Purple's Diary: Travel - Osaka.Kyoto April 2015 (Part 1)

It's a dated post... again. Hehe..
Life has been though, I mean finding time to work on things that I like. At times, I would really need to multi-task.. e.g. putting on my facial mask, folding cloths and watching online drama.. all at a time :) That's life - We need to find time, it's not time finding us! Let's do whatever we wish, achieve own personal goals and wishes.

Osaka & Kyoto was my last long haul vacation this year. Air Asia discontinued its route to/from Nagoya, else I would have came back from Nagoya instead. It was a good timing, where I was then able to reroute my trip via Osaka back home instead, at no cost and at any days I wished. I choose to stay a day extra while the change was perfectly match my plan to leave shopping days at the end of the trip, instead of carrying my items 戰力品 all the way to tourist destinations.

Upon landed at Kansai airport. Information counter was the first stop for us to decide our next destination. Multiple selection of Kansai Thru Pass vs. JR pass. Considering the fact we didn't intend to travel far out, i.e. Tokyo or Sapporo, JR pass wasn't too worth the amount. Hence, we had Kansai Thru pass + Amazing Osaka pass. Thanks to the hub who did all the study. :D Being a lazy person, my preference would end up locking ownself in a resort or something. Anyway, I don't complain as I am a super "walking" person, enjoy walking around whole day... just that I forgot my pedometer to clock my steps throughout the trip, my rough estimates would end up easily 20,000 steps a way x 10 days!

Honestly, I didn't record the list of hotel we stayed. They were all standard hotels nearby the stations, majority of them are ANA Hotels, rooms are small. I wouldn't mind as long as they are clean. But one thing the accommodation price was double, as it was Sakura season. We were lucky, as the week was close to the end of season.

First stop upon checking in the hotel, shopping area Shinsaibashi. That's where the famous running man located. Our intention was the check out the place, nothing much shopped. Too bad it was raining, I couldn't even border to pull out my camera.

Shinsaibashi

First food - Osaka must eat cuttle fish balls.

Cuttlefish balls

The cuttlefish ball shop

Journey continued with our Osaka Amazing Pass (2 Days Pass). Several tourist destination really made a good value of the pass. But the usage value really needs to be properly planned, as it calculated by day. We didn't use the pass 1 day because we intend to do some outskirt sight seeing.

View from the Top - Umeda Tower

From Umeda Tower

I love Ferris Wheel... Osaka itself has a few of this and they are covered in the pass (free admittance).

HEP Five - Ferris Wheel

View from Ferris Wheel Cabin

Following day. We walked and walked towards Osaka Castle park for Sakura. It is a MUST do and view place. Glad it was not raining that morning. Managed to get some amazing shots with my camera. Sakura flower stays blooming at a place/tree only for about 1-2 weeks. Dependable on weather condition, if it rains.. there goes all the flowers from the tree. So, its all about luck that we spot them.

Tourist and local with cameras

First tree we spotted

Yay! Sakura

Locals jog around the park

Another type, looks like plum flower

In the afternoon, we took the train towards Tempozan. For train rides, using the Osaka Amazing is slightly limited and we couldn't hop into JR trains. We got to be on the local trains instead. The area covered Tempozan Ferris Wheel, Osaka Aquarium, and Santa Maria cruise.