Tweet
Some time in the 2nd half of this year, the different stakeholders in our family of four reached a consensus on where we would go for an end-of-year holiday. I think we all had different reasons to head to Osaka.
Mrs yflyer was clearly going for the cuisine, the shopping scene, and the culture (Probably in that order…). Our two girls voted yes because of the opportunity to visit Universal Studios Japan, located on the outskirts of Osaka, with its recent Harry Potter extension.
Me? All of the reasons above applied to some extent too, but also I did it for KIX…
While I visit Tokyo on a fairly regular basis, I have never been to that marvel of architecture and engineering, Kansai International Airport, a stunning airport built on a man-made island off Osaka Bay. This would be great opportunity to make an aviation pilgrimage to this remarkable structure.
So Osaka and Kyoto it was, and we headed there on SQ at the end of November, and spent the first part of December exploring this fascinating part of Japan.
We would spend two days in Osaka at the start, head to Kyoto for 4 nights, then return to Osaka to visit Universal Studios Japan (USJ) and explore the city and its attractions for the remainder of the trip.
Mrs yflyer had been to Tokyo with her girlfriends in the past, and our kids already had Universal Studios on the itinerary, so they didn’t lobby too hard for Tokyo Disney this time round. There wasn’t a need to fit Tokyo into our 11 day itinerary. That said, if any reader is contemplating a similar trip, it would have been simple to add a few days in Tokyo at the start, or the end, of the itinerary.
As usual, my role in planning this vacation was limited to choosing and booking the flights to and from Osaka, and figuring out how to get from point A to point B once in Japan, whether by train, subway, taxi or on foot. The rest was planned by Mrs yflyer, who in recent years has become quite expert at playing travel planner, utilizing all available internet resources to plan our vacation.
She also needed the help of several Japanese-speaking acquaintances, because some of our reservations could only be done in Japanese, or booked using Japanese language websites.
We stayed mainly in apartments or Japanese style hotels and a traditional house in Kyoto called a machiya. With tatami covered flooring, minimalist wooden design, and comfortable futon bedding on the floor, the accomodations on this trip were a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter rooms in hotel chains that do not give a traveller a sense of place.
And as you would expect from other TR’s featuring Mrs yflyer, we ate a lot...
A couple of gourmet meals in Arashiyama and Osaka aside, it was mainly street food and cheap eats, whether it was street-side ramen, shellfish and sea urchin from the market cooked on the spot, or takoyaki – delicious, creamy minced octopus balls cooked in batter.
The stupendous range of local produce, meat and seafood in butchers, markets and supermarkets meant that Mrs yflyer could cook up a real feast as well, whenever cooking facilities were available in our accomodations. Cook-your-own is definitely a more cost-effective way to sample the famed local cuisine, such as Wagyu, Kobe or Matsusaka beef, compared to eating it in restaurant. If you bought this high-end meat at butchers or supermarkets and cooked it yourself, you could get much more bang for your buck…
A long TR coming up, and as usual, best not to read this on an empty stomach!
You can go straight to different sections of the TR here, or just continue scrolling to begin at the beginning:
SQ Flight SIN-KIX
Osaka – Hotel Ichei
Osaka – Dotonburi, Shinsaibashi, Kuromon Ichiba
Kyoto – Machiya (Traditional House)
Kyoto – Kichi Kichi Omu-Rice
Nara - Deer Park
Kyoto - Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Nishiki Market, Kamo River
Arashiyama – Temra Matsu
Kyoto - Gion Geisha District
Kyoto – Train Journey from Kyoto to Osaka
Osaka – Dotonburi Apartment
Osaka – Osaka Castle and Osaka Aquarium
Osaka – Universal Studios Japan
Osaka – Kigawa
Osaka – Seafood and Beef from Kuromon Ichiba Market
Kansai - Star Gate Hotel
Kansai - KIX Airport
SQ Flight KIX-SIN
Mrs yflyer was clearly going for the cuisine, the shopping scene, and the culture (Probably in that order…). Our two girls voted yes because of the opportunity to visit Universal Studios Japan, located on the outskirts of Osaka, with its recent Harry Potter extension.
Me? All of the reasons above applied to some extent too, but also I did it for KIX…
While I visit Tokyo on a fairly regular basis, I have never been to that marvel of architecture and engineering, Kansai International Airport, a stunning airport built on a man-made island off Osaka Bay. This would be great opportunity to make an aviation pilgrimage to this remarkable structure.
So Osaka and Kyoto it was, and we headed there on SQ at the end of November, and spent the first part of December exploring this fascinating part of Japan.
We would spend two days in Osaka at the start, head to Kyoto for 4 nights, then return to Osaka to visit Universal Studios Japan (USJ) and explore the city and its attractions for the remainder of the trip.
Mrs yflyer had been to Tokyo with her girlfriends in the past, and our kids already had Universal Studios on the itinerary, so they didn’t lobby too hard for Tokyo Disney this time round. There wasn’t a need to fit Tokyo into our 11 day itinerary. That said, if any reader is contemplating a similar trip, it would have been simple to add a few days in Tokyo at the start, or the end, of the itinerary.
As usual, my role in planning this vacation was limited to choosing and booking the flights to and from Osaka, and figuring out how to get from point A to point B once in Japan, whether by train, subway, taxi or on foot. The rest was planned by Mrs yflyer, who in recent years has become quite expert at playing travel planner, utilizing all available internet resources to plan our vacation.
She also needed the help of several Japanese-speaking acquaintances, because some of our reservations could only be done in Japanese, or booked using Japanese language websites.
We stayed mainly in apartments or Japanese style hotels and a traditional house in Kyoto called a machiya. With tatami covered flooring, minimalist wooden design, and comfortable futon bedding on the floor, the accomodations on this trip were a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter rooms in hotel chains that do not give a traveller a sense of place.
And as you would expect from other TR’s featuring Mrs yflyer, we ate a lot...
A couple of gourmet meals in Arashiyama and Osaka aside, it was mainly street food and cheap eats, whether it was street-side ramen, shellfish and sea urchin from the market cooked on the spot, or takoyaki – delicious, creamy minced octopus balls cooked in batter.
The stupendous range of local produce, meat and seafood in butchers, markets and supermarkets meant that Mrs yflyer could cook up a real feast as well, whenever cooking facilities were available in our accomodations. Cook-your-own is definitely a more cost-effective way to sample the famed local cuisine, such as Wagyu, Kobe or Matsusaka beef, compared to eating it in restaurant. If you bought this high-end meat at butchers or supermarkets and cooked it yourself, you could get much more bang for your buck…
A long TR coming up, and as usual, best not to read this on an empty stomach!
You can go straight to different sections of the TR here, or just continue scrolling to begin at the beginning:
SQ Flight SIN-KIX
Osaka – Hotel Ichei
Osaka – Dotonburi, Shinsaibashi, Kuromon Ichiba
Kyoto – Machiya (Traditional House)
Kyoto – Kichi Kichi Omu-Rice
Nara - Deer Park
Kyoto - Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Nishiki Market, Kamo River
Arashiyama – Temra Matsu
Kyoto - Gion Geisha District
Kyoto – Train Journey from Kyoto to Osaka
Osaka – Dotonburi Apartment
Osaka – Osaka Castle and Osaka Aquarium
Osaka – Universal Studios Japan
Osaka – Kigawa
Osaka – Seafood and Beef from Kuromon Ichiba Market
Kansai - Star Gate Hotel
Kansai - KIX Airport
SQ Flight KIX-SIN
Comment