Today we decided to sleep in and do a day trip a little later to nearby Osaka. Osaka is the second biggest city in japan and only 30-40 minutes by train from Kyoto. It has a lot of history (one time capital) and is very important in terms of its function as a huge shipping port, but the reason I've always liked it is because it's the Montreal of Japan.
Osaka is more laid back, boisterous and lively than its big brother Tokyo. People are not as reserved, dress down a bit and are much more likely to engage with you or smile back at you with full eye contact - something you dont get as much in Tokyo for sure.
Our first stop was the fantastic Osaka castle. Wow - the view from below to the top of the castle and the view down when inside the top floor of the castle are fantastic. We even ran into a couple of real life Samurai!
Next up, we took a couple of short train rides over to the Osaka waterfront where we visited the Osaka Aquarium. The main attraction here was a whale shark - one of only two places in the world (Atlanta being the other) where you can see whale sharks in captivity. Whale sharks have always been a bit of a fascination with Beth and I, ever since we attempted to dive with them in Thaliand in 1997.
The whole place has a great setup, and we really had a relaxing time checking out all of the exhibits. It was nice to be in an uncrowded tourist attraction - Osaka was definitely slower than Kyoto in terms of the hordes of tourists.
On the way out, we spotted a huge ferris wheel so we jumped on. Beth quickly regretted joining us and had to "avert here eyes". The view was fantastic and the girls did a little video on their day.
A couple of us needed a recharge at Starbucks, and a couple of us needed a venti skim chai!
After a brief rest, we headed out to Minami (South) Osaka. This has always been my favourite nightlife spot in Japan. The miles of covered roads, retail and restaurants that spill into the streets, crazy architecture and a backdrop with a canal crossed by numerous foot bridges is a great base for a party. Inject a few hundred thousand people and you have Minami Osaka. The girls were pretty happy that we stuck around and got to see this. They were even out late enough to see people standing up sleeping in the train on the way home - something we'd been telling them about for days.
7 trains, 2 buses and 1 taxi later, I'm sure they'll be sleeping well tonight!
What a fantastic day!! Scary Samurai. Obviously Beth and Robin are doing too much of the work!! LOL!
ReplyDelete