Day 9: (Osaka) Osakajo, Shinsaibashi, Umeda
bright and early in the morning yoohoo!
OHAIYO!
when chuu was done with her emailing, we left for Osaka castle!!
but just as alvin was leaving the gates of carpe diem...
*BANG!!!*
'ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI!!!!!!' T_T
the poor boy walked straight into the gate... not to mention the day before, hanbin was making snide remarks about how the gate seemed to be 'a nice height' for me. -_-
poor alvin.
alrighty now: museum of history!
we skipped it though, coz we had quite some places to cover... we crossed the road over to osaka-jo park, and hopped on our train ride up the slope. heh heh.
OSAKAJO IS SO PRETTY WOWOWOW
we get off the choochoo train and explore abit:
A WEDDING!
me using the Vivitar ultra:
the dry moat:
i love the architecture of their old buildings.
the previous Osaka Museum of History:
there we go! :)
OH YAY CUT OUTS!!
BAKA.
the pond next to the castle:
loads of people walk their dogs there:
an old man doing some pretty good watercolour paintings:
i think i lost some weight after walking around japan for at least 12 hours everyday for the past 9 days.
hanbin hates taking pictures BUT WE CAUGHT HIM ANYWAY!
boys will be boys:
and from this point our Osakajo tour begins. we start straight at the 8th floor, an observatory:
see the mountain silhouette behind? maybe it's kobe.
one thing about osakajo is that they have so many dioramas it's really fascinating.
they even use them to explain the life of hideyoshi toyotomi - the life characters are videos while the backgrounds are all dioramas.
my favourite:
depiction of one of their major battles:
and apparently you can collect official stamps from places of interest in osaka! there was one at kaiyukan but i didn't see it. alvin did though. here's osakajo's:
we rounded a corner AND SAW A MAN POSING IN ANCIENT WAR COSTUME. i checked the price: WHAT! ONLY 300Y!!!!!! i urged alvin to try. hahaha!!
i also asked the lady if there were any kimonos...
HAVE! HAVE!!! yay!!!
alvin (i was still preparing):
wow. i kinda camouflage into the background.
THIS IS GREAT!!
*pose*
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
then chuuling gathers up the courage to do it too! (wah lau, really kagami leh.)
i'd already taken off my costume but seeing chuuling put hers on, i had more ideas to pose. the rental aunty was really nice and let me put on my outfit again!
plus the flower.
imagine us with japanese fans (haha an inside joke)
WAHAHAHA KILLU BILLU.
the aunty and uncle look on from behind.
*BOK*
*ITAIIIIIII* (revenge is sweeeeeeet. hiak hiak.)
wow that was so much fun. tmr same fun with yukata! :D
more dioramas as we head back down to the exits; there were actually 2 floors where photography was not allowed.
here're some of the models for sale at the souvenir shop:
leaving osakajo!
OOH DOGGIE! :D
the moat:
time capsule buried right in front of osakajo:
bubbai!
they made me do this in front of the mighty one solid stone:
their doors/gates are huge.
aiyah cute little dog:
we caught up with it:
it's so tiny!!!
after osakajo, the original plan was to go to tennoji zoo and shittenoji temple, but alvin REALLY had to look for his aunty's bag, while i REALLY needed to buy an extra duffel to hold all my:
4 cup noodles, breast pudding, 10 boxes of foodstuffs, 2 bags full of gachapon, 2 bags full of hair accessories, 2 umbrellas (alvin was pretty vexed when i bought the brollies hahaha), lucky star and haruhi models, 1 squeaky otter, 2 current and 1 upcoming burberry bags, 1 purple agnes b bag and 1 minnie mouse bag. *phew*
and chuuling has had a hankering for spider crabs since yesterday when we were at dotomburi ('THEY HAVE A SET LUNCH MENU!!! LET'S GO THERE!!!'), so we all went back to the shinsaibashi/dotomburi area. YAY CRABBB!!
alvin and i decided to share the most expensive meal (just to try) and then go for ramen (this time, the dragon one) and takopachi after the meal. :D
ours:
our chawanmushi (which is the best i've ever had. the steamed tofu was light and had no strong egg taste. it's pretty mindblowing.)
our steamboat crab:
done:
and somemore:
this macha ice cream was so good:
chuu/hanbin's:
chuu's:
hanbin's:
alrighty! that was so so satisfying... but now! it's ramen time!!! this was our last bowl of the trip. T_T
alvin's:
mine (you can tell by the mound of pepper i accidentally poured in.)
i was on the brink of being quite full already BUT NO! WE'RE NEVER COMING BACK HERE! I MUST HAVE MY TAKOPACHI!!!!!!!!!!!
alright, the osaka leg is officially complete.
on the way back to the subway station to head down to umeda, THERE WAS THIS GUY PUSHING A CARTFUL OF CATS!!! (ignore the rather scary looking person on the right of the cart)
i was really excited, so alvin ran after the guy to take pictures of his cart and cats. thanks dear!! XD
we're here at yodobashi, which sells a huge load of electronics.
i bought myself a 2gb xD M+ card... but the main point of coming here was...
IT HAS ROWS AND ROWS OF GACHAPON!!!
we were desperately looking for dmc characters but we were all disappointed. :(
it's ok - HEY GREG HERE'S HOW WE GOT YOU YOUR PRESENT!! :D
after this it was already nearing 8pm. because hanbin was still buying something, alvin and i rushed towards daimaru to look for burberrys before the shopping stopped at 9pm. wow, my feet as usual were killing me since late afternoon already, so every single step was torture.
nevertheless, we made it to burberry's... only to find the the BLUE LABEL shop was downstairs. AHHHHHH CRAP. rushed down, and YAY!! ALVIN'S AUNTY'S BAG IS IN!! and it was the only one in the shop since it's really new (just released in japan). we bought the bag, and i contemplated getting myself a navy and white tote, but they didn't have the right size, so it was a no-go.
by the time hanbin and chuu caught up with us, we realized that we had enough receipts to claim our tax rebate from yodobashi (we spent a total of above 10k), so they being lovely people, offered to go BACK to yodobashi to claim the refunds, while i had to rush upstairs to the sports section to find myself a duffel.
i stepped in merely 5 minutes before they closed BUT THE LOVELY PEOPLE, THEY DID NOT CHASE ME OUT AT ALL. instead, the girl served me very patiently with smiles and all, although the rest of the counters were shutting down and packing up already. i took quite awhile deciding between 2 nike duffels, and settled for the giant one in the end.
THEN alvin decided to get some socks in order to push my bill above 10k, so we took more time. one thing odd, all the salespeople actually stood completely still outside their store for all of 5 minutes... and i really mean EVERYONE except for the lady serving alvin and i. but like clockwork, they all stopped standing and went back to packing their shops again when the time was up. it was rather bizarre and twilight zone-ish.
as we left, every single sales person we walked past on that level waved and said 'goodbye, come back again' to us. wow, standard of service is BEYOND HIGH. *respect*
chuu and hanbin came back and we met them at the tax rebate counter of daimaru. yodobashi didn't allow them to claim the tax rebate! how come?? so it was a wasted trip for chuu and hanbin. :(
there wasn't anymore time for dinner because we still had one more attraction to go to: the floating garden observatory, which was why we were in umeda in the first place.
we went to daimaru's food centre on the basement and just nice, the place was closing in 30 minutes so all the food items were half priced!! YAY!! i bought 2 strawberry shortcakes for tmr's breakfast, a salad and a pasta bowl, plus some bread. when we were all done, we searched for a way to get to the observatory...
GOOD GRIEF. SO FAR AWAY. chuu and i groaned, but resigned ourselves and started walking. on the way to the underpass we saw a basker who was just setting up..........
AND HE LOOKED LIKE THE PART OF NEGISHI IN DMC!!!
he even had the hair thing going on. it totally cracked us up, and the boys kept going 'amai, amai. amai, amai!' SHEESH.
we are here!!!! i think my feet cried with relief. here's the layout of the building, we're going right to the TOP:
omg it's so... gorgeous... (and bitterly cold.)
here we are:
chuuling (not a hantu)
that's the river:
osakajo (after 20x zoom)
the ferris wheel (looks like the one in Odaiba!)
the carpet of the observatory:
this area was my favourite:
see the subway train?
us in the escargot (couple couch). DON'T WORRY WE JUST TOOK A PICTURE AND LEFT IMMEDIATELY.
it was really freezing our asses off, so we decided to go. plus, it was getting late.
we tried loooking for an atm (all of us were either flat broke, or eating into our hotel money for kobe by now) but to no avail!! it was pretty frustrating.
we lost track of time, and by the time we reached the subway station, everyone kept tapping on my arm and going: WAH VIV. LOOK AT HOW HENG WE ARE.
WHAT? I DON'T SEE IT!
WOAH IT'S THE LAST TRAIN!!! HENG MAN!!!!!! thank goodness we didn't have to change lines... *phew*
the creepy emo exit we have to take to go back to carpe diem:
the gas station we always walk past:
one of the houses on the way to carpe diem:
tmr we're leaving for kobe!! *happy-sad*
OHAIYO!
when chuu was done with her emailing, we left for Osaka castle!!
but just as alvin was leaving the gates of carpe diem...
*BANG!!!*
'ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI! ITAI!!!!!!' T_T
the poor boy walked straight into the gate... not to mention the day before, hanbin was making snide remarks about how the gate seemed to be 'a nice height' for me. -_-
poor alvin.
alrighty now: museum of history!
we skipped it though, coz we had quite some places to cover... we crossed the road over to osaka-jo park, and hopped on our train ride up the slope. heh heh.
OSAKAJO IS SO PRETTY WOWOWOW
we get off the choochoo train and explore abit:
A WEDDING!
me using the Vivitar ultra:
the dry moat:
i love the architecture of their old buildings.
the previous Osaka Museum of History:
there we go! :)
OH YAY CUT OUTS!!
BAKA.
the pond next to the castle:
loads of people walk their dogs there:
an old man doing some pretty good watercolour paintings:
i think i lost some weight after walking around japan for at least 12 hours everyday for the past 9 days.
hanbin hates taking pictures BUT WE CAUGHT HIM ANYWAY!
boys will be boys:
and from this point our Osakajo tour begins. we start straight at the 8th floor, an observatory:
see the mountain silhouette behind? maybe it's kobe.
one thing about osakajo is that they have so many dioramas it's really fascinating.
they even use them to explain the life of hideyoshi toyotomi - the life characters are videos while the backgrounds are all dioramas.
my favourite:
depiction of one of their major battles:
and apparently you can collect official stamps from places of interest in osaka! there was one at kaiyukan but i didn't see it. alvin did though. here's osakajo's:
we rounded a corner AND SAW A MAN POSING IN ANCIENT WAR COSTUME. i checked the price: WHAT! ONLY 300Y!!!!!! i urged alvin to try. hahaha!!
i also asked the lady if there were any kimonos...
HAVE! HAVE!!! yay!!!
alvin (i was still preparing):
wow. i kinda camouflage into the background.
THIS IS GREAT!!
*pose*
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
then chuuling gathers up the courage to do it too! (wah lau, really kagami leh.)
i'd already taken off my costume but seeing chuuling put hers on, i had more ideas to pose. the rental aunty was really nice and let me put on my outfit again!
plus the flower.
imagine us with japanese fans (haha an inside joke)
WAHAHAHA KILLU BILLU.
the aunty and uncle look on from behind.
*BOK*
*ITAIIIIIII* (revenge is sweeeeeeet. hiak hiak.)
wow that was so much fun. tmr same fun with yukata! :D
more dioramas as we head back down to the exits; there were actually 2 floors where photography was not allowed.
here're some of the models for sale at the souvenir shop:
leaving osakajo!
OOH DOGGIE! :D
the moat:
time capsule buried right in front of osakajo:
bubbai!
they made me do this in front of the mighty one solid stone:
their doors/gates are huge.
aiyah cute little dog:
we caught up with it:
it's so tiny!!!
after osakajo, the original plan was to go to tennoji zoo and shittenoji temple, but alvin REALLY had to look for his aunty's bag, while i REALLY needed to buy an extra duffel to hold all my:
4 cup noodles, breast pudding, 10 boxes of foodstuffs, 2 bags full of gachapon, 2 bags full of hair accessories, 2 umbrellas (alvin was pretty vexed when i bought the brollies hahaha), lucky star and haruhi models, 1 squeaky otter, 2 current and 1 upcoming burberry bags, 1 purple agnes b bag and 1 minnie mouse bag. *phew*
and chuuling has had a hankering for spider crabs since yesterday when we were at dotomburi ('THEY HAVE A SET LUNCH MENU!!! LET'S GO THERE!!!'), so we all went back to the shinsaibashi/dotomburi area. YAY CRABBB!!
alvin and i decided to share the most expensive meal (just to try) and then go for ramen (this time, the dragon one) and takopachi after the meal. :D
ours:
our chawanmushi (which is the best i've ever had. the steamed tofu was light and had no strong egg taste. it's pretty mindblowing.)
our steamboat crab:
done:
and somemore:
this macha ice cream was so good:
chuu/hanbin's:
chuu's:
hanbin's:
alrighty! that was so so satisfying... but now! it's ramen time!!! this was our last bowl of the trip. T_T
alvin's:
mine (you can tell by the mound of pepper i accidentally poured in.)
i was on the brink of being quite full already BUT NO! WE'RE NEVER COMING BACK HERE! I MUST HAVE MY TAKOPACHI!!!!!!!!!!!
alright, the osaka leg is officially complete.
on the way back to the subway station to head down to umeda, THERE WAS THIS GUY PUSHING A CARTFUL OF CATS!!! (ignore the rather scary looking person on the right of the cart)
i was really excited, so alvin ran after the guy to take pictures of his cart and cats. thanks dear!! XD
we're here at yodobashi, which sells a huge load of electronics.
i bought myself a 2gb xD M+ card... but the main point of coming here was...
IT HAS ROWS AND ROWS OF GACHAPON!!!
we were desperately looking for dmc characters but we were all disappointed. :(
it's ok - HEY GREG HERE'S HOW WE GOT YOU YOUR PRESENT!! :D
after this it was already nearing 8pm. because hanbin was still buying something, alvin and i rushed towards daimaru to look for burberrys before the shopping stopped at 9pm. wow, my feet as usual were killing me since late afternoon already, so every single step was torture.
nevertheless, we made it to burberry's... only to find the the BLUE LABEL shop was downstairs. AHHHHHH CRAP. rushed down, and YAY!! ALVIN'S AUNTY'S BAG IS IN!! and it was the only one in the shop since it's really new (just released in japan). we bought the bag, and i contemplated getting myself a navy and white tote, but they didn't have the right size, so it was a no-go.
by the time hanbin and chuu caught up with us, we realized that we had enough receipts to claim our tax rebate from yodobashi (we spent a total of above 10k), so they being lovely people, offered to go BACK to yodobashi to claim the refunds, while i had to rush upstairs to the sports section to find myself a duffel.
i stepped in merely 5 minutes before they closed BUT THE LOVELY PEOPLE, THEY DID NOT CHASE ME OUT AT ALL. instead, the girl served me very patiently with smiles and all, although the rest of the counters were shutting down and packing up already. i took quite awhile deciding between 2 nike duffels, and settled for the giant one in the end.
THEN alvin decided to get some socks in order to push my bill above 10k, so we took more time. one thing odd, all the salespeople actually stood completely still outside their store for all of 5 minutes... and i really mean EVERYONE except for the lady serving alvin and i. but like clockwork, they all stopped standing and went back to packing their shops again when the time was up. it was rather bizarre and twilight zone-ish.
as we left, every single sales person we walked past on that level waved and said 'goodbye, come back again' to us. wow, standard of service is BEYOND HIGH. *respect*
chuu and hanbin came back and we met them at the tax rebate counter of daimaru. yodobashi didn't allow them to claim the tax rebate! how come?? so it was a wasted trip for chuu and hanbin. :(
there wasn't anymore time for dinner because we still had one more attraction to go to: the floating garden observatory, which was why we were in umeda in the first place.
we went to daimaru's food centre on the basement and just nice, the place was closing in 30 minutes so all the food items were half priced!! YAY!! i bought 2 strawberry shortcakes for tmr's breakfast, a salad and a pasta bowl, plus some bread. when we were all done, we searched for a way to get to the observatory...
GOOD GRIEF. SO FAR AWAY. chuu and i groaned, but resigned ourselves and started walking. on the way to the underpass we saw a basker who was just setting up..........
AND HE LOOKED LIKE THE PART OF NEGISHI IN DMC!!!
he even had the hair thing going on. it totally cracked us up, and the boys kept going 'amai, amai. amai, amai!' SHEESH.
we are here!!!! i think my feet cried with relief. here's the layout of the building, we're going right to the TOP:
omg it's so... gorgeous... (and bitterly cold.)
here we are:
chuuling (not a hantu)
that's the river:
osakajo (after 20x zoom)
the ferris wheel (looks like the one in Odaiba!)
the carpet of the observatory:
this area was my favourite:
see the subway train?
us in the escargot (couple couch). DON'T WORRY WE JUST TOOK A PICTURE AND LEFT IMMEDIATELY.
it was really freezing our asses off, so we decided to go. plus, it was getting late.
we tried loooking for an atm (all of us were either flat broke, or eating into our hotel money for kobe by now) but to no avail!! it was pretty frustrating.
we lost track of time, and by the time we reached the subway station, everyone kept tapping on my arm and going: WAH VIV. LOOK AT HOW HENG WE ARE.
WHAT? I DON'T SEE IT!
WOAH IT'S THE LAST TRAIN!!! HENG MAN!!!!!! thank goodness we didn't have to change lines... *phew*
the creepy emo exit we have to take to go back to carpe diem:
the gas station we always walk past:
one of the houses on the way to carpe diem:
tmr we're leaving for kobe!! *happy-sad*
posted by feline @ 8:52 AM
