The last time I was in Osaka was way back in 2006 tagging along on the grad trip of 3 friends. Concerned with the language barrier and feeling rather lazy, we ended up on a Chan Brothers tour that fed us really well, but like all tours it was a lot of rushing here and we only spent half a day in Osaka ultimately.
We did however, take 6 GB worth of pictures among the 4 of us throughout the entire trip, so there are lots of photo memories…
We arrived at Osaka the night before and stayed at the airport hotel, which was a pretty small basic place – the room was just large enough for 2 beds side by side. What really wowed us was the really cool vending machine that had instant curry rice – it was a Styrofoam box where you emptied the separately packed curry and meat into the box, close the lid and pull a string and the whole thing starts smoking like a time bomb. Several minutes later, freshly cooked and moist curry katsu rice emerges… IMPRESSIVE.
Of course we check out Osaka Castle – we didn’t go up into the castle, mostly walking around the grounds and park, though my lasting memory would be of this one huge ass crow the size of an eagle perched around there. I’m not fond of crows, not since one decided to grab my hair when it wanted a bite of my breakfast, urgh.
After that we headed to Shinsaibashi, the largest shopping area in Osaka, to explore. With limited time and student budgets, there wasn’t a lot of shopping, but there was A LOT of eating. Good lord, we were young and had bottomless stomachs then!
After that we were hustled off by bullet train to Kyoto and Kiyomizu Temple, so that’s all of Osaka I really recall, but the good news is I returned to Osaka in 2012 for a short 4-day trip, which is not a lot of time but enough for a bit of a break.
6 years later in 2012 at the same spot