After an 8 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur, I finally arrived in Osaka. It was a great flight because I was asleep the whole time. It was about 8 am when I landed and I was exhausted. When I picked up my beautiful luggage (well, backpacking backpack) my transportation was already there. I've always wanted to have someone holding my name with a sign after a flight and my dream came true that day *hiding my face emoji*. After two hours of traveling, we finally arrived at the hotel. It was called the New Otani hotel and oh my goodness is was absolutely gorgeous. I had to wait a few hours for my room to me ready so I met some new people in the lobby and explored Osaka for a bit for some delicious authentic Japanese food. We ended up crossing a long bridge close by and found an underground market area with so many places to choose from.
The set up almost looked like a department store, but for food. You could try anything you wanted. It was glorious. After some tasty ramen and talking about each of our travels, my new friends and I decided to head back to check into our rooms. I got really lucky because you could see the entire park across the way from my window. It was a rest day for my itinerary and after some needed r&r I headed down to meet up with some more new friends. We went out for some amazing sushi and walked around the park. I was worried about my mom because she didn't arrive yet, but I found out later that her flight was delayed so she missed her connecting one and had to stay overnight in Hong Kong. It was a long few days of traveling for her.
The next morning, on the itinerary was breakfast. After the last few weeks of backpacking and living off of toast and hostel food, it felt amazing to have food at your fingertips. There was an omelette bar and every kind of breakfast food that you could imagine. We headed to our tour buses to see the most beautiful temples and shrines I have ever seen in person. We visited Nijo Castle, Golden Pavillion and Heian Shinto Shrine. We had a break in between each stop and for lunch, it was nothing short of amazing. It was a long day for all of us and my mom finally arrived form her flight that night and we attended the welcome dinner from her job.
The next day we set out to see Osaka castle. There are only two ways to get to the top of the castle and that's either by taking the stairs or the elevator and the line for it was pretty long. It was a beautiful view of the city and after a traditional style geisha house lunch (The most authentic and delicious sushi i've ever had in my life btw) we headed to Dotonbori. Dotonbori is a world famous shopping area in Osaka with tons of restaurants and stores to explore. We actually got lost trying to figure out the subway system and finally figured it out after almost half an hour. It was definitely an adventure. We also found out that there are cars specifically for women only and I found that really interesting. After an adventurous evening exploring the city we went to bed pretty early for the bullet train the next morning.
