Steps today: 24 391 / 16.08
Back on the road today changing home bases, but very relaxed because the 2 cities are only 45 minutes apart with local transportation so we didn't book a train in advance. We had breakfast, then packed the bags instead of the usual of getting them done the night before, and lazily headed out. I estimated we'd be in Osaka by 11ish, but we were there by 9AM.
The room wasn't ready yet, so we dumped the bags and headed out.
We started with the Rose Garden in Utsubo Park. I never get sick of flowers, so good for the soul.
I am not sure what precipitated our decision for the next move, my Facebook posts and picture roll offer no hints, but we ended up in the Umeda district which over the next few days turned into my favourite area of the city.
This poster is a typical example of our experiences looking for food... convenient, but if you don't know anything about the restaurant there is not much to entice you! Just a picture and an indication on what floor of the building to find it.
On one of these posters, I spotted "Joly French Brasserie" on the 27th floor. This hooked me! French food with a view! I am IN IN IN! Turns out it was the 29th floor of the Waldorf Astoria and when we got up there they were between breakfast and lunch so we couldn't get a table. Too early. I asked if we could just have a drink and she told me that would be in the Peacock Alley Bar on the 28th floor, but they only had room left at the bar. I asked her: does it also have a nice view? She assured me it did so off we went!
OOOOH MYYYYY GOOOOOOOO-OOOOO-OOOOOD!!!!
I was blown away - so beautiful and what a view! of both the inside and outside! This was love at first sight.
The goal really was to just have a drink, but we ended up staying almost 2 hours. They had a Japanese red wine on the list, I pounced. It was perfect! I had it with a cheese plate.
I couldn't stop at 1 glass so I had another round with Kyoto Egg sandwiches (Kyoto Egg is more like an omelet, it's supposed to be fluffy, but I always find it firm)
On the way into Osaka, we spotted building with a Ferris Wheel on top of it, so after lunch we headed out to find it again. This is the best image I could get to show that it was a wheel on the roof of the 7th floor.
It was drizzly out, but we still had nice views
Also impressive was the escalator back down, it was slightly rotated on each floor so it resulted in a really cool Escher effect! The pictures don't do it justice.
We decided then to head back to our hotel to check in and unpack. We were still a little early, but the rain had stopped by then and the weather was warm, so we went to Starbucks around the corner and sat outside watching the world go by.
The room was great!
Once we unpacked, the next destination was Osaka Castle. The drizzle has started up again by then.
After this, we moved onto the Namba District which was incredibly impressive! The arcaded shopping streets (which we saw everywhere in Japan) went on FOREVER!!!! Plus, the underground mall that stretched just as far... I thought Montreal's underground city was impressive but Namba leaves it in the dirt.
We had supper at an Italian Restaurant we found by accident, and then the goal was to see the Night Lights. Amazing! It all blew my mind
Thankfully, the sun was down by 630 so we didn't have to stay out late to see the lights. We were back in the room ready to collapse around 830.
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