mybigadventures.com

We only had a short trip to Osaka staying just 3 nights although we'll be back for a night before flying home. It was pretty straightforward to get to from Kyoto taking only 30 minutes by train and so on our first day here we found ourselves with almost a full afternoon having got an early train and checked in by lunch time. We spent the first afternoon visiting the castle which was a short metro ride away. The castle has been burnt down a few times in the past but dates from 1583 originally. Inside there's a museum spanning over 8 floors with a viewing platform around the top offering fantastic views of the surrounding area. We finished off the day with another view this time from the Umeda sky tower which again was easy to access by the metro. We stayed for sunset and took a few night photos but the heat had turned it into quite a hazy evening so you couldn't quite see as far as you might on a clearer day. 

On our second day we decided to visit what is apparently Osaka's top attraction - the aquarium. It was a good aquarium with a decent range of sea creatures and a huge tank through the middle of the building that you gradually worked your way around. They had a special exhibit to coincide with the Finding Dory film and had some of the fish from the film in smaller tanks. They also had a fantastic range of deep sea creatures and some brilliant jelly fish. The aquarium is beside a large complex which amongst other things housed Legoland; there was a full size Lego giraffe outside but we decided to give it a miss. There was also one of Japan's largest Ferris wheels which we decided to visit the next day. We had lunch at the Luna café which is very close to the aquarium. It's run by a very friendly Australian and serves a range of Western food including cottage pie - we opted for a pizza which was very nice but very filling. Decided to have a rest back at the hotel before heading back out to take a few night shots. 

On the last day we visited the Shitennoji temple which has a five storied pagoda that you can climb up. It was very hot and the pagoda felt even warmer so we didn't stay up there long. It was a nice temple but there was quite a bit of landscaping going in and it looked a bit like they were ramping up for some sort of event. Afterwards we went back to the same place as the aquarium to ride the Tempozan Ferris wheel. You could queue for a totally transparent car on the wheel or get straight on. We decided to get straight on as didn't think it was worth the wait. We'd read some reviews that had suggested the same thing and it was going to be about an hour to wait otherwise. The cars were air conditioned which was amazing and offered fantastic views of the surrounding bay area. You could see Universal Studios across the port and inland flashes of lightning over Osaka which was pretty awesome. We had lunch in the nearby complex and browsed in some of the shops. They also had a small petting zoo type place in there with animals ranging from kangaroo's, a pig and several large tortoise, to rabbits, dogs and a llama; a little odd but pretty popular, we gave it a miss. We headed back out in the evening to see some of the lights in the nearby Dotonbori district which was only a short walk from the hotel. There were paper lanterns lining the river and the usual array of bright lights. There was lots to see with large 3d models on the outsides of restaurants. It was pretty busy with lots of people out for meals and drinks but a good atmosphere.

That's all for Osaka, next stop Hiroshima.