Travel Post: Our Japan Trip - Day 12 (Osaka Castle, Osaka Castle Park, Minami Temma Park, Umeda Sky Building)

Today will be a relaxing and romantic one (for all the couples out there). But don't click the [X] button yet because it can be great for family and friends as well. Osaka Castle was by far my most memorable day!

We gave ourselves an easy day and just visited Osaka Castle, Osaka Castle Park, Minami Temma Park and Umeda Sky Building. I'm so proud of my shot below... the cherry blossoms just completed the picture.

On our way to Osaka Castle, we walked past Osaka Park. It was a great culture and everyone had their picnic rugs and blankets all set up and ready to go for a nice day out. We could smell the BBQ from locals and even though we were tourists, we felt included. 

We also walked past a building which gave us a reflection of the sky!

Found it pretty cool, didn't care if it was a tourist thing or not but camera snaps first.

Shortly after you will find the entrance to Osaka Castle

 

After you enter the gates, you can see a whole street with food stalls. The food stalls ranged from sweet to savoury and was great! We decided to grab ourself a mango softserve.

 

What a beautiful day (it was forecasted to rain today) so we were really grateful that the weather held out until the evening.

 

Winky and smily bottle caps - if you're having a bad day, these are your pick me ups for sure!!!

Mango soft serve.

Want to know something really cool? The softserve is actually pre-packaged and pressed through a machine to make the swirl. So no matter what flavours you choose, it only takes a couple of seconds to push through the machine and into the cone. 

Even if there is a long line, you won't be waiting for long! 

Enjoying our icecream with a view :)

Osaka Castle.... you are so beautiful......

Being tourists, we took a couple of shots when we were close to the castle. 

After visiting the Osaka castle, we made our way to the Ebishibashi shopping street. We noticed a large queue forming in front of a smaller stall, so we decided to check it out. When there's a long queue - the food must be good right?

They were selling potato croquettes and wow were they super crunchy! It was also made fresh, so it was very warm. The perfect snack to munch on in Japan's cold weather.

How does this even work? I have seen strawberry flavoured mochi before, but never have I seen a whole fruit inside of the mochi!!

Totoro balloon art

Baymax balloon art

A different taste of Okonomiyaki :)

This was probably your more traditional okonomiyaki. It was great, but it doesn't compare to what we have already tasted thus far. What was amazing though, was witnessing the chef go to work! Efficiency must have been drilled through her head, because everything was performed quickly, yet was still able to entertain us onlookers. There was a point where she was cracking and throwing eggs (1 metre away I might add) onto the okonomiyaki, and hitting the middle with great accuracy! WOW!

Umeda Sky Building

Gosh, if Matt lived in Japan he would have to live up to high expectations. These places are made to get couples buying keylocks to lock their love away forever... and yes, we fell for this too. 

It was a 'in the moment' thing where everyone was getting one. You can have your names with a special date engraved. It was clearly out to get you guys! :P 

We went up these escalators twice to get a clear photo! THANK YOU SELFIE STICK

(I'm using the pink souvenir hair tie from flaming ramen restaurant)

Good luck finding a place for your purchased heart shaped lock. It was crazy how many there were! I wonder if they are all still together to this day. We did the smart thing and got the lock packaged up to bring home with us as a momento :)

  

How can you not get one!? It's sweet, but just a marketing ploy in my eyes.

You know what else is sweet? FOOD AND DRINKS!!!!!! 

We had iced matcha and Matt had the iced caramel latte.

 

Here, we wasted most of our camera battery zooming and (stalking people), zooming into buildings and the trains as they crossed the bridge. We did this for a good half hour and realised that... 

WE NEED TO SAVE BATTERY FOR NIGHT TIMEEEEEEEE.

And so we watched the sunset :)

 

And the night sky began and watched the glow in the dark rocks light up from our feet.

 

I just can't imagine how the world would be with you next to me... 

 

Dinner time!

We decided to grab a bite from the shopping district at Osaka Station. Similar to Tokyo's underground mall, the shopping centre in Osaka station is MASSIVE. Almost triple that in Tokyo.

We did not catch the names of these dishes, however we can recall that they tasted amazing. This is essentially the Japanese fast food court, but everything is so much more healthier!
All of this totaled under 1500 yen!

A great way to finish day 12. Unfortunately, we only have one more day before we start making our trip back to Sydney! Make sure to find out what we got up to on our last day in Osaka!

Want to read more about our Japan trip? 

Click on the link below!
TOKYO, OSAKA AND KYOTO IN 13 DAYS - COMPLETE TRAVEL POST

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