Japan Day 11: Osaka
January 11.
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This day was spun on its head before it even started, as today was my scheduled day for Kyoto, but I'll actually need to be in Kyoto tomorrow to meet my buddy Boo and his family. Before I left for Japan, Boo and I coordinated to meet at his extended family's home in Nara on the 12th & 13th, and I'd go to Osaka on the 14th. But now the plan is I'll meet them in Kyoto on the 12th, and then head to Nara for the 13th & 14th, so I have to do Osaka today or not at all. Luckily, I did have enough of a notification that I was able to cancel my hotel in Osaka, as it makes sense to stay in Kyoto tonight to be awake there tomorrow morning. Just a little bit of a shuffle, not so bad!
As I was originally booked for Kyoto, my initial train from Nagoya at 6:35am took me to Kyoto for 7:19am, and it was a very quick transfer onto a train to Osaka that I was there just shy of 8:00am. Once again I found a coin locket to leave my bag in at the station, and I'll grab it before I go to my hotel in Kyoto. Also, while I'm here at the station, I have to pick up my Osaka Amazing Pass. The Amazing Pass is a one or two day visitor pass that allows free travel on the local subway, free visitation to some attractions, and discounts to other attractions, restaurants, and stores. At $28 for one day, or $34 for two days, it'll cover the subway travel alone. Let's go explore Osaka!
Right off the bat, there's something about Osaka that just feels right, the weather is perfect, I can see the Umeda Sky Building from the station (my #3 destination), Osaka Castle (#4 on my list), there's a zoo, Tsutenkaku observation tower, Shinsekai street food, the Harukas 300 observatory, the Aquarium has whale sharks (my #1 destination), and the Cosmo Tower Observatory are all strung together in one big loop. I also want to go shopping at some point and pick up a new bag and maybe a very expensive pair of jeans. We have so much to cover, and maybe 12 hours to do it all.
First on the loop is Osaka Castle, free to visit with the Amazing Pass. The castle grounds are massive, parks and gardens, gates and towers, it takes 20 minutes to walk from the station to the main Castle Tower. This tower is a reproduction, as it served as a central military base and was destroyed during WWII. The exhibits inside the tower portrayed Samurai from all over Japan, including armor, helmets, and katanas, but unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside. The observation floor gave me a cool sneak peak of the rest of the city, and I could actually see where my next destination would be out in the distance.
Tennoji Zoo was next on the list, free to visit with the Amazing Pass. I opted to take a slightly longer walking route through Tennoji Park to see a bit more along the way, which included a dog balcony and two pieces of the Berlin Wall. The Zoo was packed full of rad animals for its relatively small size: Lions, hawks, tigers, leopards, wolves, bats, penguins, flamingoes, hippos, a polar bear, giraffes, goats, cranes, red pandas, but sadly, no Koala. Their Koala is currently in England for breeding purposes. Bass Line.
Unfortunately, I didn't read the fine detail on the Amazing Pass and didn't see that the Tsutenkaku observation tower was free, but only after 6pm. The line to enter was very long, and I don't really want to waste any time today, so instead I walked around the Shinsekai neighborhood, full of street food, which includes takoyaki, or fried octopus balls. So yummy. The Harukas 300 is also in this neighborhood, but it's not free with the Amazing Pass, and I have two more towers to visit that are both free with the pass, so it's time to move on.
The train out to Cosmo Tower Observation deck was a quick 2 train ride with an easy transfer. Cosmo Tower is free with the Amazing Pass, and it's connected to a convention center complex and hotel. It didn't appear that anything was going on this particular weekend, so it felt a little bit like a ghost town, but that's good because there's no lines up to the top! The view from this tower is right along Osaka Bay, so I can see huge freighters miles out to sea, and the view the other direction, all of Osaka.
A one stop backtrack on the train and I arrived at the Osaka Aquarium "Kaiyukan," the 2nd largest Aquarium in Japan, the largest being in Okinawa. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the US, and currently Hengqin, China has the largest aquarium in the world. Both Japanese aquariums have two whale sharks each, so there's no need to see both. The Aquarium here in Osaka is conveniently in downtown, the one in Okinawa is too far out of the way for my liking, two hours by bus. A bit more information than needed, I know.
Kaiyukan is not free, however, the Amazing Pass does give me a $1 saving, so the discounts keep adding up. The aquarium has 8 floors, starting from the top and slowly twist down, similar to Boston's Aquarium, except on a massive scale. The floors 8 through 5 cover land animals, smaller water tanks, and everything in between, while the bottom 4 floors are the massive central tank, which includes the two whale sharks. One of my dreams in life is to swim with a whale shark, but seeing a whale shark is also spectacular, and this is a dream come true.
Right next door to the Aquarium is a Ferris Wheel that's free with the Amazing Pass, so, why not? The Ferris Wheel has two lines, one line is for a carriage that has a clear bottom, terrifying, and another line for a normal carriage with a solid bottom. The solid bottom line has no wait, and the clear bottom line's wait is 30 minutes. My question is if the clear bottom is so popular, why don't they have more carriages with clear bottoms? This one has a 5:1 ratio of standard to clear. The views from the Ferris wheel were nice, and it mostly worked as a 10 minute sit, as I haven't been off my feet for essentially the entire day to this point, and it's now 3:30, which means it's time to head back to the Umeda Sky building for sunset.
The Umeda Sky Building is free with the Amazing Pass before 6pm, which for six months of the year is at sunset or later (March 9 - September 18), but being January, I can be up top at 4:30pm, and sunset officially is 5:05pm. Just like Hakodate, this will allow me to cover daylight, sunset, and night photos all within a short span of time. This building by the way, is gorgeous.
See those two cross beams cutting the circle in half? Those are the escalators that take you up to the observation level. The concept behind the building is that the parks surrounding the building are viewable on the horizontal plane, while the hole or "donut" in the sky allows one to observe the stars on the vertical plane. The donut itself is known as the "Sky Garden," with no trees or flowers, but a stunning 360 degree view of Osaka. Inside the tower is a cinema, offices, and gourmet food. I don't think I've been so attracted to a building since I visited La Segrada Familia in Barcelona.
Just around the corner are two shops that I really want to go check out, Milk Fed and Evisu. "Milk Man" is my character at work, and Milk Fed sells some really nice smaller day bags that I'd much rather have than my trusty twelve year old green sling bag. Fortunately for me, Milk Fed also had a huge clearance section for the New Year, and I snagged a new stylish bag for only $30 (normally $75).
Evisu is one of the Osaka Five, or the five biggest denim manufacturers that pride themselves on traditionally made, high quality selvedge denim products. Some of the Osaka Five companies purchased the old machines Levi's used to make their denim jeans, because Levi's considered them slow and obsolete. Well, now Levi's don't last quite like they used to, and the high quality Evisu jeans will last longer. Just one thing... Levi's retail starting around $60, Evisu jeans retail at $300. I really, really wanted to YOLO hard and buy a pair of Evisu jeans, but at least for this trip, I passed.
It was closing in on 7pm now, and I have a couple options: Go over to Tsutenkaku now that it's free, or head up to Kyoto and grab some dinner at Yume Wo Katare. I check my watch and I notice that my mileage today is already up to 19 miles, so I decide we can start calling it a night and go back to Kyoto. Officially, I arrived in Kyoto at 7:39pm, and it was a quick cab ride to make it to my hotel by 8pm.
I later learned, there are two Yume Wo Katare shops in Kyoto, and the one I went to is "Little Kyoto," as it has enough seats for maybe eight people at a time. Our shop here in Boston hosts a massive 18 people at a time by comparison. The Ramen here is absolutely spectacular, and I think I know what their secret ingredient is: the water. I mentioned to the staff that there was something special about the ramen, and when they asked me what I thought it was, I told them the water. Kyoto is very proud of their great tasting water, and it reminded me of working at the Budweiser Brewery and learning that all Bud Breweries go through the same water purification process to ensure all Buds across the world are made the same. Boston also has very good tap water, so it's tough to say who wins, but man this was a great bowl of Ramen.
Pretty sure this goes without saying, but this was my number one on the trip. It's the first city I've ever been to where I genuinely believed I could leave Boston to move to that city. I Love Osaka. 11/10.
Ok, I've walked almost a marathon today, I think I'm dead now, goodnight.
This day was spun on its head before it even started, as today was my scheduled day for Kyoto, but I'll actually need to be in Kyoto tomorrow to meet my buddy Boo and his family. Before I left for Japan, Boo and I coordinated to meet at his extended family's home in Nara on the 12th & 13th, and I'd go to Osaka on the 14th. But now the plan is I'll meet them in Kyoto on the 12th, and then head to Nara for the 13th & 14th, so I have to do Osaka today or not at all. Luckily, I did have enough of a notification that I was able to cancel my hotel in Osaka, as it makes sense to stay in Kyoto tonight to be awake there tomorrow morning. Just a little bit of a shuffle, not so bad!
As I was originally booked for Kyoto, my initial train from Nagoya at 6:35am took me to Kyoto for 7:19am, and it was a very quick transfer onto a train to Osaka that I was there just shy of 8:00am. Once again I found a coin locket to leave my bag in at the station, and I'll grab it before I go to my hotel in Kyoto. Also, while I'm here at the station, I have to pick up my Osaka Amazing Pass. The Amazing Pass is a one or two day visitor pass that allows free travel on the local subway, free visitation to some attractions, and discounts to other attractions, restaurants, and stores. At $28 for one day, or $34 for two days, it'll cover the subway travel alone. Let's go explore Osaka!
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| First view out of Osaka Station, Osaka. |
Right off the bat, there's something about Osaka that just feels right, the weather is perfect, I can see the Umeda Sky Building from the station (my #3 destination), Osaka Castle (#4 on my list), there's a zoo, Tsutenkaku observation tower, Shinsekai street food, the Harukas 300 observatory, the Aquarium has whale sharks (my #1 destination), and the Cosmo Tower Observatory are all strung together in one big loop. I also want to go shopping at some point and pick up a new bag and maybe a very expensive pair of jeans. We have so much to cover, and maybe 12 hours to do it all.
First on the loop is Osaka Castle, free to visit with the Amazing Pass. The castle grounds are massive, parks and gardens, gates and towers, it takes 20 minutes to walk from the station to the main Castle Tower. This tower is a reproduction, as it served as a central military base and was destroyed during WWII. The exhibits inside the tower portrayed Samurai from all over Japan, including armor, helmets, and katanas, but unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside. The observation floor gave me a cool sneak peak of the rest of the city, and I could actually see where my next destination would be out in the distance.
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| View from Osaka Castle Observation Level, Osaka. |
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| Osaka Castle Main Tower, Osaka. |
Tennoji Zoo was next on the list, free to visit with the Amazing Pass. I opted to take a slightly longer walking route through Tennoji Park to see a bit more along the way, which included a dog balcony and two pieces of the Berlin Wall. The Zoo was packed full of rad animals for its relatively small size: Lions, hawks, tigers, leopards, wolves, bats, penguins, flamingoes, hippos, a polar bear, giraffes, goats, cranes, red pandas, but sadly, no Koala. Their Koala is currently in England for breeding purposes. Bass Line.
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| Dog Balcony, Osaka. |
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| Two Berlin Wall Pieces, Osaka. |
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| Flamingoes and tattoo, Tennoji Zoo, Osaka. |
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| Big Kitty, Tennoji Zoo, Osaka. |
Unfortunately, I didn't read the fine detail on the Amazing Pass and didn't see that the Tsutenkaku observation tower was free, but only after 6pm. The line to enter was very long, and I don't really want to waste any time today, so instead I walked around the Shinsekai neighborhood, full of street food, which includes takoyaki, or fried octopus balls. So yummy. The Harukas 300 is also in this neighborhood, but it's not free with the Amazing Pass, and I have two more towers to visit that are both free with the pass, so it's time to move on.
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| Takoyaki, Shinsekai, Osaka. |
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| Tsutenkaku, Shinsekai, Osaka. |
The train out to Cosmo Tower Observation deck was a quick 2 train ride with an easy transfer. Cosmo Tower is free with the Amazing Pass, and it's connected to a convention center complex and hotel. It didn't appear that anything was going on this particular weekend, so it felt a little bit like a ghost town, but that's good because there's no lines up to the top! The view from this tower is right along Osaka Bay, so I can see huge freighters miles out to sea, and the view the other direction, all of Osaka.
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| Feet Up, Cosmo Tower, Osaka Bay. |
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| View of Downtown Osaka from Cosmo Tower. |
A one stop backtrack on the train and I arrived at the Osaka Aquarium "Kaiyukan," the 2nd largest Aquarium in Japan, the largest being in Okinawa. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the US, and currently Hengqin, China has the largest aquarium in the world. Both Japanese aquariums have two whale sharks each, so there's no need to see both. The Aquarium here in Osaka is conveniently in downtown, the one in Okinawa is too far out of the way for my liking, two hours by bus. A bit more information than needed, I know.
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| Kaiyukan, Osaka Aquarium, Osaka. |
Kaiyukan is not free, however, the Amazing Pass does give me a $1 saving, so the discounts keep adding up. The aquarium has 8 floors, starting from the top and slowly twist down, similar to Boston's Aquarium, except on a massive scale. The floors 8 through 5 cover land animals, smaller water tanks, and everything in between, while the bottom 4 floors are the massive central tank, which includes the two whale sharks. One of my dreams in life is to swim with a whale shark, but seeing a whale shark is also spectacular, and this is a dream come true.
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| Whale Shark, Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, Osaka. |
Right next door to the Aquarium is a Ferris Wheel that's free with the Amazing Pass, so, why not? The Ferris Wheel has two lines, one line is for a carriage that has a clear bottom, terrifying, and another line for a normal carriage with a solid bottom. The solid bottom line has no wait, and the clear bottom line's wait is 30 minutes. My question is if the clear bottom is so popular, why don't they have more carriages with clear bottoms? This one has a 5:1 ratio of standard to clear. The views from the Ferris wheel were nice, and it mostly worked as a 10 minute sit, as I haven't been off my feet for essentially the entire day to this point, and it's now 3:30, which means it's time to head back to the Umeda Sky building for sunset.
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| Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel, Osaka. |
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| I call this one, "Just Add Molly," Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel, Osaka. |
The Umeda Sky Building is free with the Amazing Pass before 6pm, which for six months of the year is at sunset or later (March 9 - September 18), but being January, I can be up top at 4:30pm, and sunset officially is 5:05pm. Just like Hakodate, this will allow me to cover daylight, sunset, and night photos all within a short span of time. This building by the way, is gorgeous.
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| Beautiful Building Selfie, Umeda Sky Building, Osaka. |
See those two cross beams cutting the circle in half? Those are the escalators that take you up to the observation level. The concept behind the building is that the parks surrounding the building are viewable on the horizontal plane, while the hole or "donut" in the sky allows one to observe the stars on the vertical plane. The donut itself is known as the "Sky Garden," with no trees or flowers, but a stunning 360 degree view of Osaka. Inside the tower is a cinema, offices, and gourmet food. I don't think I've been so attracted to a building since I visited La Segrada Familia in Barcelona.
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| Post-sunset vertical view, Umeda Sky Building, Osaka. |
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| Escalator Down, Umeda Sky Building, Osaka. |
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| Sky Garden or "Donut," Umeda Sky Building, Osaka. |
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| Sunset, Umeda Sky Building, Osaka. |
Just around the corner are two shops that I really want to go check out, Milk Fed and Evisu. "Milk Man" is my character at work, and Milk Fed sells some really nice smaller day bags that I'd much rather have than my trusty twelve year old green sling bag. Fortunately for me, Milk Fed also had a huge clearance section for the New Year, and I snagged a new stylish bag for only $30 (normally $75).
Evisu is one of the Osaka Five, or the five biggest denim manufacturers that pride themselves on traditionally made, high quality selvedge denim products. Some of the Osaka Five companies purchased the old machines Levi's used to make their denim jeans, because Levi's considered them slow and obsolete. Well, now Levi's don't last quite like they used to, and the high quality Evisu jeans will last longer. Just one thing... Levi's retail starting around $60, Evisu jeans retail at $300. I really, really wanted to YOLO hard and buy a pair of Evisu jeans, but at least for this trip, I passed.
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| Evisu Denim, Osaka. |
It was closing in on 7pm now, and I have a couple options: Go over to Tsutenkaku now that it's free, or head up to Kyoto and grab some dinner at Yume Wo Katare. I check my watch and I notice that my mileage today is already up to 19 miles, so I decide we can start calling it a night and go back to Kyoto. Officially, I arrived in Kyoto at 7:39pm, and it was a quick cab ride to make it to my hotel by 8pm.
I later learned, there are two Yume Wo Katare shops in Kyoto, and the one I went to is "Little Kyoto," as it has enough seats for maybe eight people at a time. Our shop here in Boston hosts a massive 18 people at a time by comparison. The Ramen here is absolutely spectacular, and I think I know what their secret ingredient is: the water. I mentioned to the staff that there was something special about the ramen, and when they asked me what I thought it was, I told them the water. Kyoto is very proud of their great tasting water, and it reminded me of working at the Budweiser Brewery and learning that all Bud Breweries go through the same water purification process to ensure all Buds across the world are made the same. Boston also has very good tap water, so it's tough to say who wins, but man this was a great bowl of Ramen.
Pretty sure this goes without saying, but this was my number one on the trip. It's the first city I've ever been to where I genuinely believed I could leave Boston to move to that city. I Love Osaka. 11/10.
Ok, I've walked almost a marathon today, I think I'm dead now, goodnight.
January 11 by numbers:
- Photos: 512
- Miles walked: 20.7
- Steps: 41925
- Total Calories Burned: 5825
- Bowls of Ramen: 1
-Joe
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