Tokyo - > Osaka

Waking up on Thursday morning after a well-earned sleep-in, we could not believe how fast those seven nights in Tokyo had flown by! So it was time to pack up our stuff in our tiny hotel room, but before we left, we went for a brief morning walk to the nearby Shinto Hikawa Shrine. This was up a hill just 5 minutes from our hotel, and lucky for Willow and I, there were escalators in addition to the big staircase up the hill! 

Taking the escalators while Ryan takes the stairs

Beautiful wisteria

It was a beautiful place so close to our hotel and in the middle of bustling Akasaka. There was also a section of small torii gates which resembled the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. It would have been nice to walk down it but there seemed to be an Instagram photo session happening in them, as there often is in the picturesque places in Japan! Anyway, walking down just means you have to walk back up and we had a Shinkansen to catch.

Instagrammers getting their shots inside 
the torii gates

With our stuff all bundled up, we checked out of the hotel and hopped a taxi to nearby Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka. We got there in plenty of time (so as not to cause me any stress lol!) and before we knew it we were sitting in comfort on the 320km/h bullet train. 

All aboard!

Not a bad hotel room view

A mere 2.5 hours later and we were zooming into Osaka! Off the Shinkansen and onto one subway and we were back at Namba station (where we stayed last time), although this time we were staying in a hotel - the one we stayed in in 2010 😂 I sure do love me a same-cation. This room seemed luxuriously roomy compared to the one in Tokyo. Willow declared it the fanciest hotel she has every stayed in. Rather than the three of us squished into one queen bed, we had 3 king singles! We were all thrilled LOL

An old favourite dish - takoyaki

A new favourite dish - pickled cucumber

So a quick refresh and then out we headed to our favourite (and unashamedly touristy) area, Dotonbori! The weather was perfect and we pretty quickly found a delightful riverside spot which not only served our favourites, takoyaki and pickled cucumber (definitely going to be making this at home!), but also served all manner of things deep-fried on skewers. You name it and they deep-fried it - chicken, potato, eggplant, lotus root, garlic, quail egg, whole egg, sardine wrapped in shiso leaf, even mini footy franks! And they were only a couple of bucks each. So Willow fondly named the place - "stick place". 

Ryan seemed happy to be back at Dotonbori 🍺

After we were satisfied with enough sticks, we crossed the river over to the Ebisu Tower ferris wheel at the enormous Don Quijote store, which being the ultimate same-cation, we of course have done before. It's famous for being the world's first oblong ferris wheel so it's something that we thought should be done at least twice in one's lifetime.  

The hustle and bustle of Dotonbori

On the world's first oblong ferris wheel ✌

It's only $6 to go on it too! So up we went, for beautiful views high above Osaka as the sun set. Soon after we headed home as, again, we had another massive day planned the next day! 

View up high from the ferris wheel!

Sunset on Dotonbori

Good night Osaka