Osaka Highlights (April 1-2, 2016)Day 3: April 1, 2016 (Kobe/Osaka) I started the day really early because I wanted to reach Kobe, at around 10AM, to meet a friend there. I chose the Shinagawa Station over Tokyo Station for my fear of getting lost within the station itself. On my way to there, I got lost. I got off the wrong station and had to go back and forth until I was able to ride the correct train. At Shinagawa Station, I bought my super expensive Nozomi Shinkansen ticket for Shin-Kobe. Shinagawa Station is still overwhelming IMHO. I had difficulty buying a ticket, or rather, selecting the seat number or whether I’d want a reserved or non-reserved seat, because the ticket lady’s accent is so heavy. Once I got a hold of my ticket, I went to my designated platform to wait for my bullet train and the rest was uneventful. I reached Shin-Kobe station before 11AM and met my friend who acted as my travel guide in Kansai. Since rain was pouring hard in Kobe that day, we had a hard time exploring the city. And after more than 2 days in Japan, I finally had my first ramen! Delicious! Afterwards, due to lack of an actual itinerary, we decided to visit this art museum near the station, which uses optical illusion. By “near” I meant far since everything in Japan is walking distance! Haha! We then went straight to Osaka-jo after a bit of exploring at Kobe and had my first authentic takoyaki worth 500 yen. It was a really, really cold and a very tiring day! I thought I had DVT when I went back to my hostel. I literally can’t move both of my legs! Because, yes, walking is the main means of “transpo” in Japan. I slept that night without a pillow and raised both my legs. Sent a chat to my friend that I need to rest and wanted to go easy on our next-day trip to Kyoto and maybe we could start a bit late. Day 4: April 2, 2016 (Kyoto/Osaka) At noon time, we met at a train station and went to Fushimi Inari Taisha. I didn’t expect that there would be a lot of climbing and stairways here. Once again, our legs were challenged! Kyoto is very beautiful and my visit there is way too short. I would definitely stay longer at Kyoto the next time I visit Japan. After checking out the shrine and all those up and down stairways, we had lunch in this restaurant at the opening of the shrine where I had udon tempura. In the afternoon we went shopping for some pasalubong back in Osaka—Namba and Dotonbori. We later met and had dinner with two of her friends since this will be the second and last day that they can accompany me during this Japan travel. Using their Nihongo skills, they helped purchase a ticket at Lawson in Namba for my planned USJ trip the following day. This is to save time queuing to buy tickets at USJ and another line to enter the theme park. I also did some pasalubong shopping where I got to purchase some unique KitKat flavors. And that concludes my tourist-sightseeing activities for the rest of Osaka. The only thing left for me is to see Universal Studios Japan where my only priority is Harry Potter! For all the other Japan-related posts: Japan Travel Tips Part 1 - Tokyo Part 3 - Universal Studios Japan Part 4 - Homebound
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