We visited Osaka during Chinese New Year. On the 1st day, we visited the beautiful aquarium near Osaka Port. The beauty of the aquarium is beyond description. Fortunately, there were not many people when we were there since we went there in the evening (We saw tons of people out there when we revisited that area three days later). We also took the ride of the giant wheel right next to the aquarium. The sky of Osaka in the night is very beautiful.
One of the most important things to do when visiting Osaka is to visit the Universal Studio. We did that too on the second day although we woke up a little bit late. We enjoyed a few famous ride like ET, Jurassic Park, Big Jaw, etc. It was a fun day after all. We had to buy some rain coats from the vending machine because we were afraid of getting wet in the Jurassic Park. It is the most expensive rain coat when have ever purchased. We can buy six of them in 7/11 Taiwan with the same amount of money.
The next day we visited Kobe. To our surprise, it started to snow when we were on the train ride to Kobe. We had to buy an extra umbrella to prevent from getting wet when we took a walk in 北野 where you can see a lot of beautiful foreign-style buildings. We visited Austria, Denmark and Perfume Houses. The snow was very hard that made our kids' shoes wet. Kids felt so cold in their feet so that we decided to tear the USJ rain coat to pieces to wrap up their feet against the cold water. Later we moved onto a "factory-house" where you can see a lot of small factories inside a building. We enjoyed some snack over there.
On the 4th day, we visited the maritime museum first and looked around a big boat in the museum. We then moved to the world trade center in Osaka (around 77 floors high) to have some bird's-eye-view of Osaka. Since we bought a Osaka daily pass, we had to move faster among different attractions to take advantage the offers. We rushed into Santa Maria Berth to get a boat ride. We almost miss the 3:00 ride but we made it fortunately. We just relaxed in the big boat for a one-hour ride in Osaka Bay. We kept running to Osaka Castle afterwards but it was too late so we had a nice walk in its neighborhood.
Time flies by so fast. On the 5th day, we visted Nara to see those deer. It was a lot of fun. Of course we did not miss 東大寺 to see the famous 佛像. We are very impressed with the temple and the efficient business they are running for tourists. In the afternoon, we moved to Kyoto and visited 清水寺. To our surprise, there are a lot of fun things to do in the temple. Moreover, there are a lot of delicious food on the way to the temple. It is a very fun experience.
It was time to say good bye to Osaka. We did a little bit shopping along Shinsaibachi area before we headed for the Kansai Airport by OCAT bus.
