Osaka Day 8 - One Last Pokemon Run & New Luggage

This morning is a mad rush for last minute shopping. Meimei and I left the kids in the room after breakfast for a quick spin at a nearby Dondonki. I took a street side shot of our hotel. 

We made it back around 10.30am and immediately got the kids for the last Pokemon card run. But that was not the main goal of going to Umeda Daimaru. It was certain that we needed another luggage and there is a Samsonite outlet in the Daimaru store.

My mid size luggage is starting to spoil so it made sense to get a new one at this time. Next we were back at the hotel to get the last bits of packing done. It's all Meimei's credit that we had everything packed.

Then its off for a quick lunch at the Q's mall foodcourt before we left the hotel at 2pm.

I don't have any photos of the flight back. I think it might be photo-fatigue ... there were only a few photos for the last 2 days.

Nonetheless it has been a terrific family holiday! The most awesome one so far and I'm dreaming of more to come!

Osaka Day 7 - Shopping @Abeno Q's Mall

Not much to update for Day 7. As forecasted, it rained the whole day so we spend all of it at Abeno Q's Mall. We spend a good time at the claw machines area, which probably has about 100 odd machines, trying to catch Pokemons. We might have spend as much as $80 on coins but gave the kids a good lesson on how deceitful claw machines are. Both 萱萱 and 阳阳 left disappointed but I'm glad they felt the negativity.

Well they didn't leave empty handed .... we still bought them Stuffed toys from other shops. The whole floor is a trap for parents with kids!

Lunch is at a Yakitori restaurant "Icchouittan" that serves up rice sets. Again we totally enjoyed the meal and even came back later to tabao for dinner.

We were in Uniqlo for quite some time after lunch to grab clothes. Eventually 阳阳 and I made our way back to the hotel room first to rest. Meimei and 萱萱 went on their shopping spree again. I can tell 萱萱 treasures the me-time with Meimei doing girl's shopping.

We came back again at around 6 and packed dinner from various restaurants. We wanted to have a quiet night at the hotel and more importantly get to the packing. It seemed like we don't have enough luggage space so if we needed to get another, we need to know tonight. 

Osaka Day 6 - Nara Deers

One of the highlights of our Osaka trip. Meimei had put it on her must-go list and I'm so glad she did. We got up early, ate breakfast and set off for Nara early to avoid the crowds. We had some mix-up on the trains ... their express, semi-express, normal train service are so confusing. But we eventually got there after a 90min ride.

The place does not disappoint. There are free roaming deers that come right up to you. They are so accustomed to humans that they would go biting your pants to beg for biscuits.

I finally understood why some would say deers are mythical creatures. The antlers of a deer seems to have a holographic outline that makes it stands out against the background. It feels so unreal to see it live in person.

萱萱 and 阳阳 loved the experience. They keep asking for us to buy biscuits from the vendor to feed the deers. This is one in a lifetime experience so I gladly obliged.

The feeding didn't go too well haha the deers would all charging at us and nibbling at the hands. At one point 萱萱 was chased by a herd of deers. As for 阳阳 he would be so swamped that he'll drop the whole pack of biscuits. Well it's all in good fun. 

It was close to 11am when we decide to take a break. The sun is up and getting hot. So we crossed the street to an ice cream shop "Air Ice H" which I've been eyeing from the other side of the road.

It was clearly a treat for the kids and we were not disappointed. The ice cream shop has deer motif milk ice cream that are to die for. This has to be one of the best ice creams I've ever had.

After the icy treat we made our way down the gentle slop back to the station. They have a busy walking street lined with restaurants on both sides on what seemed like a 1km stretch. It was already noon so all the restaurants were packed with tourists queuing for lunch. 

We ended up at Mochizen which has Donburi that kids would like. Meimei and I had the Wagyu beef sets while kids had the Tempura prawns with side of Japanese curry. 

We spend another hour at the Diaso shop before we decided to make our way back to the hotel.

Considering the distance from the hotel the trains were very efficient way to travel to and from Nara. You can see our hotel in the above photo. It's the tall building in the center of the photo. The view is more majestic live.

For dinner we finally went to the hotel's buffet restaurant Cooka. It has a reasonable spread and it helped to check off one of my to-eat in Osaka, I've been eyeing hotpot restaurants the whole trip but I knew we wouldn't be able to go to a Shabu-Shabu restaurants since it'll be harder to feed the kids. I was so excited to have it at Cooka. It totally satisfied my craving for hotpot.

Osaka Day 5 - Osaka Castle

We are kinda free and easy today. I found out that the tour company cancelled my booking for a guided tour of Nara on Sunday. Seems there would be a storm on Sunday so they proactively cancelled it. We will try to go on our own tomorrow. We're not prepared to go Nara today so we'll gonna try and see if we can go visit the Osaka Castle. The kids are probably not keen but we've already done all the things they like. So now's my turn to get what I find interesting.

Breakfast is back at the lounge. Kids went for the fruits immediately and came back with a pretty plate of fruits. I wonder if there were other guest that rolled-eyes at the kiddos while they were getting this done.

Our first stop is the Umeda Pokemon Center again to get packs of cards. Meimei and the kids were on the blind ball machines today.

Lunch is at Pier30grill on the 16th floor. It's a western Italian/French steak house. The kids were attracted by the kids meal and Meimei and I were aiming for the beef sets. Again another wonderful meal. You can't really go wrong with restaurants in Japan ... everything is so tasty!

After lunch is when the real adventure of the day starts. We made our way to Morinomiya station, one of two stations beside the Osaka Castle Park.

We had walked about a couple of hundred metres when we noticed a train ride in the park. We immediately paid for the train tickets to hitch a ride to the castle. It's a long way to walk as you can see from the photo above.

Special mention: The above photo is the one and only that 萱萱 doesn't have a mask on!

The train ride ends right outside the bridge that brings us across the moat protecting the castle inner grounds. After the bridge we had to do a short climb up the slope to the castle. There are winding paths and obvious fortifications where archers would be stationed to shoot at invaders. 

We made it to the last slope to the castle after about 20 minutes. I think these are the best spots for a photo of the castle. The actual castle is just plain walls up about 8-10 metres and not much to take in except that it sure is a massive fortification that any enemy in the olden era would have had a hard time conquering.

We took the train back to the start and made our way home. It's not an exciting activity but one I'm happy we checked off my must-go list.

Osaka Day 4 - Shopping @Umeda Pokemon Center & Nintendo Osaka Center

Today is Pokemon day! Meimei has it all planned out and we are going to one of two pokemon centers at Umeda area. 

We started the day with breakfast at the restaurant as the lounge is closed in the morning. Definitely much better to eat at the restaurant. 

Right after breakfast we were off to Umeda. We want to get there early to avoid the crowds.

We reach at around 10am and there were already a sizeable crowd. The first thing we did was to join the payment queue so we can buy pokemon blind packs.

The kids went crazy and were grabbing all sorts of stuffed toys. We had to veto some of the bigger ones. Although each customer is supposed to only be buying 2 sets of the pokemon cards a day, they don't really enforce the rule. So we were able to get another set of 2 each.

I didn't know before but there is a Nintendo store right beside the Pokemon center. Perfect! So we spend some time there as well. There was a demo area where customers could try out games. 阳阳 had a blast playing Donkey Kong Bananza. 

Thankfully there wasn't much that caught Meimei or the kid's eyes so we left unscathed ✌.

There are lots of choices for lunch. The 2 levels above the Pokemon centers are full floors of restaurants. We had to find things that kids would eat and ended up at Tonkatsu Tadzumura on the 14th floor. It was the right choice - 萱萱 loved the curry rice, Meimei had an awesome presentation for her Tonkatsu and mine was delicious. 阳阳 wasn't feeling too well so he ate only a little.

We were ready to go for another round of shopping after our wonderful lunch. But 阳阳 was nauseous and had to rest on a bench. We all agree this was motion sickness from the Donkey Kong Bananza. So begrudgingly he continued to lay down and rest at the bench with me. 

The girls went on their own shopping spree. 阳阳 doesn't have the energy for long walks for shopping. I was impartial to it but would not reject having a seat and playing my game. So all in all, it turned out to be the best outcome for the afternoon. It was close to 5pm when we make our way back to the hotel.

Dinner was at a forgettable Doria restaurant at Abeno Harukas dining floors so we don't have any pictures to share.

After dinner though we spread out the loot we gathered for the day. There were actually more stuff that Meimei and 萱萱 bought in the afternoon but it's already a lot to display.

Osaka Day 3 - The VIP Experience @USJ - Part 2

[2.15pm] It was a short 3 minutes walk from Minions World to our special area for VIP guests. There were several groups of us so space was tight. But we still had a good view of the Parade.

I wasn't overly impressed by the Parade but seems the kids enjoyed seeing some of their favourite characters like Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu etc in the Parade.

[2.50pm] We arrive at Super Nintendo World. We spend quite some time here trying attractions like Mario Cart: Koopa's Challenge, Mine Cart Madness (萱萱 made us go twice!) and Yoshi's Adventure.

[5.00pm] It was already 5 when we left Super Nintendo World. We were supposed to make our way back to the restaurant for dinner but 萱萱 wanted to ride The Flying Dinosaur. This is one of 2 very scary rides where you loop around upside down on some parts of the ride. She managed to convince 阳阳 to try too and so we had a dilemma. We were worried 阳阳 gets spooked and starts feeling unwell after the ride. But at the same time I don't want to deny him a chance to be brave and try something beyond his normal limits. So I shared with him about our worry and he understood our concerns and was ready to back out of the ride. However I told him that to prevent the sickness he needs to shout on the ride and let out the fear instead of holding it in. Thankfully he took our advice to heart and did just that. You can see him already shouting while the ride is climbing up for a sharp decent. Glad he made it through the ride without a hitch.

[5.40pm] Dinner's back at the same place but this time they serve free flow main dishes you can order and they will prepare and serve it hot. I went for extra servings of the fish and beef. Totally enjoyed dinner after a long day.

[7.00pm] We are back at Minions Park to spend the last token on the games and let the kids go on the rides one last time. It took a whole lot longer to finish one ride as we no longer have our guide to let us through the VIP express way.

[7.40pm] We finally left USJ after some last minute shopping on the way out. It was definitely an extremely enjoyable day for all of us. The whole experience really justified the VIP pass and I'll definitely do it again.