Osaka!

It’s that time for my semi-annual three weeks of therapy, also known as vacation. This time around we’re off to Japan (Osaka, Hiroshima, Matsuyama, Kyoto, Nagoya, Takayama and Toyama). We’re starting off in Osaka.

Of course, before we can get to the sightseeing, we’ve got to get to Japan, and that of course involves a long flight. This time it was on Asiana Airlines, my first time flying with them. Most surprising to me was that they provided actual cutlery and an actual bowl.

Dinner was bibimbap, with rice, soup, pickled daikon and fish.

“Breakfast” (at least around 4am) was chicken, rice, and veggies, another bleh-tasting non-fat yogurt (seriously, airlines, why do you give the worst tasting non-fat yogurts out, please use full-fat or just skip it). Surprisingly good chicken! Butter on the rice made it that much better.

Incheon Airport was quite nice, despite the very short layover. Definitely a fan of the signage here. I hope to come back to scout out the food (and actually take a trip to South Korea, but that will be down the road). Saying goodbye to the airport was quite pleasant, as the airport (or at least the ground crew) waved goodbye to us as we taxied out.

Arriving to Osaka was quite smooth, and once we had the whole group, we pushed off to our train ride to Osaka station, a nice hour-long ride.

If you love Pokemon, then you’ll love the display at the Osaka airport, showing figurines of all the original 151 Pokemon!

Along the way, a lovely reminder that in our fast-paced world, you should take the time to reach out and call someone. Yes, that is a giant hand and rotary phone on the roof.

After dropping our bags off at our hotel (which is basically an IKEA showroom), we set off in search of food. We stopped into a fast food place, Miyamoto Munashi. I had curry (because I’m fairly sure there is curry in my veins), and my friends had a ginger pork sizzling set, a beef set, and a nanban chicken set.

Big meal leads to big food coma, so we treked back to the hotel for some downtime. After the rest, we jumped over to Dotonbori to check out some of the landmarks and grab dinner.

Dinner was at an Okonomiyaki restaurant, Fukuebisu Dotombori. We had Ebisuyaki, Buta Modern, and Takoyaki.

The end of the night brought us some Taiyaki and some other desserts that are not pictured here, but will likely crop up later in the trip. For now, the siren song of the bed calls to us all, so we depart for the land of nod.