Last I left off, we were still in Kyoto, about to head off to Osaka. The day started earlier today with everyone waking up at about 7.30am, and we were headed out by about early 8+am. Nothing special about breakfast as we got some bread to munch on while we headed to Toji temple.
The temple from our hotel is about a 20 mins walk away, so we decided to walk. The reason we were here so early was that we were gonna see the flea market at the temple's entrance itself. The temple has a flea market every first Sunday of the month as well as I believe the 21st of the month. We didnt buy anything in the end, as it was generally filled with antiques, so I just bought a few charms and left as we had a long day ahead.
* We saw some 300 yen *cough cough* VHS videos (If anyone doesnt know what VHS is, its like, video tapes, seriously older generation stuff) Wanted to take some pictures to show, but sadly quite a few of the uncles were more interested in us, so we kinda got stared at whichever shop we went.
Following that, we headed on back to the hotel to do our checkout. Before we left, we finished up the sake which we bought the previous day. Angryboy drank down 2 shots, and lets just say things got interesting after that, LOL. Alot of true feelings were heard throughout the day.
Lunch was taken at Kyoto train station itself. I took an Oyako-don set which had some Soba together, while Baha and Angryboy took some Beef Soba. Food was absolutely fantastic! Soup was fabulous too~ Sadly, Angryboy was no longer in the right state to enjoy the food, so he kinda just ate all the beef, and I took his soup and Soba, leaving my plainer Soba alone, LOL.
Moving on, we headed to Toei Movie Land! (The place which we went the day before, but it was already closed). Angryboy slept the 30 minute train trip there, and recovered enough to walk with us after that. Toei Movie Land is kinda a place which is filled with stuff done by the company Toei, including Power Rangers, alot of Samurai films, as well as some of the more traditional style animes. There was even a full picture guide as to how the old animes were drawn out and animated.
We did a few stuff, such as me trying out a Shin Sengumi outfit, entering haunted houses, taking photos with Ninjas, etc. (Haunted house was seriously funny. Baha was using Angryboy as a shield while Angryboy was turning every corner, and pointing at a figure and like, "Thats a real person right? Right?" Seriously LOL stuff. I was safely standing 2 meters behind and laughing away.
*Who can name all which series were all the Red Ranger from the above picture from? And you know what? This is only half of them, I couldnt fit them all into the camera.
By the time we left Toei Movie Land, it was already 2+pm. Taking our first cab, we took about a 5 minute ride from Toei Movie Land to the train station. Cab's meter didnt move at all, so its good, but we started at 580 yen. (About S$9) However, our train and bus rides always start at a minimum sum of about 200 yen (About $2) so its fine. We took 15~20 mins to walk from the train station to the Movie Land.
Moving on, we got back to Kyoto station and took the JR Express to Osaka, which was only a 30 minute ride away. Due to our hotel being a major hotel, we had minimal trouble finding the hotel, which was just 3 minutes away from the train station. Checking in was painless and quick, with the hotel staff relatively familiar with English.
We even got suprised as after we had our luggage brought to our room, we got a full tea ceremony served to us, with Itsuko-san serving as our tea, while welcoming us to Osaka. It was a real enjoyable experience.
*The famous moving crab in Dotonbori
Following our check-in, we decided to take a quick walk of the nearby streets of Dotonbori. It was filled with people, due to it being a major shopping street and the date being Sunday evening. We kinda just took note of the shops around the area, then headed back to our hotel to prep for dinner.
*Me in a Yukata. No picture of face as per usual blog policy, LOL
Being the shy people Baha and Angryboy are (As if...), they showered in the room. Ambitious me however headed down to the public shower available in the hotel. Traditional public shower etiquette consists of the following 4 steps.
1. Rinsing off
2. Quick soak
3. Soaping and fully washing yourself off
4. Full soak
I guess I was too early, being there at about 6.45. Nobody was in the shower at all so I had the place all to myself. Followed the full 4 steps, stepped in for the full soak, and seriously just went "Ahhh....." Felt especially good with the cold weather outside, and all the walking we have been doing. I soaked a good 20 minutes, and came out of the shower totally zonked out from the heat, LOL. Making it barely back to the room, I stone for a good 15 minutes before changing into the full Yukata outfit and patted my hungry tummy for dinner!
*Our dinner on the table after 10+ dishes and after Itsuko-san done with stuffing us with more food
I regret I am unable to show you the full dinner, as it simply would not fit on the table at all, LOL. Interested people who know me can ask me when I have the camera with me to see the full meal. Coming in at 7.30pm, Itsuko-san served us our dishes bit by bit. Every single dish was absolutely fantastic, even food which we normally wouldnt eat. We even had 4 dishes of Kobe beef, and 2 dishes of Fugu (Blowfish, and yes we are all still alive, thank you very much) Similarly, I will show interested guys the full menu, as the iPhone's camera cant show the full menu clearly. We even got a certificate for the Kobe beef!! Details included where the cow had stayed, date of birth and when it was processed, etc. We were stuffed fully by the time dinner ended close to 9pm.
Fully stuffed, we decided to go for a walk around again and explore abit more this time. There were quite a few stores open up on the street parallel to Dotonbori, which were all similar to the above, with the following similarities.
1. No entry fee needed
2. Only 18+ and above to enter
3. All claimed to provide some form of information
4. The internal of the store cannot be seen from the outside
5. 2,000 yen for 1 hour full body massage (Only on some stores)
...... I think you all probably can guess what the stores above are. We are not certain ourselves, but obviously nobody here tested. (Following day Baha couldnt wake up until quite late. Maybe while we were asleep, hmmmm... LOL) Just kidding, those places stated closing time at around midnight, which at midnight we were still exploring the place, and generally playing at the arcade, LOL. We finally headed back after the arcades all closed, at around 12.30am
And that ends catching up post number 1! Phew, so much stuff, hope you guys are not daunted by the wall of text from me (As usual) On to post 2!
0 comments:
Post a Comment