[samtcy] Consolidated 2 Japan trips (Kansai + One Piece exhibition + Tokyo + Nagano)

[samtcy]

337) cute biscuits. I bought a few, they were delicious as well.


338) taking bus back to JR Nara station


339) Main road opposite of the JR Nara station


340) Lunch (Katsu don) at a restaurant located at JR Nara station

 

[samtcy]

341) After leaving Nara, I headed back to the hotel in Osaka for a nap, and then headed out to Dotonbori area to look for dinner.


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[samtcy]

346)


347) Pungency?


348) Comics and books, at Mandarake


349) Craved for yaki niku (bbq), decided to splurged abit for dinner.


350) Yakiniku, on my own.

 

[devilry]

is the shinsaibashi, dotonbori area nice to walk around? How is it compared to Tokyo's akihabara, Shinjuku, harajuku?

 

[samtcy]

is the shinsaibashi, dotonbori area nice to walk around? How is it compared to Tokyo's akihabara, Shinjuku, harajuku?

Akihabara is probably better compared with Den Den town area in Osaka, where are are shops selling anime products, but not as much as compared to Akihabara though. For anime stuffs, actually I prefer Nakano broadway in Tokyo over Akihabara.

I would say, Namba to Shinsaibashi area is more like a mix of harajuku and shinjuku, there's a Daimaru, Sogo, Takashimaya, and there's a long shopping street from Namba area all the way to Shinsaibashi (near Daimaru) area. Also nearby, there's this area called Amerika-mura, where there are shops which caters more for the western fashion. For electronics, I recall going to a BIC (or was it Yodobashi) store near Namba station.
(more info, see heree: Osaka Travel: Minami (Namba))

Dotonbori area itself (near the canal) has more restaurants and food.

 

[samtcy]

Trip 1 (Sep 2012) Day 10 Osaka
This is a slow and lazy day for me. I only planned this day's itinerary on the morning itself, which is a rare thing for me to do since I usually plan my itinerary long before I even fly to Japan.

It was drizzling in the morning when I decided to head for the Train museum (Modern Transportation Museum) next to Bentencho station. It was a larger Museum than the one I went previously at Mojiko in Kyushu.

351) Buying admission tickets at the Modern Transportation Museum


352) An old Shinkansen being refurbished into a screening room for children


353) Inside, a screening room


354) Old Shinkansen's control room

 

[samtcy]

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[samtcy]

360) Try driving a train with this simulator


361) Old gate gantries


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[samtcy]

365)


366) Converted 1 of the trains into a cafetaria


367) 800yen


368)

 

[samtcy]

369) Souvenir shop inside the museum, selling train themed products


370) Mini train directional sign


371) Snacks


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373) Umbrellas

 

[samtcy]

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377) At Bentencho station, awaiting train to go to Osakako station


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[samtcy]

379) Tempozan Marketplace + Ferris Wheel at Osaka Bay area (about 7mins walk from Osakako station)


380) Inside


381) There's a shop selling One Piece products at Tempozan, too bad they (very strictly) don't allow photography inside the shop.


382) Inside


383) Outside

 

[samtcy]

384) There's also a shop selling cheap Miffy products too


385)


386) There are food stalls located within this retro area within Tempozan which is made to look like Japan streets in olden times...


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[samtcy]

389)


390) Cute buns


391) My lunch, Katsudon (350yen from food court at Tempozan)


392) A shop selling Ninja themed products (including Naruto)


383) Hello Kitty

 

[samtcy]

384) Kakashi-sensei


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387) Osaka Aquarium


388) Admission rates for the Aquarium

 

[samtcy]

389) It was an extremely cloudy and gloomy day. I seriously thought there would be a storm or typhoon happening on this day, judging from the low clouds and strong winds.
Which is why I rushed to get to Osaka castle next before it starts to rain.


390)


391) Taking 16mins train ride from Osakako station to Tanimachi 4-chrome station for Osaka castle


392) 5mins walk from Tanimachi 4-chrome station to reach the outer grounds of Osaka castle


393) Still walking on Osaka castle grounds...it's quite a long walk to get to Osaka castle itself

 

[samtcy]

394) Finally arrived at Osaka castle. Sky still gloomy though.


395)


396) Bought food back to my hotel room. This is a panfried dumpling (tastes kinda like Har Gow though).



---End of Trip 1 Day 10 Osaka----

Since my flight out of Japan the following day is a morning flight, therefore didn't really take much photos on that day.

 

[samtcy]

Trip 2 (Dec 2012) to Tokyo and Nagano

Itinerary
Day 1: Singapore to Tokyo (via Hong Kong)
Day 2: Tokyo (Disneysea)
Day 3: Tokyo (Giant Gundam at Odaiba + One Piece shop at Shibuya)
Day 4: Yokohama and Tokyo
Day 5: Tokyo to Nagano, Nagano to Yudanaka
Day 6: Yudanaka to Nagano
Day 7: Day trip to Narai and Matsumoto
Day 8: Nagano to Nozawa onsen *Christmas Eve*
Day 9: Nozawa onsen *Christmas Day*
Day 10: Nozawa onsen to Yudanaka/Shibu onsen
Day 11: Yudanaka to Tokyo
Day 12: Tokyo to Singapore (via Hong Kong)

This is going to be the last Japan trip for me in the foreseeable future. sigh.

Went on this trip with my 2 aunts and their families (10 of us travelling together). It's their first trip to Japan for most of them and the kids, so I didn't really had the chance to take much photos since I was kinda playing tourguide to them as well. hehe.

On day 6, they returned to Tokyo while hubby and I continued our stay at Nagano.
As you can see, we went to Yudanaka twice (day 5 and day 10). Reason is because hubby and I wanted to try to capture shots of snow monkeys with more snow and we already knew that the 1st trip to Yudanaka with my extended family is going to be too early for the amount of snow I wanted, so we decided to make a 2nd trip to Yudanaka again on our last day at Nagano to try our luck a 2nd time.

It was a leisurely trip for us at Nagano since we didn't really planned to go to too many different places, so we really just nuahz our way through.

The 1st leg of our trip (Tokyo) was way too packed since the extended family wanted to see too many places but don't have enough time, therefore I enjoyed the slower paced trip at Nagano since it's a pace which I'm more used to.

397) Transit at Hong Kong Airport (we took Cathay)


398) Those of you who viewed my previous Japan threads might see this little fella before. I usually bring her along on my overseas trip, and therefore she went along as well on this trip.


399) And my cousins' companions too


400) Buying Suica card, JR Kanto Pass (for extended family), exchanging JR East Pass (for hubby and me) at JR counter at Haneda Airport.

 

[samtcy]

401) Check out all our luggage bags, lined up and ready to be loaded onto the Airport limousine bus to bring us from Haneda Airport to our hotel (Sunroute Ariake Hotel at Odaiba).


402) Our upgraded room at Sunroute Ariake hotel at Odaiba.


403) It has a sofa and a foot massager as well


404) After dumping our luggage bags at our hotel room, we headed out to nearby Venus Fort for some shopping and dinner.


405) Inside Venus Fort

 

[samtcy]

404) Small foodcourt inside Venus Fort


405) What I had. 800yen.


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408) There's a Sylvanian Families shop at Venus Fort as well!