Osaka - 30th November 2013

Finally, or sadly I should say, this is our last day in Osaka. Our flight is at night, so we had almost the whole day to shop, eat...

And we set off to Minoo Park. A train ride away from Osaka. Near to the northern part. Away from the city. It is famous for its waterfall and maple leaves. And boy, the crowd was horrendous! Everyone was going to the park perhaps and along the way, there are crackers in form of maple leaves. Apparently, they fried the maple leaves and is a very yummy tidbit!

The lovely leaves adorning the sky

Waterfall spotted at Minoo Park. I was trying out the ND8 I purchased from Yodobashi earlier on. And it works great in such images :)

The minoo waterfall...I dont feel it very magnificient though haha

Along the route to the waterfall, it has many temples and red bridges and maple leaves. The weather was excellent for a pleasant walk, hence explaining the crowd. This is our last day at Osaka. We wanna get more time spending with this beautiful scenery!

After visiting Minoo park, we moved off to the Instant Ramen Museum at Ikeda. In Singapore, we only had the luxury to taste some version of the Nissin Cup noodles, but actually there are many many varieties. In different parts of Japan, there is also different version of cup noodles with different soup base.

Look at the huge displays on the wall!

This is how cup noodles are made in the past.

If you fancy some time making your own cup noodles, you may do so but this requires reservation and a fee. Most people come with their kids for the fun of making noodles :)

We didnt taste any noodles. And Dear...suddenly has the urge to eat Kobe beef again before leaving Japan. So you can imagine the crazy us took a train to Kobe and visit Moriya again for the beef!! hahaha..and we didnt regret it.

All for the sake of this that melts in your mouth!

Before leaving Japan, we also had this collection of our favourite Ted collectibles!

We collected a whole series of these Ted figurines!

unfortunately, we didnt catch any of these from the UFO catchers! :(

This has been the most fruitful and relaxing trip to Japan, with great onsen experience at Kinosaki Onsen, great time spent eating beef at Kobe, great maple viewing at Nara and Kyoto, great food from everywhere, great and wonderful shopping at Osaka and most importantly, great hospitality from the Japanese everywhere that we visited. Till then, we will visit Japan in the near future again..hoping for a trip to Hokkaido next time.. I guess it will also be pretty pleasant to visit Kyoto during cherry blossoms period. Will be looking forward to that. Thank you everyone for reading my blog :)

Osaka Universal Studios - 29th November 2013

This stay..as the title suggests..a stay at Universal Studios Osaka. Honestly, I still feel Disneyland is much fun :) with all my favourite characters and very good shopping. USS has its own features but if without the fireworks, I think I will not spend the whole day at USS haha..

First encounter is with Shrek and company. They are very friendly and kids rushed to take pics with them. We can also see them in Singapore USS so I didnt really have the huge urge to take pics with them hahaha

And there..we reached Central Park to see Elmo and gang!! Something that you do not see in SG USS I think..

ZS with Cookie Monster

Elmo is too popular. The big kid in me has to run to take pics with this famous red guy who gives me a huge hug!

And superman comes to catch us in action!

Not forgettin the ever famous Hello Kitty. There is a special dancing stage just for Hello Kitty and little fans gather way before the dances began! Talking about excitement..kids shrieked out aloud as Kitty comes out in different costumes.

Snoopy and friends is another highlight of Osaka USS. Of cuz, we dont miss taking pics with them!
I love fluffy Snoopy dog! 

 

Used to read comics about Snoopy when I was young haha

Look at the Snoopy merchandise!!

Snoopy Azuki Pancake

We waited till dusk and all this time, there were performances at different parts of the USS. Still, I prefer Disneyland haha..

And finally..the highlight of the night..the magical parade!

There are many other light display characters but these are not familar to us. At least for Disney parade, we know every single character..so hmm..I enjoyed myself more at Disneyland than USS..but still..is a nice visit to meet Snoopy and Elmo!

The magical Xmas tree.. xmas is coming..everywhere in Japan is in fact preparing for Xmas in terms of gifts, chocolates, toys etc..everywhere a festive mood but too bad this is already our 2md last day in Osaka :( Last day tomorrow!

Osaka Shopping - 26th November 2013

For some reason, we decided that instead of going Nara on that day, we should do shopping in Osaka instead! So we changed our plans and started our shopping spree in this bustling city!

As we were in the midst of moving into our new house, we decided to get some cooking stuff from Japan as the quality is definitely superior and I heard getting from the wholesale market is cheapest. So I searched online and found this place Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street, located near to Shinsaibashi-suji.

It's a Kitchen street, which sells all the cooking cutlerys and bowls and utensils and knives that you can think of. In fact, people from restaurants also come to his place to purchase all the cooking items and bowls as its sold at the cheapest price.

Details:
ADDRESS〒: 542-0075 Area around Nambasennichimae, Chuo-ku, Osaka
TRANSPORTATION: 3 minutes walk from “Namba Station” on Nankai Line, Subway Midosuji Line, Yotsubashi Line, 5 minutes walk from “Nippombashi Station” on Subway Sennichimae Line, Kintetsu Line

This street is filled with all the shops selling almost the same items. And all at wholesale price. We went around and purchased our forks, knives, spoons, bowls, plates from this street, as well as a sleek-designed umbrella rack. We also bought ceramic knives and some innovatively-designed containers for the sauces.

http://www.yodobashi-umeda.com/information/access_map.html

And we added more shopping at the Yodobashi Camera   shop located at Umeda station. It does not sell just camera, it practically sells anything and everything...ranging from phones to jigsaw puzzles to toys to luggages to towels..and some very well-designed gadgets to enhance one's lifestyle.you gotta come see if you are in Osaka. There are more than 5 levels of items and all are neatly arranged. If you are a jigsaw puzzle fanatic, you gotta get to Yodobashi! I gotta emphasize the convenience of gettimg tax refund from shopping at Japan. You get refunds instantly at the moment of paying. You do not need to get the receipts and queue for the longest time unlike in areas at Heathrow Airport, which we have experienced before!

Aside from Yodobashi shops, Japan also has the BiC camera shop whichhas almost the same scale of products... also, camera addicts..you jus gotta go to Yodobashi to see all the lens, all the filters and any camera accessories you can think of..they are all under this roof!


Along the way,we hopped by Muji shop near Shinsaibashi..which to my surprise, consists of cafes,food, and 4stories of products. This is so unlike Sg which has so limited variety of products. Visiting Muji in Japan is a must! I regretted not purchasing some of the products as I thought they would be available in Singapore haha..
Sufficient reason to plan another trip to Japan again!

http://shinsaibashi.tokyu-hands.co.jp/en/


I have not emphasized on Tokyu Hands..i have visited Tokyu Hands during my last trip to Tokyo..yet another have-it-all shop which I love losing myself at the varieties of products..as we are moving house, household items, kitchen items naturally become our alert! We were amazed at the Japanese creativity to make life easier with simple and useful gadgets haha!

Also, pharmacies at Osaka area is alao a highlight! All the collagen pills, medicine, things to make you feel comfy like soothing cream for tired legs, contact lens solutions for different type of contact lens, eye solution for weary eyes while driving, while reading from computer can also be found there. The amazing thing is a simple eye solution product has many brands and many varieties... and price is much affordable for collagen drinks in Japan than in singapore, hongkong, taiwan. Maybe that is why I always see tourists from these countries sweeping off the collagen pills and drinks off the shelves! Totally not exagerrating.

So pardon me for the lack of pictures in this post as that was a shopping day, but Im happy to share some of the shopping places in Osaka area for some good deals with you readers!

Osaka - 21st November 2013

1. Osaka castle

Taking the overnight flight to Kansai airport has made us very shag indeed. Seats were not so comfortable but we are not expecting much from budget tix. But the excitement of seeing the autumn koyo(foliage) and the yummilicious kobe beef kept us going!

 
Upon checking into Hotel Monterey Osaka, we went off to explore osaka castle as our first destination! It just took us a simple train ride from the confusing Osaka station..it is like a maze for first timers like us.

We took a pleasant walk from the osaka castle station, enjoying the breezy weather and the yellow, orange, red trees that came into our sight! Simply excited to see what awaits for us at Kyoto, as it was the peak week for autumn foliage.

We took about 20mins walk to reach this magnificent castle. We decided not to go into the castle but took some pic of the castle as memory that we arrived at one of the major attractions in Osaka.

Feeling hungry, we decided to head to Namba for some authentic food in Osaka which are highly popular among Singaporeans..like takoyaki balls, gyoza, okonomiyaki. Same thing..just a subway ride away..I love the subway system in Osaka..everywhere is just within reach from the station :)

The neon lights,the big red crab sign, and the huge takoyaki balls! We queued for about 15mins and we finally took our first bite in Osaka. The taste was overwhelming with the octopus filling up our mouth.. in the weather we were in, taking warm food is simply bliss!

Of cuz, we saw iconic characters that were often mentioned in guidebooks like the glico man!

Kuidaore Taro..

As this was our first day arriving in Osaka, we decided to head back to hotel for a good night rest, as we had an early train to catch the next day to Kinosaki Onsen...more to come in the next post!