We bought tickets from SQ rather early, like 4-5 months prior. Costs us $710 all in per person for an afternoon flight that reaches Osaka at 9.40pm. Quite a good deal I would say. I haven't taken a non budget flight in a long time, so this was a pleasant change. Could order all the coke I want and watch brand new movies. They even have The Martian. Cool.
After reaching Kansai Airport, you take a train to Namba via the Nankai Railways. 900 yen per pax, takes you one hour. I book the Airbnb just next to the Namba train station, costs $48 per pax after 6% credit card rebate.
Lots of food stalls opened at the market, selling fried food, Daiyaki, Okonomiyaki and things pertaining to Osaka. Tastes pretty normal, I would say.
The next morning we bought the 800 yen One Day Subway Pass and headed for the Osaka Castle. A nice walk, the whole place took us about 2 hours, considering that we did not even go inside the castle. They sold pretty nice BBQed sweet potatoes that are so sweet that you would think that they injected honey inside.
For Lunch we ate curry udon at quite a well known store called Tokumasa Udon Morinomiya. Tastes different from the regular japanese curry. Less sweet, stronger spice taste with delicious beef slices. The funny thing is that while the initial taste felt normal, the dish becomes better tasting as you eat. No idea why.
Then we traveled to the Osaka Aquarium and paid 2,300 yen to enter. Quite a decent price for a large scale Sea World, and the best that I have been. Not that I have been to a lot. We were greeted by a parade of penguins (impeccable timing) that wade from one end of the atrium to the other.
I must say that this aquarium is cleverly designed. You take an escalator that takes you all the way to the top (8 storeys?) and you descend through the levels via a spiral with the central tower being a mega fish tank. As you get to see the aqua-life from various different angles, you really see all the fish that they put in the tank. And I have never seen most of the fishes being displayed in other Sea Worlds that I have been to. Some examples are manta rays, whale sharks, crazy number of weird looking jellyfishes, an assortment of sharks, sunfish, spider crabs, rockhopper penguins, seals, sea lions, dolphins, etc.
Funnily, there is even a petting section for you to touch sting rays and small sharks.
Then we head to my favorite place in Japan - Pokemon Center! Sadly, I have bought most of the soft toys in Tokyo last June, so I only picked up one new Pikachu that was a seasonal offer.
At that time it was about dinner time, so we headed to Houzenji San Pei, an Okonomiyaki store at the Dotonburi area. Can't say that the food was bad, I just wasn't very into Okonomiyaki. The sweet sauce of the food is overpowering and makes the dish too one dimensional IMO. But since this is one of the foods that Osaka is famous for, you should definitely give it a go.
