Japan 2023 days 6 & 7: fun in Osaka and Kyoto
Leaving the ryokan in Hakone is bittersweet; we could always use more relaxation time, but we also had things to see and do on our trip! We had even more to do after Jerry discovered an art thing via a train-station ad and booked on his phone right then and there, but more on that later…
We arrived in Osaka on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and after settling in at the hotel, we took off to the neighboring Umeda area to get a light lunch and try some shopping. This area is simply packed with giant malls, each with a food court, so we were slightly overwhelmed with choices. Jerry wanted Japanese curry, and Nick trusted the first decent option on Google maps. However as soon as we sat down, it was clear something was off. The curry options included keema and some coconut curry. It was actually an Indian curry shop!
Despite the confusion, the food was delicious and just the right size for what we were looking for. After eating, we hustled over to the Pokémon center to buy souvenirs, but it required a timed entry ticket. Yes, to shop there, you had to get a card with a time on it, and the current wait time was over an hour!
We gave up and headed back to our hotel to reset for a minute. On the way, we found a cute rolled ice cream place. Unfortunately, it also had quite a wait, taking 25 minutes to get our order ready. However, it was totally worth it to watch our treats freeze and get rolled up right in front of us.
After heading back to the Westin, we popped into the building next door, the Umeda sky building. It has an observation deck on top that is supposed to be amazing at sunset, and that time was approaching.
As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones with that idea, and the queue was a solid 45 minutes for the elevator up, meaning we got to the top just after sunset.
The building has an interesting design, with escalators floating over nothingness to take you to the donut-shaped observation center that is supported by the buildings on each side.
We wandered around the rooftop space, enjoying the romantic 360º views, albeit along with a large crowd all trying to get the same photos. As the sky fully darkened and lights sprang up around the city, we worked our way down the building, and headed out to find something for dinner.
Dotonbori is a neighborhood that can really assault the senses. Loud street buskers, bright (and even animated) signs, and the aromas of dozens of different restaurants all scream for your attention at once.
We found our way to Chibo for some iconic Osaka-style Okonomiyaki. Unfortunately, and in keeping with our day of long wait times, we had a solid 45 minutes to kill in line before they could seat us. We were entertained by this busker in a mask playing a very eclectic assortment of music on the melodica (everything from Bieber to the Mario Brothers theme).
However, for efficiency they took our order before we even got inside, so that it was ready as soon as we sat down. Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake with cabbage, egg, and potentially various other additions. In this case, it contained shrimp, pork, squid, cheese, and stewed beef, and was delightfully smothered in sweet okonomiyaki sauce, bonito flakes, and mayo.
As a final hurrah before turning in for the night, we got macarons to take back to the hotel.
The next morning, we hustled out early to make a day-trip to Kyoto. We lucked out and got seats on the Hello Kitty car of the Haruka train with our JR pass, taking us almost directly from Osaka station to Kyoto station.
As we had skipped breakfast, we slipped to the lower level of the station and found a cute cafe for a coffee and pastry; it’s wonderful how many good food options are buried under department stores and train stations in Japan!
We caught a rapid (limited stop) train out to Saga-Arashiyama station, hoping to wander the Bamboo forest. While we initially worried about how to find things, it became clear that wouldn’t be an issue:
The bamboo forest has a 500m trail lined with exceptionally tall bamboo on both sides, which extends out quite a ways. However, it does get crowded with tourists, and this beautiful, sunny day was no exception.
After strolling through to the other side and capturing what photos we could, we decided it’d make sense to cut through Tenryu-ji temple. The garden costs 500 yen to visit, but as we’re hitting the start of the spring bloom, it was totally worth it.
After stopping at a cute cluster of stores for more coffee, Jerry noticed a chopsticks store, and bought very cute chopsticks. Nick also bought a pair, but with a much more restrained style (and price tag).
Nick accidentally noticed a monkey thing across the river, and decided to try to find it. This first meant a nice walk across the river, with some stunning views:
The monkey thing is up a steep hill, so in addition to paying 600 yen per person, we had to settle in to a pretty aggressive 500 foot vertical climb via switchbacks. Of course, the experience at the top was very much worth it:
The monkeys would mostly sit around and pick bugs out of their fur, or eat the nuts the handlers would give them. But there were some babies we saw playing, mothers trying to deal with their children, and just lots of… monkeying around (hahaha). They ask you to stay back 2m from the animals and avoid pointing cameras at them, but realistically the monkeys practically walked on my toes as they passed, and they didn’t mind posing for closeups.
There were also some gorgeous views of the city from the hillside:
We decided we’d had enough of the monkeys (or they’d had enough of us), and worked our way back to the base of the mountain, and from there back to Kyoto station. In addition to the food options in the basement, we remembered there was a floor of ramen restaurants (on 9, as it turns out) as well as another floor of random restaurants (just above on 10). We found a cozy little place that offered katsu on the menu, hoping yet again for something like Japanese katsu curry. As it turns out, the focus was really on donburi, rice bowls, and Nick split the difference with a pork katsu rice bowl. As a bonus, they offered obanzan, aka side dishes much like Korean banchan.
Next on the agenda was to finally see the Torii gates over at Fushimi Inari Shrine. It famously has paths packed with back-to-back gates, apparently sponsored by local individuals and companies. It also, in keeping with the theme of Kyoto for the day, was packed with tourists:
It turns out you can climb quite a ways, heading all the way to a loop around Inari mountain at the peak. This meant climbing 233 meters, and passing through thousands of Torii gates by the end. But it also meant getting some amazing photos without other tourists, as most people aren’t willing (or able) to climb that far:
By this point, the apple Health app pinged Nick that he’d blown away his step count goals, and we needed to get back to Osaka. The “special rapid” train we took back was pretty fast and had limited stops, but unlike our morning ride out, we couldn’t get seats. After having walked untold miles and climbed however many flights-worth of stairs, it goes without saying that standing in a packed train for the ride back was pretty uncomfortable.
Once we had a chance to unwind and rest our weary legs in the hotel for a hot second, we had to head back out. You see, Jerry had booked a timed entry to the teamLab exhibit here in Osaka after spotting it in the train station yesterday. We hustled down to the Nagai botanical garden, and with only 45 minutes before we had to be inside, we managed to still have a nice (but quick) meal at a very cute cafe in the park. We had to eat fast and walk fast on our sore feet to get in there before the last entry time of the evening, but it was worth it.
From what I understand, TeamLab has taken over part of Nagai Botanical Garden, and installed some art exhibits on those same grounds. The entire experience is only available at night (the first entry is at 6:30pm), so that you can see the lights playing off of the trees while in the garden. We booked the later entry time of 7:30-8:30pm, and we got there at basically 8:26. The park closes at 9:30, meaning that we only had an hour to enjoy the exhibits, so we started hurrying our way through.
As with the previous TeamLab exhibits, this garden one is sort of interactive. For example, the first part involves walking through paths lined with beech trees, but when you walk past a tree, a light shines on it along with a sound. This, in turn lights other trees around it, and emitting a sound as well. The concept is that as more people are walking through the forest, you can both see and hear people around you.
Then there were a couple of sections that were similar to ones we saw at TeamLab Planets: ovoids and plastic eggs. You could push these like in TeamLab Planets, and they would change colors for an entire area. Next were more beech trees, but laser lights were projected onto the forest. The lines were to indicate people in the forest, so more people meant more lines were projected.
After that was a long screen that showed one continuous calligraphy stroke. At times, part of the screen would be behind another, so this gave some depth to the exhibit. And then there were two exhibits in the lake. The first one was three wall like panels with projection mapped lines that mimicked the movement of wind as it was passing through. Apparently, it could detect if a bird was flying around it, and the video would reflect this, but that never happened, so we can’t confirm what it would do.
The second lake exhibit was a set of lit up stones, which would change color as people stood still next to the fence of the lake. If no one was nearby, and there was no wind, the stones would blink, but there was always someone standing there, so we got to see multiple waves of color changes.
In the end, we spent 45 minutes there, which was actually good enough for us. It wasn’t as captivating as TeamLab Planets, but it still made for a romantic nighttime stroll through a park:
We then headed back to the hotel; we’ll need to rest up our legs and feet because tomorrow will be another busy day: Super Nintendo World!
