Japandamonium! ..... FINALLY!

Wow, after 4 years of waiting we're finally here in Japan. We flew into Osaka on zero sleep and were pretty munted. Muddled our way through customs and somehow managed to get the right train to Osaka Central. Walked in circles for a bit and reached J Hoppers in the end! Our backpacker's is pretty mint! We're in a dorm of 10, but have our own little corner with shelves, our own locker, and its so clean and neat. We even got a pack of postcards when we arrived! Free Wifi AND a vending machine in the kitchen with Asahi in it! We had a bit of a wander around, ate some food, and fell asleep at 6pm. Here are some of the random things we saw:






We got up bright and early and discovered SOMEONE STOLE OUR EGG! We bought some eggs to make breakfast with, and from 6pm til 6am this morning someone had been to my clearly labelled egg tray in the fridge and taken one! I'm so disappointed in my fellow backpackers... I'm eyeing them all with suspicion now....

Anyway, we decided to drown our sorrows with a big dose of Universal Studios! We got there about 1/2 an hour before it opened and the lines were madness! We were practically the only foreign people as well. As soon as people got through the gates they were sprinting off into the distance. We didnt realised what it was all about until we realised the lines were about 60 mins long! EACH! So we ended up buying a special pass which let us jump the queues which was the best idea we had all day! It was such a great day - universal studios was pretty awesome, even if we didnt understand a word of what was going on! We met this cute family whose son tried to translate for us - he seemed pretty stoked to be practising his english! We were getting a lot of shy looks from kids everywhere!












After universal studios we had a bit of daylight left so we headed to Shitennoji Temple... well, we got a bit lost on the way, but we got there in the end! Lets just say that my Japanese isn't really up to scratch with the amount of "Wakarimasen"'s I got!! We got there after everything had closed, but the grounds were still open, and its just beautiful. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the moment, and the trees look like the have clouds of fluffy snow around them.













In regards to the boob picture... yeah I dont get it either! We hope to get back there before we leave Osaka, during business hours, but Im glad we got to see it in the fading light, the sunset lit up the buildings and warmed up the whole place. After the temple we hot footed it over to the Umeda sky building to go up to the top and see Osaka by night. It was really beautiful! The sights were breathtaking! It's marketed as a "lover's spot" and they have a chair where you sit on it and hold your partner's hand, then each of you grab this metal thingy on the chair and the ground around you lights up into a heart and swirls around. In the same place there is a wall of heart padlocks with names engraved, which you can buy, and then lock onto the wall. We bought one, but decided to keep it as a memento of Japan. I did my fortune from the shaky-box thing (if you dont know, im not going to explain it - too tired!) and my fortune was as below... Barely Good Fortune was the header :(







Afterwards we headed downstairs and stumbled into this cute alleyway of food places. I should probably explain that there are these litte underground rabbit warrns all over the place, mostly at train stations, where one alley looks like a regular marble or plaster corridor, and then parallel to it, there's a quaint little street filled with izakaya and bars! We stopped by this woman selling something odd looking and she offered us some to try... turns out it was mochi in like, a giant lump, which she would cut into little pieces and box up for you!!







FINALLY...... heres some photos of things I cant really explain, or just cool stuff!
enjoy!










bye bye!
xx Laura