Family Trip to Japan part 2: Osaka

 yo!

So Osaka was a pretty cool deal. Our itinerary was pretty loosely structured, I had a few things in mind that I wanted to take the kids to and number one on that list was Universal. This trip was originally going to be in August but we ended up changing the dates around to make use of some flight credits that Keith's job was offering, so I had originally planned for us to be at Universal on Ollie's birthday. While we have a much quieter evening planned out now, Ollie and Nolan had a blast! Ollie wasn't really into it when we got there, but as soon as we were on the first ride he was into it







As for the second day, the kids and I went to this great place called Kids Palace! Its kind of like a Please Touch Museum! They had a ton of fun. There were a few school trips that were there with us, and they found a friend to play with while they were there! We met up with Keith for lunch and walked to a cool indian/nepalese place for lunch, where I had a Nepalese beer (not bad). After that, there was some downtime and then we walked around the shopping district!








Day three: the final day,  we saw Osaka Castle! It was pretty hot so we didn't bother to wait in line for the actual museum but we did wander around the grounds and it was gorgeous! The kids hung ema or prayer plaques at the temple onsite, and we practiced our temple manners. We got okonomiyaki at a restaurant nearby afterwards, and Nolan and I ate squid for the first time (v chewy, mostly grill flavor.)









After the castle, we visited the art museum! there were some really interesting pieces of art there. I dont like taking photos at museums anymore because I'm trying to experience the art as its before me, so I put my phone away. 



When we were done with the museum, there was a quick breather back at the hotel before we made our way over to their "american village" which was a fashion shopping district mostly. But we saw the statue of liberty! On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a Studio Ghibli store and my inner child cried (also I cried it was v awkward)


this is their album cover



If you'd like to peruse the rest of the photos I took from these days, please follow the link here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eDiArR8DS6jfjUAa6 

















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