Osaka is my first city in Japan, so there are lots of first time happened here. First time hi-tech toilet, first time sleeping in the airport, first time using "sumimasen", first time feeling the coldness of autumn, first time drinking sake, first time vending machine, first time using public bathroom with hot spring, and many more... :3
By the way, if you want to go to Osaka, I do recommend to buy Osaka Amazing pass. With the pass, you can use any local subways freely and it's enough to take you almost everywhere in the city. The pass also included free admission for many tourist place such as Osaka Castle, museums, hot spring baths, temples, discount at some places, and you don't even need to queue to buy ticket anymore with the pass. ^^
We bought our pass in Kansai Airport at Tourist Information Center Travel Desk. For more information, you can check this website : http://www.osaka-info.jp/osp/en/index.html
Even though they're busy, people here are warm and nice. When I go to bar for drinking sake, a salaryman even offer to have small chat with me and pouring the sake for me. I want to pour some drink for him too, but he drink beer. oo; While I was using bad Japanese, he's using bad English, so it's pretty much chaotic conversation. xD; He knows about Indonesia and he said he went to Bali twice. He also teach me to say "Gochisosama~"
Anyway... Here's our sightseeing experience in Osaka. ^^
Osaka Castle
To reach this castle, we got out from Morinomiya Station so we could walk through the public garden until we find the castle. I thought it will be a short walk in the garden, but it actually pretty long and quite exhausting. Still, the garden and the surrounding area do makes us wonder are we really inside the big city, since the atmosphere was so calm and we didn't hear the usually noisy traffic from the road. People walking around the park, sometimes with their children, sometimes with their pets. I do wonder how does people traveling around with their pet in Japan if somehow they don't have their own car.
Osaka Castle is a magnificent castle that already built since Sengoku Period, and a mandatory sightseeing place in Osaka. The admission is free and you can just head straight to the entrance if you buy the pass I mentioned before. The inside is a bit different than I thought since it's renovated and now became a historical museum that tells mostly about Sengoku era. There's elevator to bring people to the top level. It's recommended to just take the elevator and walking down after that.
Around Osaka Castle, there's some food stall for visitor to take a rest and have some snacks. They also sell kaki fruit (persimmon). I buy it since I was curious how does it taste. The texture is like a mix of papaya and peach, reminds me of Dieng's carica.
Osaka Museum of History
In the map, it's located around southwest from Osaka Castle. So we walk a bit a luckily find the place. At first glance, it looks like some office tower. We can also reach the place from exit #9 of Tanimachi Yonchome Station. The admission is free too, with the pass.
As the name implies, it tells history about Osaka city since ancient time until 19th century. They also exhibit relics from Naniwa period. Lots of exhibitions are building or city miniatures to give a better depiction about Osaka from time to time.
Osaka Museum of Housing and Living Edo Period
Free admission with the pass. We got here from exit #3 Tenjinbashisuji Rokuchome station and then go to the top floor of the building. You can rent Edo period kimono with some extra fee. Here, we can take a look at real size replica about how Edo looked like in the past. There's also interactive exhibitions about the city miniatures and their stories.
Shitennoji Temple
Calm and serene temple. Perhaps it's the only temple I had visited in Osaka. And again, the entrance is free with the pass. We got here from Shitennojimaeyuhigaoka station exit #4. It's not crowded when we arrived there, so it felt very spacious and peaceful.
The main attraction might be the pagoda in the center of temple complex. But we didn't dare to pry much since there were some people who prayed inside and we didn't want to disturb them.
Just go to Namba station and walk around to the river. This area is a shopping district with lots lots of restaurants in striking, somewhat gaudy, and yet interesting shop signs. I mean... so many octopus or crabs, and some of them are even moving around... There are also lots of takoyaki stall around here.
This area somehow a mandatory too for foreign tourist and people like to take pictures of Glico man. I don't really understand why, even though we also do the same. We actually want to see Hozenji Yokocho Alley in this area, but we failed to find it.
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
Biggest Marine Aquarium I've ever saw. xD
The admission fee is 2300 Yen per person. With the pass, it will be discounted 100Yen... Well, it's still a discount... To get here, we need to go to Osakako Station and take exit #1 then walk a bit. The weather is really cold when we're there.
It's hard to get decent picture inside since the lighting wasn't really bright and the animals are moving around so quickly. I don't want to use camera flashlight since it will only distract the animals and reflected in the glass. I love how they use several floor to make a really really big aquarium and we can see how are the animals in the ground and what they do inside water.
The lighting and background music is also wonderful. I think Japanese people go here with their family, maybe for dating spot too, or just sit alone and relax for a while. There are various species from Japanese forest inhabitants, tropical fishes, jellyfishes, deep sea inhabitants, big fishes like shark or whales, to Arctic (or Antarctic...? I dunno) Walrus with the cutest smiling face. :3
Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel
From Kaiyukan Aquarium, we walk through the mall and in the end of it there's Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel. Another great spot for dating. It's also free with Osaka Amazing Pass. Monday evening and the cold weather made no queue for us to get into the ride. Since it's already dark, what we saw from up there is the beautiful night scenery of Osaka.
Natural Hot Spring Naniwa no Yu
My first natural hot spring~ Even though I'm not sure if it's really natural or really an onsen. It's free thanks to Osaka Amazing Pass. But you need several 100 Yen coins to use locker facilities. The money will be returned after you open the locker again. I was a bit awkward getting naked in public though, but it felt nice to get into warm big bath especially after all those walking. The 43 degree celcius made me feel a bit dizzy and red like a steamed shrimp. Be careful with that one. ^^;
It's said the fastest way to go there is by exit #5 from Tenjinbashisuji Rokuchome station. But since we used exit #3 because we went to Museum of Housing and Living Edo Period first, we just walk north from the museum until we found big road with overpass, then headed East. It's a quite tall building compared to the surrounding with big "Pachinko" sign. The bath is located on the top floor.
Natural Hot Spring and Spa Suminoe
I think it's actually more expensive than Naniwa no Yu, but it's also free thanks to the pass (but still need several 100 Yen coins for locker). It's more spacious, better decorated, and less crowded. So I felt very relax there. It's only around 5 minutes walk to the West from Suminokoen Station exit. The area around there seems to be for water sports center.
Minoh Waterfall
I'm not sure if Minoh is still in Osaka or different region. We can't use subway to go there (hence we couldn't use the pass). It's only around 30 minutes train ride from Osaka. When you arrive at Minoh Station, you can ask for map at the locket to make sure you didn't go to the wrong direction.
Minoh is really a nice place for leisure walking and viewing autumn foliage. The trail is easy, many senior citizens are strolling around this place. Some using the trail for jogging. And even in this place we still find men dressed in suits...
We walk really slow compared to them though. The lovely trees and river scenery, and the refreshing air made us want to just enjoy the trail slowly. Sometimes saying "Ohayo~" to everyone around and made people awkward. Even though it's not really that cold, our breath is misty and it's fun. ^^ After all the walk and finally reached the waterfall, just sit down and relax, and maybe take a picture~ It's best to go here in the morning since it's less crowded and the air is very nice.
Minoh also famous for Momiji Tempura, although I don't think it's really use tempura batter. It tasted like sweet chips with leaf inside.
Ikeda is not really that far from Minoh so we went there because we curious with the cup noodle Museum. It's only 5-10 minutes walk from the station. The admission is free (really free for everyone), but if you want to make your own cup noodle experience you need to pay 300 Yen. The museum isn't really big. It tells us about how Nissin founder struggled and finally invented cup noodle technology. In Indonesia, we call them PopMie~
That's pretty much all places we visited in Osaka. Our objectives in this city included search quest for takoyaki and okonomiyaki. While we found delicious okonomiyaki restaurant with English menu near Shitenouji Temple, we failed to eat decent takoyaki... Indonesian Okirobox's Takoyaki is still better than what we ate in Namba. Maybe we just bought it in the wrong place... ==;
Our next destination will be Kyoto~
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