Osaka, Japan

The first place we stopped at in Japan was Osaka. Osaka was a colorful and interesting city and the people were very friendly. We took this trip in September and the weather was beautiful. Warm and sunny (not humid) during the day and cool at night. Coming from hot and humid Singapore...we loved it! We had heard not to expect much english so it didn't come as too much of a surprise when we arrived. It made it harder to get around but added to our adventure and I sort of loved not knowing what anyone was saying to me :) 

We toured  the city and here are some of the sights we saw. Osaka is the second largest city in Japan (after Tokyo) with around 18 million people. All of Japan is about the size of California with the population of about half of the United States. So as you can imagine, Japan is certainly creative when it comes to maximizing space. 

 Japan is a very safe and clean country...like we are used to in Singapore!

This was our first time to Japan and it was pretty awesome. The shopping in Osaka was AMAZING. I was able to sneak in just a little bit!

 I love Japanese architecture

We ate in the famous Dotomburi district. Dotomburi has so many restaurants and bars packed along its narrow streets and alleys that it might be impossible to count them all. Filled with colorful signs and decorated entrances it is a great taste of Osaka culture. If you like Japanese food this is definitely the place for you! Japanese food is one of our favorites so we just loved it. They say this is the area to experience the true meaning of 'kuidaore' which is a Japanese word that literally means to eat oneself bankrupt. And well with the high prices in Japan... it is a possibility! Most menus were entirely in Japanese so you just point to the picture to order.  There were several times that we really don't know what we ate...again it added to the experience!

Our hotel had this chapel in the foyer. Pretty crazy considering this was on the 22nd floor. Apparently, this is very common in Japan and used primarily for weddings.

The girls dancing down the walkways in the hotel!

Japanese beer is our favorite beer and Japanese food is amazing...so we were all very happy! Maddie LOVES sushi and sashimi, that is right she loves great big pieces of raw fish! I think it actually would probably be her favorite food.

 Fried prawns (shrimp) are served with the head on... we ate it all and quite liked it!

We spent the first two nights of our trip in Osaka and also the very last night since we were flying out of Osaka back to Singapore.  We had planned to go to Universal Studios since we heard the Japanese theme parks are magical...however, a typhoon hit that day so we spent almost the entire day at the Osaka Hilton and ended up having a lot of fun just hanging out!