Osaka Trip - Day 1

The buddy I traveled to Hokkaido with texted me asking if I wanted to join him in Osaka. I was like, dude, didn't you just go a couple of months ago? He was like, yeah, but I didn't have a good time because I messed up my knee and I have use some PTO or lose it. I looked at the calendar and suggested a few dates that would work. We finally landed on May 17-18. He generously offered to take care of the hotel, so all I had to do was to take care of my own flight. Kewl. I was able to find flights that were close to his arrival and departure times.

First day was pretty much travel. I left the house early so I'll get the chance to roam around the airport to check out the shops and have a leisurely breakfast. I dropped off my check-in bag at the kiosk and went off to explore. I didn't find anything that caught my eye at the shops, but I did find a cafe that offered souffle pancakes. Oooh! Perfect for breakfast! The fruit tea I ordered to go with the pancakes was lovely.

My plane left on time and I was in Osaka in no time. My first impression of Osaka from the sky was how packed together the buildings seemed compared to Tokyo. My buddy's plane was landing an hour later, but I didn't have a long wait since it took a while to collect my bag. He rolls in, and we head for the hotel we're staying at. We (mistakenly) decided to take the train. We had to change trains 3 times, going from one line to another. Some were on opposite sides of a big station. No fun when dragging luggage. We should've taken the bus to the hotel. Well, we made it to the hotel in one piece. He chose one that's in front of Universal Studios Japan and it was a nice hotel. The room was about double the size of the business hotels I usually stay at.

Now, the Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe area is a basin, so it can get really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. The temps at home was in the low to mid-70s. The temps jumped to the low to mid-80s in Osaka. I could feel the sweat rolling down my back as we were walking around in the train station. I desperately needed to change my shirt when I got to the hotel room, maybe even a quick shower before we went out for dinner. Well, the shower plans got delayed since my buddy pounced on me as soon as I took my shirt off. We were making out on the bed, and he had his hand on my butt but didn't find a zipper to play with. In fact, he didn't have a zipper at all since I was wearing jeggings. He grumbled something about fake jeans as he tugged them off. LOL It didn't take long for things to get hot 'n steamy, and that's before I took a shower. We worked up an appetite, for sure.

After a nice, hot shower, we headed out for dinner. We went to Bubba Gump Shrimp. The entire area is pretty expensive. The only place where the prices are affordable are convenience stores or MdD's. Not exactly places to get decent food. Cheap and good eating can be found a couple of stops down. But, my buddy wanted to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp. The food was good enough and super filling. No room for dessert.

We strolled along City Walk, the short avenue from the train station to the entrance to Universal Studios Japan. The walk is lined with hotels, shops selling USJ merch, and restaurants, but nothing cheap, tho. A lot of people were heading back to the station after spending a day at the park. Like any other theme park, restaurants and merch are overpriced. The hotel we stayed at was nice, tho. The interior gave off more of a Las Vegas vibe than chic. Seems like the hotel's theme was clocks. There were clocks with times of cities around the world.

We went back to the room to chill before bed. I had a lovely soak in a nice, hot bubble bath. We watched some YT and IG clips from those we both follow. Katsura Sunshine is a Rakugo (Japanese comedic storytelling) artist from Canada. He's the only non-Japanese master of Rakugo in Japan. Kyota Ko is a best-selling author who tells stories about historical characters in a humorous way. My buddy and I had a few good laughs watching their clips.

We turned in for the night to get ready to spend the day at Universal Studios Japan the next day.

 June 5