Sunday 23 October 2016

Off to Osaka, Japan. Part V

My last post about this vacation was posted on 24 November 2015 and today is 22 October 2016. Great job, Iris, great job at being such an excellent lazy bum. No worries, it's finally the last part of the vacation post. I know I swore to finish it before my Taiwan trip in December 2015 but I put the pro in procrastination y'all. I don't even know what's the point anymore lol, just wanna get it over with. Maybe some people might be travelling to Osaka and wants to check my blog for reference? How would I know. Anyway......... I don't really remember what I was feeling at that moment of time from two years ago but I'll try my best so here goes nothing.

Day 8/ Jun 22: Osaka

We've been here before on day 5 of the vacation after we were done with Universal Studio Japan.

This place can be reached by four ways for a tourist:
1. A small boat crossing over from jetty near USJ, free of charge. (We found it by chance just by wandering around, so I do not know what's the name or where it is for the life of my sorry ass)
2. A 10-mins shuttle ferry from outside of USJ to Kaiyukan west wharf. Link here.
3. The train station is called Osakako 大阪港 of the Chuo Line 中央本線.
4. Car, obviously.

We went into Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan 海遊館 first cause when we got there the Osaka Bay Santa Maria Cruise サンタマリア still hasn't started its tour.

The cruise ship is a replica of the sailing ship in which Columbus discovered America (although the replica is twice the size of the original). The Santa Maria departs for a complete tour of Osaka Bay from Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan at Tempozan Harbor Village. From its deck you can see the bay in its entirety. The day cruise lasts 50 minutes, the night cruise 105 minutes.

Here onward, some pictures of animals.

Left the aquarium at around 2pm.

We got on the cruise at 3pm and saw the bay in a whole different perspective than just being on both side of the jetty.

But I'd say the night view is better.

Even saw the ferris wheel.

After that, we went to Shinsaibashi 心斎橋 for dinner for the 6th day lol.

And that's the end of day 8.

Day 9/ Jun 23: Shinsaibashi 心斎橋

Today is the last day of our vacation. Our flight was at night so we took our time to explore this gigantic place for one last time and took a bunch of random photos.

There was this Pokémon event.

Had our last authentic Japanese ramen.

Went inside a porn shop under a bookstore, which is very legal in Japan. They censor everything tho, now what's the fun in that?

Saw a bunch of cosplay/ goth costumes.

Had a famous Japanese dessert, I think.

Went into a legal casino.

Took a tourist photo.

Took the train to the airport.

Bought Tokyo Banana 東京ばな奈.

And then, our last group photo.

And FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY I've finished the blog post of my Osaka vacation in 2014. Congratulations, Iris, you've finally completed something in your life hahaha.

END.

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01:41

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Off to Osaka, Japan. Part IV

Both days in this post is more on our taste buds than looking at scenery. We tasted the finest food and made a big hole in our pockets. Nothing much to caption on the photos.

Day 6/ Jun 20: Kobe

Hello Kobe 神户!

There's the Kobe Port Tower 神戸ポートタワー with the Kobe Maritime Museum 神戸海洋博物館 beside it.

Close up of the tower.

A memorial park from the Great Hanshin Earthquake 阪神・淡路大震災.

Truth is, I don't really like the Okonomiyaki お好み焼き in Japan. I feel that they put too much flour in the recipe and not enough meat/veges.

Anpanman アンパンマン Museum! It's super famous in Japan and Taiwan.

Feast your eyes on the best food in the world *drum rolls*...........

Kobe beef chateaubriand 100g at ¥7200! That's around RM225 mannnnnnn. I can't even describe to you how great it is, just know that the meat is so juicy and it melted in my mouth YUMYUM!

Kobe beef sirlon 100g at ¥3600, which is around RM112. From the price, you'll know which is the better one.

Our night life was in Shinsaibashi again. Walking around trying to finish the gigantic place which was impossible.

Day 7/ Jun 21: Osaka

Today we finally explored the main destination we came to Japan for - Osaka 大阪! (And I'm FINALLY blogging bout this day after more than 1 year, speaking as of 24 Nov 2015 lol)

The famous Osaka Castle 大阪城天守閣, built in the late 1500s, played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. (copied from Wikipedia haha). This castle has a legit moat surrounding it but where 'em crocodiles at?

2014's trend. #butfirstlemmetakeaselfie (Dang girl, I look fineeeeee lol)

Overlooking the city from the observation deck of Osaka Castle main tower.

Dis a true #ootd pic. Comfy shoes, comfy legs; no pain no sore for the whole trip!

The main tower of Osaka Castle has become a museum with artifacts and a learning place for children to gain knowledge on Osaka's history. These little biodrama on the 7th floor contains 19 scenes from the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

After touring Osaka Castle, we followed a tourist attraction map to a nearby hotspring (or onsen 温泉) to "experience Japan". We wanted to go for outdoor open-air hotspring but they were all in Kyoto which we didn't know! This is a "natural" hotspring in a hotel.

You are required to be naked to use the hotsprings in Japan, modesty can be preserved by strategically holding a small towel but keep in mind that the towel should never be put into the water directly.

Some rural areas have traditional mixed bathing onsen but most places now have gender separation.
The one that I went was gender-separated. Fact: Nude mixed bathing is banned in Tokyo.

Just few stores beside the hostpring I went, there was a restaurant with the Mandarin characters of a horse (馬) - 波津馬 Hatsuba, we all got curious so we went in and tried.

None of us understood Japanese so we ordered a BBQ mix set.

Truth to be told, it taste and smells somewhat like mutton.

That night we went to Shinsaibashi 心斎橋 AGAIN for dinner. It is honestly too big, we hadn't finished exploring the place so going to it every night didn't bore us. And finally, we had sushi (寿司). Non-expensive, local, not flown, real Japanese sushi. Damn.

We just had horse meat so dinner did not have to be hearty but damn my own 5 plates portion was RM40+, not so non-expensive after all.

It was already the 7th day of the trip so we had to start stocking up the souvenirs. My friend's souvenir haul.

..to be continued.
(I swear I will finish the whole Osaka trip post before I go for the upcoming Taiwan trip HAHA)

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23:43

Thursday 9 October 2014

Off to Osaka, Japan. Part III

Day 4/ Jun 18: Kyoto

Today's Kyoto trip is more boring than the previous day. We only went to a place to look at temples and it ran so heavily in the morning that it ruined our plan of renting Yukata 浴衣 for the day.

When you walk up the hill, you see this, I don't know what to call it. The Japanese/Chinese words indicated that it's a door of some sort. After searching on Google, I call it Niomen 仁王门 lol.

And this, this is awesome. Just look at how high they built it by the cliff, my gosh.

The pagoda of Kiyomizu Temple 清水寺.

Selfie of the day. This seriously does not look anything like me at all. Facebook profile picture it goes hahahaha.

We went to another part of the hill that is filled with love prayers. One thing that's most memorable is that I was told to walk in a straight line between two rocks with my eyes closed and no help, succeeding means I will find love very soon. But where my love at? Hm?

I like this street going down the hill of the temple, so many things to buy, so many food to eat.

Then we came to sit by this river with this nice view. It was raining a bit but we hid under the bridge and got to see couples sharing an umbrella being all lovey dovey, damn jealous ><

After the rained stop, we walked around trying to find early dinner. This has Japanese culture smacked all over it.

Not knowing what to eat, we went into a Chinese restaurant. Best food we had in Japan so far LOL.

Found awesome comic book store with extremely hentai comics. Bought one as a souvenir for my friend, cool.

I was thinking of buying this for my friend but figured it couldn't fit into my luggage.

Day 5/ Jun 19: Universal Studio Japan

Finally I get to talk about USJ and post all the pretty pictures. This day is when I took the most pictures out of the whole Japan trip cause I'm a kid and I love theme parks! Warning: There'll be a lot of photos of my face in this post HOHOHO!

Too bad that we got there too early, if we were to go in July then we'll get to go to the Harry Potter section ):

We got there at 8.30am while the place opens at 11am. We had all the time we could do with to take pictures of the famous globe and nobody to hog it from us.

I like this photo so much. Cause he's so short and cute, I always do this to him during our vacation and he says it's unladylike but I get to take this photo, both of us so 'brah'. HAHAH!

Yeahhhhhh the doors have opened! (I look like my boobs are about to burst out of my clothes lol)

Look at the people trying to get to the rides faster to avoid long queues.

Got to take picture with Pink Panther!

And Cookie Monster!

The highest and most terrifying ride in the theme park, almost 8-storey high and it's a reverse ride, meaning your back goes first and you don't know what's going to happen tho I seriously doubt you open your eyes all the way when you're on a roller coaster.

Posing queen!

Selfie selfie!

Awesome band looking like improvs.

Pose pose pose.

Bow down to your queen!!

Spider man, Spider man, where'd you go to, Spider man? Reminds me The Simpsons' Spider pig song.

Turkey drumstick, oh hail the food god of Universal Studios. But first, lemme take a selfie.

Basically, it's just a day of taking a lot of photos and going on fun rides. I really do feel like a kid when I'm in a theme park and I go wayyy crazy.

While the sun sets and we're being shoo-ed out of the place, we decided to walk to a small jetty nearby to go over to Osakako 大阪港 to have a glance of Tempozan Ferris Wheel 天保山観覧車, apparently the highest ferris wheel in the world (or did I got scammed).

Another pose!

We got onto the one that is fully transparent, even the seats and floor is transparent so I can freak out all I want cause I'm such a scardy-cat afraid of heights LOL.

The big Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan 海遊館 where we will go after a few days.

..to be continued.

(My god, took me 2 months to finish this post!)

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21:34