Our 7 Month Travel Blog

• Travelling to Osaka and reunited with ski friends
• Visiting Osaka Castle, Umeda Sky Building and Osaka Municipal Housing Museum

We arrived in Osaka from Kyoto and were reunited with ski season friends in Japan of all places!

Chuhai is a popular Japanese drink made from mixing shochu (a Japanese distilled spirit) with carbonated water, fruit juice or other flavorings. 

The next day we got up early and headed out for a run, taking in the sites of Osaka Castle.

One of us is training for a marathon….and found the hills a lot easier than the other two!

Sadly, we didn’t have long together before we were saying our goodbyes and heading on our separate ways.

The first thing we got in Osaka was the ‘Osaka Amazing Pass’. The pass gets you free access to over 40 attractions in Osaka and unlimited rides on public transport. It turned out to be well worth it as we ended up going to places we otherwise wouldn’t have.

The Umeda Sky Building was our first stop, with its impressive sky garden observatory. The building has suspended escalators, which cross between the two towers, and a rooftop observatory with panoramic views of Osaka. Not one for those without a head for heights.

There was also another stamp to collect…this one turned into a bit of a treasure hunt where you had to collect several to complete a print – it looked pretty cool in the end!

Once we had successfully made it down the 39 floors, it was time for a quick açai bowl stop!

…..And as we walked to our next site, we spotted some more tiny rats dogs in boxes.

These ones looked a bit happier than the ones in Tokyo, still questionable the animal welfare though!

We arrived next at the Osaka Municipal Housing Museum. This was a slightly odd place, where they had recreated the townscape of Osaka from the Edo period from 1830 to 1844.

The museum was a ‘living museum’….except it was quite dead when we got there, it seemed all the actors had packed up and headed home for the day.

It was then time for us to head back to our slightly more luxurious inn but first we had a quick drink with the very nice couple we met on our first night in Tokyo who were now also in Osaka.

We then went home for the evening and made sure to get on the right carriage of the train…..

Goodnight!