An early start with good English breakfast at the Sheraton Miyako in Osaka before I continue my day!

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Late night shopping and eating in Osaka!

There is this noodle store called yi lan that can found near the Nagahori-gawa canal in the Osaka Shinsaibashi area that serves the most yummy pork soup based noodles. Everything about it is perfect and the additional egg was really good! Cooked with hot spring waters, the egg is cooked inside out rather than outside in. Yummy!

After dinner, I took a stroll along the Dōtonbori street and there were just so many good food to be found. Fresh seafood and the famous tako pachi (octopus balls) with a crazy long queue.

The rest of the evening was spent shopping. There are so many departmental stores as well as little boutiques in the area. This place is probably the harajuku of Osaka. I also went to the Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street which is the longest straight and covered shopping walkway in Japan! 2.6km long with lots of shops on either side. It was a real shopping excursion for me! Which is probably why you don’t see much photos taken after my dinner

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There are countless of Sake brewery factories and museums in Kobe in the district of Nada because the spring water in this area is officially one of the 100 spring waters approved by the Japanese government for sake brewing. The one I visited is called Sakura Masamune.

There are countless sake that have “masamune” as the second half of their brand name, but the very first one is said to have been Sakura Masamune from Nada in Hyogo prefecture. Sakura Masamune is a very old, famous and prestigious brewer, and eons ago their founder visited a friend that was the head priest at a hermitage called Gensei-an. There, he looked up on a bookshelf and saw a book of scripture by the Rinzai sect Zen master Rinzai Masamune. In a moment of inspiration, he realized that the characters for “masamune” could also be read “seishu,” which is a homonym for the legal term for sake. And so, the first of hundreds of meigara bearing the term “masamune” was born.

I learnt a lot about Sake brewing from this 400 year old establishment. Sake is not just science but an art as well. While most things have been modernized, many traditions have been kept and the process is still rather labor intensive. I got to play around with the traditional equipment of sake making and you can hardly imagine how huge those barrel were! There are a string of ropes and knots tied at the entrance of the brewery area to show that you have entered into the realm of the spirits as the Japanese believe that Sake is the drink of the Gods and sake brewing used to be done in the temples.

After the factory tour, you could sample the different sake, shop for gifts or try out their sake ice-cream. There were many cute balls hanging around and I found out that it was a tradition brought down from the past. A ball of green would be hung up at the main door to tell others that your home is brewing sake. When the ball of leaves dries up completely and turns brown then the sake is ready.

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A day of shopping and sightseeing at Kobe’s Habourland. There were so many tiny shops and cafes at the Mosaic area facing gorgeous seaside vista. And not too far off there were departmental stores and quaint restaurants. There was even an indoor canal garden!

My favorite part of the place has got to be the pier area called Takahama Quay. It really reminds me of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Warf! There were flocks of sea gulls everywhere and I had a great time feeding and snapping photos of them.

Across the street was another mall called Seagull Harbor. How aptly named! It’s a really peaceful and scenic environment. I can see why this is one of the hot spots in Kobe for marriage proposals!

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Nankinmachi is also known as Kobe’s Chinatown. It’s amazing how there’s a little Chinatown in almost every country! The Chinatown here is bustling with excitement and you can find all sorts of Chinese food stuff here!

I managed to see these little cocoons of silk worms which were really interesting. Quite a number of interesting shops to do a little shopping here as well

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One of the main interest point in Osaka is the Osaka Castle. Entry into the castle is ¥600 and the closest train is Osaka-jō Koen station on the JR Osaka Loop Line.

It is undisputedly one of Japan’s most famous castles playing a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. The castle is built high with a surrounding moat. It’s actually best to come Osaka Castle during the cherry blossom viewing because there are as many as 400 cherry blossom trees in this 1km grounds of the Osaka Castle!

Just before you reach the main building of the castle you will come across a time capsule. In January, 1968, two Japanese companies, Panasonic Corporation and The Mainichi Newspapers, agreed to undertake a joint time capsule project in celebration of the Japan World Exposition 1970: EXPO ‘70. After three years of planning, research and construction, two time capsules identical in every detail were buried adjacent to Osaka Castle. The lower capsule will remain buried for 5,000 years; the upper capsule will be opened for the first time in the year 2,000 and every 100 years thereafter.

The purpose of the project is to send forward in time a visual, aural and documentary record of life in the year 1970 AD. The scale of the project and the size of the capsules is unprecedented: each capsule contains 2,098 objects and recorded items representing the achievements of our civilization and the everyday experience of the Japanese people. The heritage left by our ancient and more recent ancestors is recorded through art, Iiterature and music. Even the ideals and aspirations of people today are expressed in written and recorded messages.

In the construction of the capsules and preparation of their contents nothing was left to chance. Every item was treated with the most advanced preservation techniques known to man at this time; some preservation techniques were devised specially for this project. The Japanese public, together with scientists and scholars from all over the world, took part in the selection process.

The castle has be featured in many period dramas but today it stands as a museum and a reminder to the impressive times when Japan had Shoguns and Samurai a plenty. You can give a museum a miss if you are short on time but do take time to enjoy the park, the birds and day dream about the edo period. The castle reminds me of the last anime I watch which was Samurai Champloo. I love cross genre animations but too bad there aren’t that many around.

My favorite photo of the Osaka Castle is the one below. Past or present, it is a sight to behold.

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This reminds me that I’ve yet to post up my universal experience in Singapore!

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I’ll be starting my post on my trip to Japan earlier this year.

I was really excited flying into Osaka Kansai Airport as I’ve always flew to Japan via Tokyo Narita Airport. It was a smooth trip and my saba fish Japanese rice set breakfast was pretty good too!

The sky was clear, giving the chance to capture a multitude of fabulous aerial shots.  The most fascinating thing for me was that Kasai International Airport is located on a man made island in the middle of the Osaka Bay! Definitely a  feat of engineering!

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This is gonna be my last post about my Tokyo trip with my girls. The whole trip was planned to give Sushi a unique Hen’s Night so we couldn’t leave Japan without having at least one real hens’ night outing with some challenges!

We met some lovely Japanese people and 2 very friendly and helpful lads that took us to a hip hop club so we could have some girly fun! One of them actually knows Sharon Au (they studied together in Japan) and he was a little surprise when he found out she wasn’t kidding with him when she told him that she was pretty famous in Singapore… lol.

As a part of her hens night challenge, Sushi had to wear a singlet on which we wrote in Japanese – ” I’m going to be married soon. If you think I’m pretty, sign on my shirt!” or at least something along those lines.

And despite the language differences, it wasn’t too difficult a tasks cause the Japanese folks at the bar were really friendly and spontaneous! With most laughing away with us and happily congratulating Sushi. I’ll let the photos do the talking of our night out. You can click on the photo below if you want to see the larger version.

The night ended well with the singlet top filled with signatures! All from men of course except for the small little compliment on the front of the top that says ” You are really pretty” by one of the Japanese girls at the pub.

After all that partying, we slid on our trench coats and walked in the crisp morning air to the nearest Danny’s for some extremely early breakfast!

The boys came along with us. In Tokyo, the culture is that they party till dawn so they can catch the subway home.

Here are the food pictures!

The boys sent us home to our hotel after exchanging contacts. So sweet right?

We spent the rest of the next day shopping at Shibuya 109! We were too busy shopping that I didn’t have time to snap any photos! But you can be sure all of us were really happy with our purchases and wished we had more luggage space to bring back even more stuff!

I don’t normally blog about my buys but I’ll blog about a few items I absolutely regret not getting (or not buying more of ) at Peach John when I was at Shibuya 109.

Firstly is these 2 gorgeous apron. I felt it was a pretty frivolous buy since it is way too pretty (and expensive) to be dirtied in the kitchen but the moment I was on the plane I regret not getting it. Sigh. I really really like the blue one… and mildly considered the pink one cause it was on sale for 1/2 price.

Secondly, is these 2 pouches I bought for my girlfriends back home… I wanted to get another one for myself too but they only had 2 pieces in stock at the Shibuya 109 branch and I didn’t have time for them to transfer pieces over for pickup at another time.

Lastly is this Peach Johns Instant Make-Up Cream. Since Peach John is actually a lingerie store I didn’t trust their make-up products and only bought this tube on a whim cause I got attracted to the packaging and all it promises. But I find it to be really good! Fine and light textured and absolutely natural. It’s an all in one moisturizer, lifting primer, sunscreen SPF 25 PA++ and natural cover which is perfect for a lazy person like me. My make up routine consists of a 5 mins slap of this cream, eyeliner and falsies. Just 3 steps! And silly me only bought 1 miserable tube that will finish pretty soon! I should have tried it on in the store… then maybe I would have stocked up a few more.

So if any kind souls would like to help me buy these stuffs I left out on my trip please contact me at renzze@gmail.com if not I have to make another trip to either Japan or Hong Kong (they have one Peach John outlet) hoping they still stock these limited edition items.

Finally the time to leave Japan and return to Singapore has arrived.

We grabbed our last meal together in Japan at the airport and spent the rest of the time shopping around for boxes of goodies, spending whatever yen we have left.

Sweet Sushi gave each of us this sweet cookie ball at the airport to thank us for the memorable hens night she had and wonderful time she had in Japan. It’s so pretty I couldn’t bear to eat it till the day before the expiry!

And I got quite a number of queries from readers and friends about my cabin luggage. This is the only few close up pictures I have. I checked in my large baby pink Lojel luggage and still had this many things to hand carry up with me into the plane… lol… I absolutely bought too much!

Here’s a video of the Sushi’s Hens Night and the girls at the airport to sign off the last post of this Tokyo trip. Hope you guys enjoyed the photos.

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Koji wanted sashimi and sushi so we ended up in this old school joint in Ikebukuro after our shopping adventures. It definitely a local joint cause none of the staff spoke any English and the menu was in Japanese with no pictures at all!

Still we managed to order a barrage of food! And the seafood was fresh! But then again I’ve yet to hear of bad seafood in Japan… or at least in the Tokyo region. Their standards are pretty high.

After dinner was back to the hotel for some major packing!

We all bought so many stuff we had to strategize our packing space! Sushi and I were in the same room. (We moved into normal rooms from the tatami room the day before.)

This side of the room belongs to Sushi dear.

And this side of the mess belongs to me! As you can see there’s lots of things to pack!

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