After checking into our hotel, we headed to the Umeda Sky Building to get an Aeriel view of the city. The Umeda Sky Building is made of 2 Skyscrapers that connect at the two top most floors (the Floating Garden Observatory) via a large, round bridge and 2 escalators. While it's not the tallest building in Osaka, the 360-degree view was really nice; especially because we went at sunset so we got to see the city as the buildings reflected the rosy glow of sunset and then we got to view the city lights at night. The view is just beautiful. Seeing Osaka from so far up, we couldn't get over the incredible vastness of the city. The 3rd largest city in Japan, Osaka seemingly spreads out forever. Its sprawling buildings, twisting highways of traffic, and fast pace, give it a much different feeling than the smaller, cozier, shrine-filled Kyoto.
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| Umeda Sky Building |
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| Umeda Sky Building - escalators |
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| Me at the top of the Floating Garden Observatory |
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| View from Floating Garden Observatory |
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| View from Floating Garden Observatory -- the red Ferris wheel is the one we rode. |
The top floor of the Floating Garden Observatory was completely open air, so we were able to see all over the city. At night, the path glowed with purple and green black-light paint splotches. The lower floor of the observatory had a cafe and cozy love seats for couples to sit and look out at the night sky.
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| Loveseats in side the Floating Garden Observatory |
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| Us |
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| This ribbon was for breast cancer awareness (we were here in October, afterall) |
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| The side of the building was lit up for breast cancer awareness |
Part of the basement of the Umeda Sky Building was designed to look like streets from 20th Century Showa-era Osaka. We enjoyed strolling these replica streets. Here we found an AMAZING okonomiyaki restaurant where we ate dinner. (Okonomiyaki is like a savory cabbage-filled pancake; the batter and the taste varies by region in Japan) We knew we were getting the authentic stuff because the small place was packed with locals, the owner spoke barely any English, and the menu was a simple sheet of paper handwritten in only Japanese. We were able to communicate that we wanted okonomiyaki with pork. I can't even explain how AMAZING and mouthwatering and different from the okonomiyaki of northern Japan it was. It was so delicious that we went back for dinner on our last night in Osaka.
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| Basement of Umeda Sky Building |
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| Basement of Umeda Sky Building |
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| The chef makes our okonomiyaki. |
After dinner, we went to the Hep Five building where we rode a 75-meter Ferris wheel that stands on top of the building. The Ferris wheel was enclosed with glass so you could see all around the city but didn't have to worry about the wind. Inside each car were iPod speakers, so we plugged in our iPhone and and a romantic spin in the Ferris wheel.
On our second day in Osaka we headed to Universal Studios. Though the rides are largely outdated and feature movies from the 80s or 90s, it is still fun. Some of the ride got lost in translation, as the shows and speaking parts of the ride are all in Japanese, but we still enjoyed it. Because we went in the middle of the week in October, we didn't have to wait long for rides (our longest wait was 30 minutes), and even got to go on our favorite rides multiple times. The best ride was Space Fantasy, which is a new ride that replaced the ET Ride (though ET makes a guest appearance in this ride). It is an indoor roller coaster (similar to the Exterminator at Kennywood), that makes you feel like you are on a rocket ship in space. I can't even describe how awesome the special effects are, except to say that it really feels and looks like you are flying through space. We went on it 3 times!
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| For a moment I thought we really were in America! |
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| Us with the iconic globe |
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| People dressed festively for Halloween |
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| Me at 123 Sesame Street |
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| Japan takes cute a step too far. |
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| I take it back -- THIS is taking cute too far. Is it Hello Kitty wearing an Elmo costume or is Elmo eating Hello Kity? You decide! |
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| Sesame Street has been Japanized! |
Many of the people walking around in Universal were either wearing Halloween garb (ie witches hats, pumpkin shirts, or black and orange) or were decked out in Sesame Street or Hello Kitty paraphernalia. Kris was a very good husband and humored me when I really wanted to see the Sesame Street 3D show (mind you, it was all in Japanese). At the end of the night we saw a parade of light-up floats. It was really pretty, but since the floats were fairy-tale themed, it kind of seemed like a Disney rip-off.
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| Gift giving is an important part of Japanese culture. It is common when people go on a trip to buy gifts for others. At Universal Studios the shops are filled with cute gifts like this one. Yes, that's right, it's Snoopy Ramen Cup Noodles! |
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| Hello Kitty float in Starlight Parade |
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| ELMO!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Genie float from "Aladdin" portion of parade -- see what I mean about it feeling like a Disney rip off? |
Overall it was a cool park with fun rides and cool decor, but it wasn't done as well and as dramatically as Disney. If you are planning to go to only one theme park in Japan and are trying to decide between Disney and Universal, you should go to DisneyLand or DisneySea. The atmosphere is superior and overall I think you get more of what you pay for. Especially if you don't speak Japanese.
After we got back from Universal, I was exhausted (we both were), but we didn't have any clean clothes left and our hotel didn't have laundry machines. So Kris was absolutely wonderful and took the laundry several blocks away to a laundromat and cleaned them so I didn't have to worry about it -- even though he was getting sick. He really is an amazing husband and takes such good care of me.
For the third day in Osaka, we went to the Osaka Castle and the Osaka Peace Museum. Though we had to do a lot of walking in the rain to get to the castle, we were relieved to discover that there was a museum inside the castle, so we could hide out from the rain. Once again, we ran into groups of school children who practiced their English with us and gave us origami. I got a little more brave at practicing my Japanese with them, but still didn't say more than a few sentences.
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| Osaka Castle |
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| Kris at Osaka Castle |
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| Lauren at Osaka Castle |
After that, we went to the Osaka International Peace Center, a museum that documents the horrors of war. It focuses primarily on World War II. It was interesting to hear what it was like for civilians on the "other side" of the war. The museum wasn't against Americans (as I had anticipated), but it seemed to disapprove of war altogether (and the Nazis' genocide of the Jewish people). It was interesting to learn how Japanese forces treated Koreans -- recruiting them for forced labor and establishing laws to try to rid them of their cultural heritage and practices-- during the war.
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| Replica of a typical Japanese home in Osaka during WWII |
On our last day in Osaka, it continued to rain, so we headed to the Osaka Aquarium to get out of the rain. The aquarium is one of the largest in the world and features from the Pacific rim, including sharks, a whale shark, seals, and dolphins. It has one huge cylindrical tank in the center that is 9 meters tall and that the rest of the aquarium wraps around. My favorite part, of course, was seeing the dolphins at feeding time, when the trainers were in the tanks with them and they were performing tricks and playing together.
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| At Osaka Aquarium |
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| I wish these dolphins were real! |
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| Dolphin feeding time! |
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| Inside the shark tank |
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| Those are some big crabs! Kris thought they would be very tasty! |
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| Osaka Aquarium - notice the size of it compared to the people |
After the walking around the aquarium, we went to a nearby mall where there was a teen hip hop dance competition. Many of the groups danced to American hip hop music that was not censored (because they are Japanese and don't know what it is saying). I have not heard so many f-bombs at a dance show in my life! Many of the groups had used makeup to darken their skin so that they appeared to have a more "urban" and "African" look. It was really weird!
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| Hip Hop dancers looking "urban-ified" |
We took the night bus back to Sendai and got very little sleep, so we were glad we had the next day to recover before going back to work. It was a wonderful way to spend our 2nd anniversary!
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