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Published: April 22nd 2024
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Early start so we could try the hotel's buffet breakfast at their Slow Cooking Restaurant. We left at 8:30 and reached Platform 11 easily, for our last Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka departing 9:11. It's been quite easy finding the correct platforms. If you find your trip on Google Maps, it tells you where to go and also the cost. At the station, there are many signs in English, and arrows on the floor, directing you to Shinkansen or JR (Japan Rail) lines. As we took the Shinkansen, it meant we were a little further away from our hotel, meaning another two trains after reaching Shin-Osaka, so we decided to catch a taxi. It was so much easier and was worth the $19.
We dropped off our bags again at the Del Style Osaka Higashi Temma by Daiwa Roynet Hotel, then caught another taxi for the 15 minute trip to Osaka Castle. As usual, very large castle grounds and a bit of a walk to the Castle tower entrance. We had to leave the pram at the bottom as usual. As the weather was good today, there was a queue for about 30 minutes. This castle is rebuilt and is
like a modern building inside. It even has a lift and the queue for the lift was quite long. Daisy and Oscar joined the queue, while Krissy and I took the stairs. The castle has eight floors and we ended up meeting Daisy and Oscar on floor 5, which is the highest floor the lift takes people to, even though it can go to the top. The museum explains the history of the castle and has many historic paintings and letters from the original inhabitants. It also has multimedia displays and videos on floor 1. When you get inside, it's like you're no longer in a castle as everything is modern and it's like being in a normal museum. I'm so glad we changed the itinerary, and stopped overnight in Himeji, instead of doing the planned ferry trip.
We left the castle grounds at lunchtime and went into a grand old building next door that had a few shops and even an Action Figures Museum. We had lunch at another Korean restaurant and after lunch it was 14:30 and the planned visit to the neighbouring Nishinomaru Gardens didn’t happen because it was closed today.
So we decided to
visit the Shittenoji Temple, one of the oldest temple sites in Japan. The buildings are all rebuilt because of war damage. We arrived on a good day because a flea market is on every month on the 21st and 22nd each month, plus entry was free and there was a special Buddhist ceremony on, which was very interesting to watch, even though we had no idea what was going on.
We left the Temple just after 16:10 and decided to head to our hotel. My Google Maps was a bit slow so Krissy took over the navigation. We got out of the underground and she said it was just a 17 minute walk but Oscar wanted a burger for dinner and we saw a Shake Shack hamburger store across the the very busy road, with no crossings to be seen. We figured you had to go back underground and the whole area was filled shops. We found the Shake Shack store and ordered dinner. It was then that I decided to check the 17 minute walking route, and realised Krissy was taking us to a similarly named hotel, but not our hotel. In fact, we could've disembarked one station
earlier. After dinner the ladies decided to look at the shops we had passed earlier on our way to the station and we ended up staying until about 18:40 and finally got to the hotel at 19:00.
We finished checking in. They put us on two different floors unfortunately, but we didn't mind when we saw our rooms. This hotel is the same chain of hotels we stayed in last night, Daiwa Roynet. I said last night's hotel was the best we had stayed in, but this one was even better. The size was similar to a typical Australian hotel room rather than a Japanese hotel room like the ones we stayed in Tokyo and Kyoto. We had a lounge to sit on and a separate toilet and much more space and the whole hotel has an African influence. Very nice to end our holiday in the nicest hotel. Glad to have two nights here.
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