Osaka & Kyoto Trip - Part Two.

The onigiri in Japan was just so much better from the ones in Malaysia.

When I went to Shinjuku, Tokyo many years ago, me and my family would visit a Family Mart near our hotel. In that convenience store, there was this handsome cashier. I went there enough times to know that he works for the night shift (OMAGA JOON YOU'RE SUCH A STALKER).

I wouldn't go out of my way to that store, but I would take extra glances on this guy whenever I'm there. On the last day before I went back to Malaysia, he was wearing a flu mask so I couldn't see his face.

This time when I'm in Kyoto and Osaka, I kept seeing different faces behind the counter. I even felt disappointed when my first visit to the first Family Mart and the first thing I saw was two girls HAHAHAHA.

I think I told quite a number of people about this guy already, but I will always think of him whenever I enter a Family Mart.

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DAY FOUR

In the morning, my mom told me reports of typhoon Talim approaching southern Japan. Osaka wasn't really in the affected area but we could feel some of its effects. It was already starting to drizzle when we got out of the train station and walking towards Osaka castle.

Like all tourists areas, there are a lot of people around Osaka Castle. There's some distance of walking from any of the entrance to the castle itself, and we already saw crowds of people just walking in.

We didn't went buy the tickets and went in because I saw reviews online saying there wasn't much inside. You could try the battle armor and helmet but of course, you have to pay for it. Other than, I guess there's pretty sights to see inside but isn't Japan itself a beautiful sight already?

It was starting to rain quite heavily when we decided to leave. Before we could reach the exit, we sought some shelter in some random building. Turns out, it was a martial arts hall and people were practicing kendo! I'm assuming there's a competition going on since I saw some trophies.

It was definitely a delightful surprise because I never expected to even see the art of kendo in my trip. They were yelling and swinging their bamboo swords everywhere, and I wish I had photos or videos but we weren't supposed to film it. I don't think I would like people filming me while I was warming up for a competition too.

My brother went and bought an umbrella and we left. I noticed that Japanese people tend to use transparent umbrellas. I totally dig it because you can SEE through it. Why don't we use transparent umbrellas in Malaysia!?!?!?

Anyway, we were using the 2-day Osaka Amazing Pass to travel around on this day and one of the benefits of using this pass is you don't have to pay the entry fee to some of the places and attractions in their list. Near the Osaka castle there's the Osaka Museum of History, so we decided to drop by just to take advantage of the free entry.

Normally, I would like to take my time and read every word in museums but I didn't have the mood for it that day. One thing was this trip to the museum wasn't planned and the second thing was we don't really have all day, so we just took a glance of everything in the exhibition. Didn't really stay for a long time.

The staff was so nice in these exhibitions. Even with the language barrier, the people there trying their hardest to explain the history of their country. Other than that, they really go all out in their exhibition, rather than just displaying stuffs.

We left the Osaka Museum of History, and it was still raining. Our next stop was also a museum, one of the places my mom wanted to visit. It was the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living.

Judging from pictures, I thought that the museum was outdoors. It was actually in a building, and probably in one of the highest floors. It's a relief because it's still raining outside. We had to queue of course, even when getting into the elevator.

Basically, they have a large area consisting of old Japanese houses. In these houses they show how the Japanese use to live and how their houses use to look like. It's just like a small village and you can get into any of the houses.

There are a lot of people (mostly females) just dressing up in kimonos and taking pictures in these traditional houses, basically having their own photoshoot. You will need to queue up to take pictures. But if you're like me who don't really giving a shit about taking POTD you will stroll pasts these areas quite quickly.

I don't remember seeing any explanation of anything in this museum so I don't think you can learn anything much about the history of these houses but just experience and seeing it, I guess?

I think there are other things to look in this museum but we didn't stay to find out. It was nearing afternoon and we have to head back to our capsule hotel to check out. It was still raining.

Before we got back to our hotel, we went to get lunch. Initially, we wanted to eat in one of the restaurants in the list of Amazing Osaka pass (it wasn't free, but they offered discount), but it was still rather expensive so we went to the restaurant beside it. Fortunately, it was that restaurant's 1 year anniversary and they offered cheese tomato ramen for just 500 yen!

 

We couldn't really communicate with the staff and we accidentally wore shoes into the eating area, but other than it was quite good (and cheap!).

We went back to the hotel, checked out and grabbed our luggage. We departed from Namba to Bentencho, which was nearer to the bay area. There, we checked in to our final hotel, OTR Park View. This lodge is similar to Racine Home, you don't see any staff workers. There wasn't really a receptionist table, it was just like an apartment.

An old lady actually saw us struggling to find the way to the hotel and went out of her way to help us. I was so touched by her actions. She even told us a short cut that wouldn't get us wet in the rain.

 In this lodging, we don't get beds but sleep on futons. 

We took a nap till around dinner time. We then made our way to a shopping mall called HEP FIVE where there's a ferris wheel beside it. But no, I went to the mall to get PABLO cheese tarts. I've always heard of delicious Japanese cheese tarts back in Malaysia and Singapore but I never got them. Now I can tell people I ate real Japanese cheese tarts, hahaha.

I think we walked to another shopping mall to look for something to eat for dinner, unfortunately, I can't remember what shopping mall it was. In that mall, there was so many restaurants to eat in that we just couldn't decide. There's just so many things to eat, and this problem exists everywhere in Japan, even at their train stations.

We finally decided to have some sushi. It was actually a store selling sushi, but they have 5-6 seats at the side where they serve sushi to the customers. The price wasn't over the roof, so me and my mom guessed it was the cheaper kind of sushi. Tastes great nevertheless!

I never felt so stressed in my life eating sushi in front of the chefs. 

I was so worried about getting judged!

For the final event of that night, we went to Umeda Sky Building where you can see the view of the Osaka city. We had to walk quite a distance (again) to get there, and it was still raining. We saw a few people in a Mario costumes riding karts along the way, by the way.

Took an elevator, got tickets and went up the platform via an escalator. Umeda Sky building is great to visit at anytime of the day, but I think the sunset is the best time. I went during the night, and it was still very pretty.

You get to see the view indoors and outdoors. I preferred the outdoors as there wasn't reflections in photos and there wasn't as many people indoors. It was still kinda raining.

They seem to promote these two escalators a lot.

We got lost on our while back, but we made it anyway. We then collapsed. Just kidding, we were dead tired.

DAY FIVE

I was very excited for this day as we went to Osaka's aquarium, Kaiyukan. Once again, there was a lot of people, and I mean a lot. More than we ever seen when we went anywhere else. The queue was long to get the ticket and the entrance was just so packed.

The reason why I was so excited because I knew we could see whale sharks in this aquarium. I really like the idea of seeing the largest animal in the world but because I can't swim and don't like going underwater, I am content to see the largest fish in the world.

Of course, there was so much more other things to see in this aquarium. Some of the many species in this aquarium are seals, otters, sting rays, manta rays, sharks, penguins, turtles and even the sunfish!

 

<<SUDDEN DEATH>>

If only it wasn't that packed on the day we went, because it was just hard enough to see, much less take pictures of these amazing creatures. The crowd gets more thin as you make your way through the aquarium and there are many chances of you seeing the biggest tank which consists the whale sharks, so it's still okay.

Oh boy, the moment we reached the tank that was made out of 30 centimeters thick glass, I was in awe. The whale shark was huge like how I imagined, but I can't help but feel sad that they are stuck in these walls, rather than swimming freely in the ocean.

This tiny GIF doesn't do justice to its size.

It's too bad that there was so many people blocking your view. Me and mom also got separated with my brother which frustrated us so much, and I misplaced and lost the transparent umbrella that I wanted to bring back to Malaysia so much. It probably couldn't fit in the luggage anyway. *wipes tears*

For lunch, we went to the nearby Tempozan Marketplace. We had Wendy's in their food court and it was sooooo good. You can't go wrong with bacon burgers, if only we had them in Malaysia.

After lunch, we wanted to take advantage of the free entry to Legoland Discovery Center, but you need a kid to get in. It's like they knew there will be people like us, ha. It's okay, it looked too childish for us anyway.

The Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel was just beside the marketplace so we decided to once again, use our passes to get free entry. Unfortunately, it was closed due to safety precautions before the typhoon that was expected to hit, even though the weather was fine.

Little did we knew that we would this problem again as we couldn't get into Tennoji Zoo. We realized that it is possible that most places will be closed and we couldn't go anywhere. My mom also didn't want us to stay outside too late, in case if the typhoon really did come.

Here we were helped by another Japanese elderly. His English was good, and there's a reason why he speaks so well. He's a volunteer guide around the Osaka area, helping random tourists and even locals. He too, was bummed out that the zoo was closed and suggested us other places we could visit. He also gave us maps and guide books and told us a lot about the area. Why are Japanese elderly people are so nice!?!??!

In his Facebook page, he posts updates of the people he met.

We weren't sure where to go at this point of the day. We wanted to go to a bath house, but we didn't bring extra set of clothes. Worrying about the bad weather, we decided that we will go to the bath house anyway before it gets too late.

Me and my brother was determined to get into a bath house even way before we arrived in Japan. My mother on the other hand, was too shy to try. It was already really unusual for us to see naked people, and she didn't want to make it more weird by seeing her daughter naked, and I can understand that.

'Wait Joon, did you say naked?!?!?!?' Yes, I did. You're required to get butt naked in public bath houses or hot springs. I wore leotards for more than half of my life span so I think I am okay in getting naked.

Once you got your towels, pass the counters, pretty much the first thing you see is a locker room filled with naked people. The trick is to not to think so much about it, because whatever you have on your body, they have it too. As long as you don't stare at people, you should be fine. The more you hide it, the more people would think you're weird.

I read about the steps you have to do when you get into a bath house before finding myself naked there, because I didn't want to offend anyone. Instead of jumping straight into the pools, you are supposed to shower first. Only after you are clean, then you can enjoy yourself in these steaming hot pools.

Different pools have different temperatures. Some are warm, some are really hot that it can be a pain to just get into them and there was one cold pool that is 18 degree Celsius! There are also individual pools that can fit a single person and a sauna.

Young and old, you can see lots of different body shape and sizes. I try not to look at any single person too long, but you just can't avoid seeing boobs and other parts of the body. I'm sure you can see dicks if you're in the men's side. Just don't think too much about it because no one cares! HAHAHA.

Still, I still wasn't used to getting naked and being in pools with other naked women so I only spent about 30 minutes in there. Some people can actually spend hours in bath houses just soaking themselves. I'm glad I went in though, because it was definitely a unique experience.

For dinner, we went back to Dōtonburi again, because my mother wouldn't get takoyaki anywhere else. We ate at a restaurant where we tried okonomiyaki and had a really delicious sushi bowl.

DAY SIX  CONGRATULATIONS 넌 참 대단해

It was a Monday, so I thought a weekday would be a perfect day to visit Universal Studios Japan. I was so wrong.

I don't know if it was a holiday or what, but it was so packed with people. We got our tickets before flying to Japan, but we still had to queue a very long line to just get pass the entrance. Right after entering, the first ride we saw had the waiting time of 90 minutes.

Me and my family were speechless.

So there's a reason why I wanted to go to USJ, and the reason is because of the attraction The Wizardry World of Harry Potter. I wouldn't call myself a Potterhead, but boy did I fangirl when I walked through the Forbidden Forest and finally reached the entrance to Hogsmeade.

In their replica of the winter version of Hogsmeade, you can find the Hogwarts train, different magic shops and Hogwarts itself along with the lake. And they sell butterbeer!

Other than the Harry Potter world, the other attractions are Universal Wonderland, Hollywood, Waterworld, Amity Village, Jurassic Park, San Francisco, New York and Minion Park. We thought that we should walk around the whole area first before deciding which ride to go.

The first ride we actually took was the boat ride of JAWS. I actually have memories of riding it before, but I can't remember where exactly. We had to wait 50 minutes for that ride.

And that's basically how we spent our day in USJ, just waiting in lines.

We made a mistake not queuing up for the popular rides in the morning because by noon the queues can last up to three freaking hours. THREE HOURS OF JUST STANDING IN LINE. I also thought that the queue will be shorter around evening, but that didn't happen.

I've seen just how hardcore Japanese people can be in theme parks, based on my experience in DisneyLand and DisneySea, but this takes the cake. Thinking back, I was complaining of an hour waiting lines in Singapore, that was just a piece of cake man. There was so much people that even the express lanes have queues.

Unfortunately, I couldn't try all the extreme rides. We did try the 4K3D rides though, and the one in Harry Potter's was just absolutely amazing. Another unexpectedly amazing ride was Space Fantasy, and it just took us 10 minutes of waiting.

Another thing we learned is to go for the queues for single riders. You can't ride along with your friends but most of the time it's faster than the normal line.

It was September but USJ was already prepared for Halloween, so the park will opened till night for the Halloween Horror Night event. After the sun sets, you could see the change in atmosphere and more and more zombies appear through the night.

I've only seen people participating in these Halloween events, and I'd never expected that I would land myself in this situation. If you don't know me, I'm not a fan of horror. I played zombie games but in real life? No, thank you.

There are areas where different zombies would walk on the main road and scare people. I've seen people trying to scare back the zombies but man these zombies are trained so well. They didn't even flinch.

We had our dinner at the very safe zone of  Universal Wonderland in a Snoopy themed restaurant. The staff asked my brother if we were afraid of the zombies, HAHAHAHA.

 

IT'S SO CUTE.

We finally left USJ after hanging out at Hogsmeade one last time. I actually queue for the 4K3D ride again because it was only a 45 minute queue. It was a long day. A very long day. Sigh.

Stay till night to see dementors flying with projection mapping.

Did I mention that we have to queue to get on the train back from USJ too?

DAY SEVEN

We initially planned to head to Ikeda to visit the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum but they're closed on Tuesday. I have failed to notice that when I was planning for our itinerary. If you didn't know, you can actually create your own instant ramen noodle flavour there for 300 yen.

So, me and my mom decided to go shopping instead. She purposely brought a larger luggage so that we can carry all the stuff back.

Once again, we arrived at Dōtonburi to buy stuff at Don Quijote, a tax-free shopping store. Here you can find many foreigners filling up their shopping cart with everything in large quantities.

 Dōtonburi river.

My mom was obviously very delighted, like her sisters, she loves shopping. We bought back food like instant noodles, biscuits and candies. Then my mom realizes she doesn't have enough money and had to change currency for more.

My mother initially wanted to check out more tax-free stores but we obviously can't move around with our first haul, so we went back. We had something like tonkatsu before returning to our lodge.

At night, we thought to walk around too look at how the residential areas look like. And because my mom wanted to shop more. She wanted to check out a DAISO.

It was very nice just walking and chilling. I think it will be weird if you find foreigners walking around your neighborhood but I had a great time. Japan has really square cars.

We went shopping again- I mean, my mom went shopping again while me and my brother was just hanging around. I saw a gachapon containing Sumikko Gurashi stuff but I restrained myself, hnnnggg.

We had our last dinner at McDonalds. We didn't really actively seek out for a McDonald, you know because you have McDonalds everywhere and it's just fast food but it was just there beside the store and it's convenient.

Pork burgers are always nice, anyway.

DAY EIGHT

It was our last day in Japan. Unlike the last time I was here, I didn't feel sad. I didn't really have the feeling of not wanting to leave. I was very content.

We left for the airport near noon. We had our lunch in the airport where I had tonkatsu again and it was good. According to my aunt, all the restaurant in the Kansai Airport is great.

My mom did more shopping before we went to the departure hall. I did a survey while waiting for the plane and got a handkerchief with Mount Fuji on it.

We got back to Malaysia after a terrible six hour flight.

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And that's all from me.

I had a great time in Japan. I love their culture, their language and I love their food very much. It's totally different world and I can't wait to go back there again. Thank you so much, Japan.

Hopefully I can get myself to blog about my trips to Pulau Perhentian and Singapore. Till then.

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Read Osaka and Kyoto Trip - Part One here!