sign is. I just wondered around that area, did some shopping, and explored until I was exhausted enough to go back and get ready for my busy days of exploring the city.

If you are going to Osaka for the first time and want to go to most of the touristy places for a free or reduced-price, I highly recommend getting the Osaka Amazing Pass. I got the two-day pass for a decent price. I can see where some would think it would be too expensive, but if you plan your day out, it can be well worth it. I got to go to most of the places over those two days for free or a discount rate and rode on the local train for free. I was having so much fun. I used this pass for days 6 and 7 of my trip.

Day Six
My first full day in Osaka started at Osaka Castle, which has an observation deck and a museum throughout its floors. It was really cool to learn the history of the castle and the battles that were fought there. Afterward, I got to take a boat ride on the moat around the castle. It was an interesting insight into the history and a closer look at the walls that made the castle look instructable.

After the castle, I went to several different museums. Including the Museum of History, Museum of Science, and Museum of Oriental Ceramics. The history museum was by far my favorite of the three.

Next I went to the Umeda Sky Building. Which is actually two buildings that are interconnected on several floors and have a Floating Garden Observatory. Which was beautiful. The ride up included see-through elevator and escalator as well. It was a bit cold at the tippy top since it was roof-top, but the floor below was inside with windows on all sides and a cafe, so you could sit and just take in the view. Which was really cool.

Afterward, I checked out another little shopping area near the Umeda building and actually found myself really close to the HEP Five building, which was on my list because there is a Ferris wheel on the top of the building that I could ride for free, with my pass. So I did. Why not? It was another interesting view of the city, especially because by that time it was dark, so I got to see the city by the lights.

Day Seven
This day started a bit later, as I walked around the Dotonbori area again, checking out hidden temples and stuff until the show started. I went and saw another show called GOTTA, which was about singing food that fought evil spirits? It was confusing, and honestly not my favorite show that I saw during this trip. But after the show was over, it was time to head to yet another temple, Shitennoji Temple. It was really nice, lots of beautiful buildings and felt very peaceful.

After this, I went to the Museum of Housing and Living, which sounds really boring, but actually was a full life-size reconstruction of Osaka during the Edo Period and more modern early 20th century Osaka. You could also rent Kimono and wear it around the reconstructions to take pictures, but I didn't do that. It was actually kinda cool being able to go inside this mock-village and see how people lived during these times.

Then I took the train to the other side of the city to the bay area. My next stop was the Osaka Aquarium. This place is known as one of the largest aquariums in the world, and I could see why when I was there. The place kinda spiraled around this central tank that was several floors deep that had sharks and rays and other types of fish in it, and on the other side, there were several different habitats with seals and sea lions, dolphins, and various other fish and sea creatures. There was also a whole floor for artic type animals like penguins. So many penguins. It was really cool to go and see. I even got to pet a fish and a stingray.

Just outside the aquarium was the Tempozan Ferris Wheel, which is huge! It was also on my pass, so I figured, let's check it out. It was just started to rain so I actually didn't have the best view, but it was an interesting one with the rain, and I was just glad I wasn't walking around in it since I didn't think to bring an umbrella with me.

Another thing that I just happen across was just inside the building next to the wheel was this little petting zoo? animal cafe? I'm not exactly sure what they were, but there were animals, and I could go in and pet them. There were three areas. The outer area had rabbits, guinea pigs, and my personal favorite, turtles. The second room had dogs and cats, and most of the people. And the third room was more interesting. It had an alpaca, a kangaroo, a couple birds, a snake and a small monkey that I, unfortunately, couldn't pet.

Once I was done here, it was starting to get late. I had one more place on my list, but at this point, I was tired and wasn't really that interested in going. So I found my self a cafe and hung out for a bit, and figured out what to do the next day, before heading back to my hostel.

When I was traveling around Kyoto, I kept thinking that if there were just as many places to see in Osaka, I would never make it to Nara, which was another city I wanted to go to. But I actually seemed to luck out and while I didn't go to all the places in Kyoto I wanted to go, I did make it pretty much everywhere in Osaka that was on my list. So as I sat at that cafe, I started to plan out my trip to Nara the next day.