Day 12: Osaka, and the return to Tokyo

We started the day by sending our luggage off to Tokyo... I really do ♡ Takkyubin!

Osaka aquarium

We failed to find breakfast before getting to the aquarium, it feels like nothing in Osaka opens before 11am! Although having seen how busy Dotombori and Shinsaibashi were late at night in the middle of the week I can kind of see why. However, as with all good tourist attractions there was a café partway round which sold cute pancakes (among many other things) and had a view out to sea.

Aquarium café

Had a walk around the aquarium, saw all kinds of water related creatures from otters to seals to fish to whale sharks and dolphins and penguins etc. Even some parrots (bit vague on why, but each part of the aquarium was themed on a place in the world so maybe that explains it a bit?) We unfortunately happened to be there at the same time as what felt like all of the primary school children in Japan- I had thought scheduling our trip midweek would mean we'd get a peaceful look around but nope- school trips!

So scary!

So cute!

 

Sky building

After that we got a train to Osaka station (mahoosive) and went to the sky building for the floating garden observatory. I foolishly took floating garden a bit too literally, assuming we'd find some kind of greenery up there but no: a lift to the 35th floor, the scariest escalator I've ever been on to the 39th, and a couple of flights of stairs to the roof... and it was a concrete path!



The terrifying escalators as seen from above

Incredible views though, like in Shinjuku slightly obscured by mist, but still really impressive.
 

 

Before we went up there though we went into the basement of the building which is laid out as mock edo (I think edo) alleyways with tiny restaurants. We were determined to try the Osaka okinomiyaki before leaving in the afternoon- we had tried the Hiroshima version and wanted to compare, but signage and menus were patchy, so we resorted to poking our heads into each of the places saying 'okonomiyaki?' hopefully, until we got pointed into the correct place! It was another little place with a couple of tables and a bar with a long hotplate which was used to both cook and serve the food. The menu was only in Japanese and no pictures, so when the waiter/chef came to take our order we just kind of shrugged and Aaron said Igirisu-jin desu, and the waiter said 'welcome' and then suggested 'pork', and 'noodles', and 'half'. We weren't 100% sure what was going on but we like pork and we like noodles so just agreed. Turns out they did two main types of okonomiyaki- one which is more omelette-y which came with bacon on the top, and one which was like noodles and egg and a random filling (yes I have no idea what) so he did us those two and then halved them so we could have half of each, each. I preferred Osaka okonomiyaki but Aaron preferred Hiroshima.

 

Then it was a train back to Shin-Osaka (via a very tasty fancy ice cream because it's hot and we love ice cream) to get the bullet train back to Tokyo and find our final hotel.

Return to Tokyo

LOVE our final hotel, nice room and amazing view! (Imperial Palace gardens on the left, Tokyo Tower on the right, and the bright lights of Tokyo in between!) Tokyo was a bit cooler than when we left and definitely cooler than Osaka, so I somewhat regretted only packing a summer dress in my overnight bag until my luggage turns up! Still meant to be 21 in the day but much cooler at night.
 

For dinner we went to the Sumo restaurant in Ryogoku which is Sumo town, on the way there we saw a sumo wrestler riding his bike in full traditional costume which looked a little odd! The restaurant itself was pretty smoky (one thing I wont be missing about Japan- you cant smoke in the streets but you can inside restaurants, hotels, arcades...) but it looked cool with a big proper sumo ring in the middle. Turned out they'd actually had a match there that evening which is really rare and we'd missed it! However there was some kind of office party going on and two of the guys got into the ring and had a fight haha. Aaron didn't want to go in to the ring for a photo.. I did want to but sumo rules forbid women from entering the ring!!!

 

 

The menu was pictures and Japanese only so took a gamble on a cocktail with a bottle of limoncello next to it, which paid off, Aaron just asked for bieru as had no idea, and then we pointed at some dishes that looked nice, with mixed results. Aaron asked what one of them was, it looked like popcorn chicken, the waiter used a translation app and came up with chicken gristle which we assumed was just a gross sounding way of describing the crap that goes in things like chicken nuggets but no, it was a literal translation :( I only managed 2 bits but Aaron gamely polished off the rest, very unlike him! Got my first gyoza there though so that kind of made up for the gristly horror. 

 

On the way back found a funky vending machine at the station which had cups of milkshake, hot drinks, etc pictured on it. Intrigued I selected cold choc-strawberry milk. It counter down from just over a minute and then a big door slowly opened and there was a cup of milkshake behind it! Took my cup and the door closed itself again. Milkshake was pretty nice actually and had ice cubes in it to keep it cool!!!

The best vending machine of the trip

Next post: Day 13: Tsukiji, Hama Rikyu, Shiodome, Odaiba