January 8, 2017

I woke up early in Kyoto and caught a train to Osaka; which is only about a thirty minute train ride. I grabbed a delicious, canned green tea latte from a vending machine on the platform while I waited on the train.

Upon arriving in Osaka, it was still rather early and dark outside, so I grabbed coffee at a Starbucks in the station, sitting down to drink it and people watch before setting out for my main objective: Osaka Castle. It rained lightly all day, so I had to purchase a cheap umbrella before heading into the castle park.

The castle was absolutely gorgeous, despite the gloom weather. My one disappointment is that on the inside, it’s completely redone (somewhat understandable?) to accommodate a museum comprising of the castles history; in no way does it resemble it’s original interior. The sadness. So I would definitely recommend skipping the museum since it isn’t free and just isn’t worth it, in my opinion, although the observatory deck has a great view. Just admiring the outside of the castle is enough!

(Fun fact: these Japan recaps have come from my previous blog back in 2017, so I will say I have slightly more interest of the interior of Osaka Castle since I have been recently watching Shogun on Hulu.)

The original Osaka Castle was built in 1583, but unfortunately it was reconstructed in 1931 and refurbished in 1997.

Next on the agenda: the Osaka Pokemon Center. And boy, was it the biggest Pokemon Center yet. Somehow I walked away without buying anything, including these giant stuffed Ditto’s.

Being really into Harry Potter, I couldn’t possibly miss out on visiting Universal Studios while in Osaka. But I do regret going off on my own excursion after having no choice by to wait nearly three hours to enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter via a time-ticket you have to schedule. It’s sort of like a fast-pass, but minus the fast; only a pass letting you know when you can enter the area. It’s that packed at USJ. This was my whole reason for visiting USJ, so on top of it being cold and rainy, I then had to wait nearly three hours before I could enter, with really nothing else I wanted to do there; I wanted to stay out of the rain as much as possible, but seating in a lot of restaurants was already full. Needless to say, I was miserable and would totally go back and do something different if I could.

On the plus side, I did end up with a deliciously cute Hello Kitty pork bun and eventually after getting into the Harry Potter part, I got myself some soothingly hot Butterbeer. And all was well.