Day 5 - Osaka

Today we set out in the morning and arrived back at night. It was a long day with no pram! We left our air bnb place for the tourist office in shinsaibashi, and found that Google maps was not our friend for the first of many times today. The tourist office was on the 8th floor ( not so obvious or easy to find on the ground).

We purchased the Osaka amazing pass (2,500¥) for us and got an all day subway pass for Dale (300¥). We were able to use any transport freely for the day. Our passes allowed us free entry to all of our intended sights, but paying for any child ticket was way cheaper than buying the pass for Dale. Oscar was free on everything.

Even though it was rainy/misty we only had today, so we set off for Umeda and went to the Sky garden observatory. It was fun, but would have been amazing on a clear day. Next we made our way to Hep 5 to ride the ferris wheel on top of the building. Its crazy that you can see your destination, but can't go directly there due to over/ under passes, malls multi levels etc. It really is a maze at times.

Next was the museum of housing and living. Again this was on an 8th floor of a building. We really need to look up more. It had a cool recreation of edo period Osaka. It was interesting to see. But like our travel sttle we breezed through it pretty quickly.

From there we headed to a nearby pier for the sakura river cruise. There we plenty in full bloom lining the river. From there we headed down near tennoji as hubby wanted to visit a knife shop. The kids had fun getting some vending machine toys. At 5pm we headed to Dotonbori.

With so many choices deciding what to eat was hard. We ended up at a tempura place off the main streets. It was nice, and not expensive at all. After dinner we used our pass for the last time and did the tombori river cruise to see the lights of dotonbori from the water. It was actually really enjoyable. The lady commentator was very lively - though we did not understand a word of it.

Our day ended with a walk back to the apartment and packing ready for a 6am departure on the morning.Read more