Pulsating Osaka - our final destination

Saturday, April 13, 2024
Osaka, Osaka, Japan
After a few beers at lunch, it was nap time on our last Shinkansen trip. We had to change trains on arrival in Osaka - for one station.
Osaka is the 3rd biggest city in Japan. It is a huge pulsating city. Unlike Kyoto which was virtually spared in the war, Osaka suffered a great deal of damage from bombing in the war and has had to be rebuilt. Osaka is a modern city, and known for its food. 
It was quite confusing on arrival into Osaka Station but eventually (probably 10 minutes) found our hotel - the Hilton Osaka. It is a maze underground at the Osaka Station. The hotel is quite lovely, and as Tim and I had booked an executive room with an old Qantas credit from Covid - we headed straight to the executive lounge to avail of 2 hours of food and drinks. We did make sure we got our value out of this, and this did suffice for dinner. The Hilton is surrounded by high end shopping such as Bulgari and Louis Vuitton. 
We then headed off to explore Dotonburi. The lively entertainment area of Dotonbori is Osaka’s most famous tourist destination and renowned for its gaudy neon lights, extravagant signage, and the enormous variety of restaurants and bars. It certainly is crazy town - but to compare to Thailand - a clean Crazy Town without the ping pong shows etc. there is a lot of neon here and plenty to do. Tim found a golf course simulation place and played 9 holes - he says he played to his handicap. 
We then had a full day in Osaka to enjoy. Whilst we had originally thought we would head an hour away to see Himeji Castle - we scaled down our aspirations to a less ambitious plan and went to Osaka Castle instead. Osaka Castle  and fortress are one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. As it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, we didn’t go inside as it is not original but instead admired the impressive external facade. (Himeji on the other hand has not been reconstructed). The cherry blossoms are still in bloom here and hence some hanami gatherings were still taking place around the castle around the moat. Not as crowded as Tokyo in Ueno Park - it was a much more relaxed vibe (although it’s Thursday!).
Again, I have had another transport system to navigate with its own quirks.  The JapanTransit app makes it easy to plan your train trips. 
We then headed to Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street. A commercial avenue stretching north and south for about 580 meters. Visitors to this street number about 60,000 on weekdays and about 120,000 on weekends and holidays. We first found the food hall and had lunch and a couple of beers and then we all split up for free time for an hour for shopping (Tim managed to get himself back to the hotel on his own as shopping was not appealing to him at all!).
At the end of this street was the famous Glico Man sign - so I did take a photo here!
On returning to the hotel it was time for our cocktail and canape session - again, it fulfilled our needs for dinner - and as we had a big day planned for the next day, we had an early night!
For our final full day in Japan, we headed to Universal Studios. This is the third-most visited theme park in the world behind Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, and the most visited theme park in Asia. We had heard how busy it can be, with enormous wait times for rides, so whilst we managed at Universal Studios Orlando to get by using single rider lines, this time we just splurged with Express Passes. These passes can turn a frustrating day full of queues into a lovely day. Express Passes are also really the only guaranteed way to get into Super Nintendo World as it is in huge demand at the moment being the first Super Nintendo World (one has now opened at Universal Hollywood, and 2025 will see more open in Singapore and Florida). 
It was easy to get to via train from Osaka station. The park wasn’t scheduled to open until 9am, but I’d heard that they often open early, and we were allowed in on arrival at 8.30. By the opening time, we had completed our first ride - The Flying Dinosaur. This is a coaster ride where guests sit in a prone, forward-facing position, which gives the sensation of flying. It really was quite terrifying being in that unique position!
Our tickets gave us access to 7 rides on express lanes and we managed one additional one - so 8 rides in total. After the first hour in the park, the lines were well over an hour for every ride and we never waited more than 10 minutes with our passes. If we did not have the express passes, we would have needed another 6 hours to do what we were able to do. And Super Nintendo World was fantastic - just like being in a game! The Mario Kart ride was so fun - it uses technology in your headset so that you are shooting things individually and are able to compete. Of course I won haha. We had lunch at an American themed diner (was so good after all the Japanese food we have been eating), and tried Butterbeer in Harry Potter World. The lines are quite long to buy Butterbeer so Universal must be making a fortune from it - it has a definite Butterscotch taste! Overall, I would highly recommend the Express Passes for this particular park (even if Tim felt guilty walking past all the other people queued in long lines). 
Other notable things:
  • the Japanese people are so polite, the crowding is not unpleasant 
  • The staff constantly wave and smile, all the time, 
  • They sell popcorn in all sorts of flavours - we tried the caramel but really would just prefer plain butter/salt.
  • Some of the restaurants had over 1 hour waiting lines, so we opted for a quicker option 
  • Citywalk (the retail/restaurant area outside the park) is much better in Orlando (but there are 2 parks there to support it).
Overall, we had a great day, and perfect weather for it.
Our final night was spent having a few wind down beverages at the executive lounge, joining Joan and Bernie at a nearby Aussie bar (they went to the aquarium today, which they enjoyed) and some nightlife back in Dotombori. 
We found a restaurant (a random place upstairs) where Tim was able to have his desire of sashimi    and I had some fried rice. Somewhat amusingly, Tim then struck up a conversation with some local guys at the table next door.
And finally Saturday (and Sunday) was a long travel day. We were able to relax at the hotel until a midday checkout and then make our way to Itami Airport for our domestic flights back to Tokyo. This is where we said farewell to Joan and Bernie who were flying on separate airlines (and somewhat weirdly at Itami, each airline has its own security and food hall so we couldn’t see each other after check in). Tim and I used the last of our yen on lunch and boarded our 1 hour flight. It was reasonably comfortable in the exit row, and we had WiFi whilst in the air.
Narita Airport in Tokyo is a long way from the the city. Qantas is transitioning to Haneda Airport (much closer) and during covid they closed the Qantas Business Lounge at Narita. The current arrangements are for a partner lounge to provide a lounge service and this is currently the Aspire Swissport lounge. There were some good aspects (eg a cocktail service and lie flat beds for relaxation)and some not so good aspects (food options were very basic). They also sell entry passes, so there were a few interesting characters in there!
The flight wasn’t too bad, but still an overnight flight which means very little sleep! And we had a lengthy layover at Brisbane - thank goodness for lounge access so we could shower, sleep and have lunch before our short flight to Port Macquarie.
We loved Japan! 

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Comments

Rachel D
2024-04-16

Wow what a fabulous finish to your blog! So interesting. Loved your photos & now I’m thinking a Japan trip is needed!

mellak
2024-04-19

Wow, that all looked amazing! On the bucket list!

2025-02-15

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