Today we went out to the ramen museum before exploring Tempozan which is part of the Bay Area in Osaka. The ramen museum is about a 20 min train out of Umeda to the Ikeda station, from there it is an easy 5 min walk up to the museum. Although everything is in Japanese they have an English paper guide and the volunteers there are great.
Entry is free and for ¥300 (about $4 AUD) you get to decorate and make your own cup of noodles!
There is apparently also a 90min ramen making class but you have to book in advance for that and I left it too late. After eating more ramen for lunch, we made our way out to Tempozan which is considered the second largest entertainment area after universal studios in Osaka. We started off with the aquarium which had an entry cost of ¥2300 each. It’s main claim to fame is the ginormous tank in the middle and it’s whale shark.
We also really enjoyed the seal feeding show, I snagged a spot at the front by sitting on the floor which meant little kids could stand behind me rather than push in front like they usually do.
After the aquarium we wandered over to the Naniwani Food Theme Park which was inside the shopping centre and behind the food court. It looks like old style shops and showcases local authentic food like katsu, okonomiyaki and ramen. We went with okonomiyaki again 🙂
The sun was almost set by then so it was Tempozan Ferris wheel time! The line up for the totally clear carts was 30 mins long but a standard cart had no wait….I wasn’t sure why people felt the need to look through a clear plastic floor so we went with standard and B still got some killer photos.
Steps today: 15508
Japanese food eaten: pork ramen, gyoza, okonomiyaki (veg and pork), Asahi beer, pocky, vending machine coffee can
So for those who don’t know me….I’m a planner. It’s just who I am. Which B loves because it means everything on a holiday is organised, we are rarely late for stuff and I do things like get express passes at theme parks haha. I highly recommend the express passes by the way!
I pre-purchased our Universal Studio entry tickets online using klook as other travel blogs talked a lot about not queuing up at the gate and also getting a fast pass. I bought them four weeks in advance and the 7 ride fast passes were already sold out so I got us a 4 ride one. Just to be clear – if you buy a fast pass you ALSO need to get an entrance ticket separately, so at that point you are looking at around $200 AUD each adult. We consider the time vs cost ratio reasonable as you don’t have to line up for more than an hour for each ride – most express rides get you through in 15 mins or less.
The weather was not raining (phew!) but it was cloudy on/off and the wind chill was noticeable. We took one backpack with extra jumpers, tickets, water etc in it knowing we could buy a locker to put our things in for each ride so we could go on them together as this is what we did in Singapore at Universal Studios. It was a 5 min walk + 16 min JR Osaka loop train trip to get there from our accomodation in Umeda.
It’s worth noting entry here is not as smooth as in Singapore because they do mandatory bag checks. It took us about 20mins to make it to the gates (and we were not that far back) and then we made a beeline for Hollywood dream and space fantasy since we didn’t have express passes to them….but they were closed. Doh! So we went to Spider-Man which had no wait.
We then went on the flying dinosaur without our express pass (not timed until 2:30pm) which was AWESOME. We had to wait about 30mins to ride it. We went on it again at 2:30pm with our timed express pass and the wait time for us was about 8 mins vs 60 mins for everyone else.
Trying to work out where to meet for the Harry Potter timed entry was a bit of a clusterfuck so definitely allow an extra 10mins for that. We eventually worked out timed entry didn’t apply on this day due to low numbers so we could just walk over to the Harry Potter area and wander straight in. The butter beer was worth a 10min wait. The ride time when we entered was 60mins and we waited about 5 mins – those fast passes really do rock! It’s worth noting the Harry Potter ride is a mix of 3D and being moved around in a cart. We didn’t know that going in and neither of us felt great after due to motion sickness. We had a break for lunch and more kwells at this point.
We also gave Terminator 2 a go and while the first part is a bit meh because it’s all in Japanese and you have no idea what’s happening, the mixed stage show with 3D sections was very cool. Same with Backdraft – the final stage part was great but the bits before were lost on us as it was all in Japanese.
We also went on Jaws which was less roller coaster like but still good fun. The ride is all in Japanese but you get the idea pretty clearly – oh let’s go on a lovely boat ride in this quaint small town….SHARK!
We were at Universal for 7hrs in total (9am – 4pm) and went on every adult focused ride except for the two closed ones and the Jurassic ride. We skipped the Jurassic one because you get very wet and we were already freezing….plus we have done it before in Singapore. We skipped the kid ones because B was not coping with the children’s pitched music and squealing haha. We also skipped WaterWorld because we have seen it before and last time I got absolutely drenched. I do recommend fitting that in if you haven’t seen it before though.
We got back to the apartment around 4:45pm with very sore feet. We ventured just up the road for dinner and had okonomiyaki again, this time from the local place. While it was still yummy, it had nothing on my experience the other day!
Steps today: 18980
Japanese food eaten: nothing Japanese based at Universal (chips, onion rings, burgers) but dinner was okonomiyaki with Asahi beer and we got hot chocolate can from a vending machine!
Our tiny little apartment here has 5 doors worth of sound proofing….which it needs because the train is literally 2 metres from the balcony. We slept very well though (despite the rock solid bed) so obviously the soundproofing works.
Today’s weather was 8-14C which for someone who now survives Canberra winters is no big deal lol. B said it was “perfect weather for wandering around”….so wander we did! I was glad I grabbed my jacket at the last minute though as the wind was freezing. We went on an adventure to find Kiji Sky okinomanyaki restaurant which is in the Umeda Sky Building basement and comes with rave reviews. They are also another one of those places that has a Michelin Star but is still very cheap – we have found one in Singapore as well in the past. We had to go on quite a trek to find it through shopping malls, train stations, strange alleyways and underground passages.
We eventually made to the basement level of the Umeda sky building where everything looks like old shops….and discovered every single thing was labeled only in Japanese and signage was limited. Thanks to google and other people posting photos of the front, we found Kiji Sky at shop 11 and it was amaaaaaazing. We did have to queue for about 30 mins before getting a seat but it was totally worth it.
After our early lunch (¥750 for one savoury pancake split between us) we caught the nearest metro train to Osaka Castle and did some exploring there. The sun had well and truly gone by this point and all the photos are quite grey. Osaka Castle is quite different to the other ones we have seen in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara because it was fully destroyed about 6 different times since the 1500s so has been rebuilt from photos and pictures each time! This means on the inside it has very little old world charm as it was rebuilt in the 1950s to more modern design and construction standards.
We headed back to the hotel for a rest and to put some extra layers on before venturing out for dinner to the local Hankyu Sanbangai Food Museum which is basically an awesome food court located underneath a shopping centre….attached to the huge Umeda train station. A few travel blogs I read said this was a great, cheap option as they were all small, individual retailers and had lots of choice. We went Hokkaido style for dinner and had pork ramen, gyoza and beer.
We are going to bed early tonight to ready ourselves for tomorrow’s day at Universal Studions Japan! Eeeeeek.
Step count: 16 050
Japanese food we have eaten today: Okonomiyaki (pork), chocolate pocky, tiny red bull and a can of hot chocolate from a ridiculous vending machine, ramen, gyozo and Asahi beer for B.
At 8am in the morning we dropped Bear and Jet off at their dog hotel (after I interrogated them about their very detailed smoke and bush fire management plans). They love staying at Hanrob and I love that they let them hoard together and manage Jet’s anxiety really well – it’s win win.
At the last minute we changed our 3hr bus Canberra to Sydney ticket to a 5pm flight – the road was open and closing intermittently because of the bushfires in NSW at the moment and there was no guarantee we would get through on time. I was already nervous about connecting to our AirAsia flight as it was! Yay for the flat beds again though. We elected to fly Syd-KL, 11 hr stop over, KL – Osaka over a direct Sydney to Japan flight because the cost for the flat beds was the same as it was to fly economy on qantas. We both felt the flatbeds were worth it.
We did experience a slight flight delay from Canberra due to the weather and bushfire smoke but we still made it to Sydney just in time for our international flight connection to Kuala Lumpur. After 8hrs of veeeeery turbulent flying and landing in KL at 3am, we spent the next 8 hrs at the samasama airport hotel which is awesome because it is in KLIA2 (the Airasia terminal) so there is no need to collect bags or clear immigration. The room cost about $110 AUD for the 8 hours and I prebooked online which got me a discount.
We had a lovely sleep in our queen bed and then some food in the attached lounge before boarding the next 8hr flight on to Osaka, Japan. The flights really aren’t that bad when you have comfy flat beds, USB ports, free entertainment devices and a quilted blanket. I still maintain I would rather deal with an 11hr stop over than for 16hrs straight in economy on qantas for the same price! B is less convinced haha.
We arrived at Kansai airport in Osaka at 10pm at night local time after a very long day and a half of travelling. We used our icoca cards which are still valid from 6 years ago and caught a train from the airport into the city (easy), swapped to the subway (also pretty easy to do) and then walked about 6 mins to our lovely little apartment here.
In total it took about an hour and cost us ¥1600 each versus what would have been ¥20000 in a taxi. Taxis in Japan are very expensive so we didn’t even consider that option.
I booked the accomodation in Osaka on booking.com and it is called “Osaka Umeda Hotel Apartments” which basically means it’s a dude renting out his apartment like on Air BnB. Considering the prices of surrounding hotels though, this was excellent value for about $100 AUD a night! His directions provided by email were very detailed and it has wifi which is not always a given in Japanese hotels so I’m happy. His detailed directions combined with google maps got us there with a 5 min walk from the local Umeda station which is a big transport hub.
Our plan for tomorrow is to recover from 30 hours of travelling with a sleep in and then do some low stakes wandering of Osaka since neither of us have been here before.
We leave on Jan 6th from Canberra and arrive in Osaka late on Jan 7th. We had planned to trial the “Murray’s bus” as an option for transit to Sydney this time but with all the bushfires happening here and the accompanying road closures, we have instead decided to fly. We are doing our international legs through AirAsia (once you try their flat beds you’ll never go back) which is awesomely comfortable although it does unfortunately include a few stop overs for extended periods. We are going to try out the SamaSama airport hotel at KLIA2 for the first time this trip – no clearing customs needed!
Fun stuff booked and/or planned so far includes:
Osaka Jan 7-11th
Universal Studios – I bought us express line tickets for the flying dinosaur ride hahaha
Tempozan Ferris Wheel
Kaiyukan Aquarium
Tracking down some excellent okonomiyaki places
Tokyo Jan 11-14th
Mount Fuji day trip. In winter we may get an amazingly clear day where we have stunning views, or we may get rained out. We are rolling the dice to find out!
Dinner at our favourite restaurant in the whole world (so far) Kobe Beef Kaiseki 511
A visit to the Harajuka cafe area and possibly trying out monster kawaii cafe
Maybe a visit to Disney Sea….I’m still undecided on this
Niseko Jan 14-21st
Snow for B man! He plans to go all over the mountain plus a day trip to Rasutsu
We are off to Japan again in January 2020! We haven’t been together since Jan 2014 so it should be great fun, the plan is:
4 nights in Osaka to explore a place we haven’t been to and hopefully also go to Universal Studios
3 nights in Tokyo which includes a day trip out to Mt Fuji and dinner at our shared favourite restaurant in the whole world Kobe Beef Kaiseki A511
7 nights in Niseko staying at the snooooow! We are staying at Freedom Inn again which is a gorgeous little lodge near the Hanazono snow base. B will snowboard or ski – he’s undecided at this point – and I will enjoy onsens, massages and relaxation while we are there.
After checking out just before 11am we went into Tokyo station to explore the Tokyo Station city! We went down ramen street and had lunch, character street to see all the cool little tv show shops and sweet street where we watched a guy making candy and I bought some. Mmmmmm candy.
Then we organised our Narita Express tickets to go out to the airport from Tokyo which takes about an hour. It stops at our terminal (kinda like heathrow airport) so is nice and easy to use.
Back to the hotel at 2pm and then the fun and glorious task of dragging two backpacks, a snowboard bag and a giant (now partly broken) suitcase through the main station. I think we did much better this time! I didn’t punch anyone but I did annoy lots of people on escalators with the suitcase. The Narita Express is pretty groovy, it has funky seats that recline and a menu to order off:
Arriving at Narita airport nice and early for QF22 direct into Sydney we discovered qantas SUCK and don’t open check in until 2.5hrs before boarding time! Bloody ridiculous. So cookies and gross star bucks coffee it is rather than delicious lounge food in qantas club 😦
I think a special mention here needs to go to my boots. These boots (planet shoes brand from Melbourne) are the only pair of shoes I brought over and I’ve worn them day in and day out. They have been warm, waterproof and comfortable the entire trip! They also survived snow almost to the tops of the boots. Plus they have a raised instep for arch support and the base is inset to avoid slipping (although on ice it is kind of unavoidable). Hi-5 boots! You have been awesome and I will miss you in the return to Australian summer.
Tomorrow I will do a final blog post when we are home (well, back in
Canberra anyway) safe and sound. For now I will go back to glaring at qantas staff and hoping they open the check in early o.O
We got up and headed to Ueno Zoo yesterday. Weather was a bit nicer (not face freezing anyway) and it was a few stops up the metro line. The animals were pretty cute, I was pretty excited about the pandas, polar bear and seals while B made friends with a slow loris and also thought the seals were cute, especially the baby ones.
After a morning at the zoo we went to Ginza where there is a 4 level sony store. B enjoyed geek heaven while my new fluffy friend (from the zoo) and I sat in the pub on level 1 of the shop.
After a rest, we were back out searching for this amazing 511 restaurant B has been raving about the entire trip, apparently famous for it’s Kobe beef. It’s down some middle of nowhere alley….difficult to spot….but man once you get inside it is amazing!
They offer ladies a fluffy blanket to put on your lap or over your shoulders if the aircon is to cold (I thought that was pretty awesome) and I ordered a 6 course meal while B had a 9 course Japanese themed one (lots of fish mixed in which was why I skipped it). We also let the sommelier choose the one which was….the best red I have ever had in my life. Actually, it was the best overall dining experience ever!
As well as a free glass of wine at the start, they gave us a present! A free ramen noodle kit 🙂 I was very impressed.
Well, that was last night and today is fly home day 😦 we have a few hours of exploring left with no idea what to do then it is off to Tokyo station for the narita airport express train and a 7pm flight back to Sydney, then connecting through to canberra tomorrow. I come home to perth the following day after leaving all my ski stuff in the land of ice and snow (which is apparently in the midst of a heat wave right now….yay).
Photos (most of them anyway) from Disneyland are in the previous post 🙂
So today we got up early ish at 8am and after a bakery breakfast (B’s favourite kind lol) we headed off to DISNEYLAND! There was a brief discussion of whether we wanted to commit to it because the maximum temp today was meant to be 4C and it was also meant to snow but B was keen and I was…uhhh a little excited….so we went! It was insanely cold. Colder than the snow. I think it’s because in the snow you have all your gear on but walking around in this you have jackets and gloves etc but it’s not the same. The biting cold still gets you.
Our train station is a block away and is on the Disney line so it was an easy 15min trip. When we got there we started walking and then saw the lines. I know they weren’t that bad but they felt like it to us! We were there 20mins before opening and it was already like this:
We decided our plan of action was get in, go for space mountain and then work it out from there. Tracey, Kiera and many others had warned us wait times for some rides could be over THREE HOURS, even in winter. When we got to space mountain the wait was 3 mins. Seriously! It was a bit of a let down though. Pirates of the Caribbean was much better (9 min wait) and we also went on splash mountain, star tours and big thunder mountain. We didn’t wait any longer than 10mins but by the last three we had started using their fast pass system which I can’t recommend enough. Basically you go up, get a ticket to ride for an hours time and then go do something else. When that hour is up you can not only get another fast pass for another ride BUT ALSO QUEUE JUMP YOUR CHOSEN RIDE! We got this down pat by the end of the day haha. We also watched the famous parade and I took lots of photos.
By 4pm we were knackered and after some present buying we headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately there were no personalised ears available but I bought Lana a bunch of presents and also got Katie, Braith and my nephew Hunter adorable kiddie ears! See pics of me modelling the adult versions haha:
I bought myself an adorable fluffy eeyore, he was the only one in the shop.
After a half hour rest we headed off to the Tokyo Sky Tree. Originally the plan had been to go to Tokyo Tower but a lot of reading said the sky tree was much more spectacular….but lines could be up to five hours long! We banked on the freezing cold, kids returning to school and middle of the week meaning it wouldn’t be that bad. Good call by us! No lines and no wait. The view and the building are amazing. It is over 450m tall….
We went up to the 350m point and did the full 360 degree walk. It was breathtaking, so glad we did it at night.
Afterwards we had delicious chocolate treats and looked at all the beautiful lit up trees 🙂
Tomorrow we are off to the zoo WHERE I WILL GET TO SEE POLAR BEARS!
In case you’re wondering, we only went to Disney land and not Disney sea today for two reasons. Firstly by 4pm we were shattered. Disney sea is open until 8pm but it was so cold and we were so tired by then we just didn’t have it in us. Secondly, having watched the documentary The Cove I had been feeling a little uncomfortable about going there….if you’re not sure what I mean, watch the doco. I am much happier with our decision to go to Ueno Zoo tomorrow instead.
I’ll post more stuff later but here are some photos from Disneyland today. We had a max temp of 3.8C and it was so cold it almost snowed….it’s the coldest I’ve ever been, that includes being out on the snow! However it meant the crowds were relatively small and instead of a 3hr wait our longest ride wait time was 9mins 😀 more talky to come later, for now, photos!
Mel's Travel Blog 