Trip to Osaka, Japan

Last week my partner Somy and I traveled to Osaka, Japan as an early birthday present for myself.  We arrived in Osaka roughly 12 noon at Kansai airport (one of to airports in Osaka) which is actually on a man made island, from there we decided to get a day subway pass for 1500yen that included an express train to Namba, the centre of Osaka and free travel within the city for the remainder of the day. Just to let you guys know the subway in Japan can get quite costly if your using it a lot and the express train to Namba alone is a little over 1000yen and individual fares within the city range from 100 to 300 yen.

We took the express train into Namba and switched to a different line to take us to the area our hotel was located in, we stayed at Daiwa Roynet Hotel Osaka Uehonmachi, which was two stops from Namba and right next to the station, so it was a fantastic location. The hotel was brilliant and i would recommend it to anyone visiting Osaka, as the room size was decent for Japan (hotel rooms tend to be very small) and the hotel in general was very clean.

Somy in front of the famous Marathon Man

Im not going to bore every one to death in this post with to much detail i'm just going to give a brief outline of what our days consisted of while in Osaka, i will make a new posts about specific things we did and some tips for anyone traveling there later.

The first day we took the subway back to Namba and explored the area searching for Dotonbori a popular tourist destination in Namba Osaka. Dotonbori is famous for its giant crab and other restaurants. Once we located the area we both of us stuffed are faces with crab, ramen and a host of other Japaanese food in between walking round the area. By the time 10pm came we were both ready for bed and returned to the hotel.

Myself standing in front of osaka castle

Day 2 started with a walk to Osaka castle, which due to my terrible sense of direction got us lost and turned into a train journey, we spent half the day walking round the castle and basking in the glorious sunshine. After we again jumped on the rather pricey subway and headed to Umeda for the rest of the day where Somy was in her element in the tax free shopping department, If im being honest there not a lot in Umeda that interested we a great deal although we did take the big wheel which looks over the city which was pretty cool.

The third day and final full day consisted of a trip to Kyoto located next to Osaka. We took the train from Umeda to Kyoto station and spent the majority of the daytime exploring and dying in the heat. Kyoto is very spread out and the best option would be buying a rail pass for the day as the temples and shrines are really spread out. Once we could no longer walk we headed back to Namba and i braved Sushi yet again, this time however i was pleasantly surprised that i actually enjoyed the whole experience (maybe due to the saki).

All in all the trip was extremely enjoyable as well as challenging at times in regards to navigating around osaka, however the Japanese people were very kind and helpful, every time i was struggling with a map they would come over and try to help me regardless of whether they could speak English or not. It really was a birthday present i am extremely grateful for, although it probably means i'm going to have to do something amazing for Somys birthday in a couple of weeks.