Osaka Trip / Universal Studios Japan
(Originally posted on adventurasia.freezope.org around 2003~2004)
Last Wednesday, my friend and I took a couple days off from work and flew down to Osaka. The flight itself was about 1 hour long, although getting to/from the airport was another couple of hours. The neat thing was that on the way there, each seat had it’s own tv screen where you could watch tv, or play games. I opted for the latter, and played Connect 4 and Othello against the computer. (As far as I can tell, they don’t allow person v. person games).
We flew on a JAL package tour which was a great deal as it included: return flight between Haneda airport (Tokyo) and Itami airport (Osaka); one night at the Hotel Nikko Bayside with brunch viking/smorgasboard. The total cost was about 23,500 Yen.
Upon arriving at Itami airport, we took the shuttle bus to Universal Studios Japan (about 1 hour). From the bus terminal, we walked to our hotel (about 5 minutes), checked in, and then proceeded to Universal Studios Japan.
This was my first time ever to Universal Studios, and I must say I was very impressed by the quality of the rides/attractions. As it was a weekday, we were able to ride on almost every ride. This included:
- Back to the Future - The Ride
- Backdraft
- Jurassic Park - The Ride
- WaterWorld
- Jaws
- Snoopy’s Sound Stage Adventure
- Terminator 2:3-D
- Beat Streat
- Evolution
- Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic
- Shrek’s 4-D Adventure
- E.T. Adventure
- Snoopy’s Playland
My 3 favourite attractions were:
After that I went back to the hotel to take a power nap while my friend went to the top of the hotel and enjoyed the ‘bath/sauna’. We then took the train to one of the stations in the downtown area.
By that time we were quite hungry, so we went to a okonomiyaki restaurant recommended by my friend’s tour book. The name of the restaurant is ‘Aji no Uchi’ (i might be wrong). Anyways, the okonomiyaki is probably the best I’ve ever tasted! Unlike the ones you get in Tokyo, these okonomiyaki were light and fluffy. I think it helped that the workers there made it for you. What was interesting also was that they put mustard along with the worcestershire sauce which gave it a very nice taste.
After that, we walked around some more, and had an ‘egg tart’ for dessert. Went to the internet cafe for a bit. We finished up the evening with a bowl of ramen shared between the two of us. The ramen was SO GOOD!!!! Much better than many ramen places I’ve been to in Tokyo. And it only cost about 500 yen! People of all ages were eating the ramen from bowls, while standing right on the sidewalk - there wasn’t enough counter space for them to put their bowl on. (this was at around midnight).
The next morning, we took the shuttle ferry from the hotel to the Osaka Aquarium. It was an interesting exhibit compared to the one in Hakejima (near Yokohama). The aquarium had exhibits related to the following regions (all along the Pacific Rim Seismic and Volcanic Belt):
- Japan Forest
- Aleutian Islands
- Monteray Bay
- Gulf of Panama
- Ecuador Rain Forest
- Antartica
- Tasman Sea
- Great Barrier Reef
- Pacific Ocean
- Seto Inland Sea
- Kelp Forest
- Coast of Chile
- Cook Strait
- Japan Deeps
The large tanks were very interesting. The one notably thing missing was the performance - although this is probably a good thing.
After the aquarium we went to the nearby Tempozan Marketplace before heading back to the hotel to pick up our belongings. We then took the train to the downtown area - this time American and European town. It was a very bustling area with people dressed up like Hell’s Angels or Elvis Presley. We went to a french dessert place that was recommended in the book. We also stood in line for about 15 minutes to try out takoyaki from a stand along the main road. The takoyaki was quite good, although the sauce wasn’t. We did a bit more window shopping before heading to the airport for our trip home.
All in all, the trip was very relaxing. I’d highly recommend the packaged tour to others considering domestic trips as the cost savings can be quite enormous.
Filed under: Japan
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