Japan Day 1 & 2A: Osaka Castle | Yii Travels

Hello everybody! I am officially back from the dead!!!! Despite not blogging about the mlys 2014 Melbourne holiday, I am going to start on the Japan series!

WARNING! PHOTO-HEAVY POST!

This trip (for me at least) felt both relaxing (for once I'm not worrying about work) and stressful (trying to get the family minimally lost is difficult!).

Day 1: Sydney to Cairns, Cairns to Osaka

This day was entirely spent on the plane, so no photos. I left the house at 4am as my flight was at 6am - only to find that Sydney Domestic Airport doesn't officially open till 4:30am and customs at 5am....so that started my day of waiting.

I was scheduled to get to Osaka by around 7:30pm...but guess what? My flight was delayed by approx 2 hours...putting my arrival time at KIX at 9:30pm. I then waited for customs, my luggage, and to pick up by JR Rail pass. KIX is quite a distance from Osaka city, so it took me another hour to get to the hotel - lucky that the hotel was on the airport line, so I didn't have to change trains with all our suitcases!

We were staying at Hotel Hanshin, which was right across the road from Fukushima station (the Osaka one). Highly recommended if you're not too fussy about your hotel and location is more important - only 1 stop away from Osaka station. 

View of Fukushima, Osaka from my hotel room in the morning

View from my room (2)

Some alleyway near the station - some sort of UFO landmark

So many bikes

The source of my morning coffees and teas. The prices aren't rip, unlike Australia, so another reason for me to move to Japan!

Day 2A: Osaka Castle

Started the day bright and early with a breakfast at Mister Donut, 

Sweet pastries

Savoury

Japan has brilliant pastries, and they are so cheap (approx 100 yen each), I would just eat it everyday!!
After loading up the carbs, we we ready to set out! Today's plan: Osaka day trip!!

First stop: Osaka Castle
The one thing I loved during our trip was that most places we really wanted to go to were really easily accessible. Another thing was the city loop trains, which meant you couldn't go wrong whichever direction you went - you would get there sooner or later. To get to Osaka Castle, simply take the train (JR Osaka city loop) to Osaka Castle station.

Walking around to find the castle!

Some big tree they planted to celebrate 100 years of the castle, or something like that. 

The moat... I wanted to sit there, but it was just too cold!

Tadaa~ artistic or not!

To get up close as well as inside the castle (to take a picture like this), there is a 600 yen entrance fee. It will give you access to the Osaka castle museum, which documents the history of Osaka Castle and Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

They also have food stalls outside which sell roasted sweet potato, takoyaki, taiyaki and soft serve! We ate a bit of everything...but no photos! That's what happens when you're too busy wolfing down the food.

This post is getting a bit too long..so I'll write about the rest of Day 2 in my next post!

See you then~