Osaka Day Trip

We started our morning with some breakfast near the hotel before taking the train to Osaka. Since we decided to start with the aquarium with tickets purchased the night before, we had a 90 minute train ride to get there. Initially, we got on one train (going the right direction, thankfully) before realizing there was another train that followed the same route but was faster. We got off the original train and hopped on the other one which made the journey a little more pleasant!

Once in Osaka, we grabbed a snack at Borden Coffee before our visit. Then, we walked over to the aquarium, passing by Legoland and some other fun attractions. At the aquarium, we wandered through the exhibits, each labeled for where in the Ring of Fire they represented. Some highlights included the two whale sharks, sunfish, rays, otters, hammerheads, and tunas. We also really enjoyed seeing the coati - a lemur-like creature - because one came into our hotel room when we visited Mexico for a wedding in 2024. We played the "gacha" game and ended up getting both a penguin and a whale shark with our two attempts.

We then took a train into downtown Osaka and went to the Osaka Castle. We walked around the park for a while before stopping for lunch at Blue Birds Roof Top Terrace. We got some chicken nuggets since that sounded good - but unfortunately they were really greasy and we were surrounded by lots of people grilling. Not our favorite experience, but at least we had a view.

We walked around the city for a while, going through some of the shopping districts. Once it was getting closer to sunset, we walked over to the Dotonbori district, where we caught a river cruise around 4:30 PM right as the lights were turning on. It was really cool to be on the river itself and to see all the lights/fun displays! The cruise was a 20-minute adventure, and went up and down the river further than we would have walked ourselves. The most exciting part was when the cruise went under a very low-clearance bridge (where we were all instructed to duck).

We then went to dinner at Sushiro, a chain for conveyer belt sushi. We tried a bunch of really good rolls, but surprisingly our favorite was a Prosciutto and Mozzarella roll over rice! We walked back through one more time to see the lights at night before taking the train back to Kyoto. It was overall a good day!