We woke up with much elation in a new city and a wonderfully spacious hotel facing the glittering Osaka Bay. More theme parks awaited us! This time, I was anticipating this theme park as it would be something new for me - Universal Studios Osaka.
After a sumptuous breakfast, we took a leisurely 15-minute stroll to Universal Studios from our hotel. The weather in Osaka was considerably warmer and more humid, as we headed further down south. We were one of the first entering the Park slightly before 10am!
Universal Studios seemed to target a whole different set of audience, compared to magical and fantastical Disney Land. The scale was huge, with a strong slant towards movie and Hollywood magic - some of the capacious sets like Jaws' Amityville town, Land of Oz, the vast Hollywood Boulevard and majestic New York City straight from the Spiderman's movie set fascinated Hubby and I to no end. The Bees were more tickled by walking mascots like Shrek and Princess Fiona, Hello Kitty (much to Little Bee's delight but Big Bee's cynical aversion!), Pink Panther (the girls were amazed by the huge Pink Panther shop with its endless array of merchandise!) and the Sesame Street characters (Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, etc). All these characters from TV and movies transformed right into life for the Bees, much to their open-mouthed enthrallment.
I prefer Universal Studios to DisneyLand largely due to the absence of dense, large and overwhelming crowds. Hence, we were able to amble around the Park in a relaxed fashion, enjoying the entire ambience and beautiful late afternoon golden sunshine. The scale of Universal Studios in Osaka was huge and we could literally lose ourselves in the various sets that evoke different worlds in various eras. I particularly loved the ubiquitous bronze "Movie sets plates" on different props and sets, highlighting which movies these props were featured in.
With lesser crowds, we could watch a lot more shows although we could not be part of many rides as these catered more for bigger kids. However, losing ourselves sauntering in different worlds more than made up for the lack of rides! Needless to say, the Bees' favourite show was the Sesame Street musical fiesta held on the open street in the cool, pleasant early evening hours with stunning sunlight from the setting sun. Hubby and I really enjoyed the thrilling and loud Waterworld show, much to the Bees' chagrin!
It was a truly enjoyable day, and I thought it was a pity that Universal Studios had to close at 6pm, leaving us with no chance to view it in the dark, complete with glittering Hollywood magic at night!
We had a fast but delicious dinner of springy ramen at a nearby mall before adjourning back to the hotel for an early and relaxed night.
Day 6, 10 June (Thursday)
The next day dawned bright and clear for us to explore the rest of Osaka! A few highlights of today:
1) Having a lazy 2-hour breakfast, giggling with the Bees and munching on food galore. Yum - my type of ideal holiday breakfasts!
2) Sailing away on the harbour on Capt Line, the ferry that transported us to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan on the other side of the bay. The Bees were excitedly scuttling around the ferry, enjoying the azure blue bay with seagulls and a busy port ambience.
3) Spending the entire afternoon in pure amazement in the massive Osaka Aquarium, staring in close proximity at ocean creatures like the largest fish in the world, the colossal whale sharks, cheery porpoises, graceful manta rays, intelligent dolphins that seemed to interact with the Bees from the other side of the aquarium, and witnessing a mind-boggling array of never-seen-before fishes! Hubby, the Bees and I were absolutely bewitched.
4) Spending the early evening at a nearby food complex in the Tempozan Marketplace, losing ourselves in the quaint labyrinth of tiny Japanese food stalls, gorging on Japanese food delights. Osaka is known as the food capital of Japan, and we were not disappointed, trying a plethora of ambrosial food and snacks!
5) Sitting comfortably outdoors under the spotless blue sky and enjoying the resplendent evening sunlight while watching the Bees interact and play with some very tame pigeons. Such relaxed mode of holiday is indeed ideal.
6) Strolling without direction around, eventually settling for a metro ride into Dotombori, the glitzy shopping and restaurant district of Osaka with dazzling neon lights and endless pachinko outlets! The Bees were not thrilled by the city sights but Hubby and I were pretty dazzled by the ubiquitous bright flashing signs!
7) Having a wonderful buffet dinner at a do-it-yourself Japanese kushiage (deep-fried) restaurant! Kushiage is a Japanese-style deep-fried kabab. Kushi means skewers and age means deep-frying in Japanese. Bamboo sticks are used for kusiage in Japan, and skewered vegetables and meats are breaded and deep-fried. It was so fascinating for all 4 of us. We selected the meats and vegetables on skewers, rolled these food in a plate of bread crumbs and then dipped the skewers into a basin of hot simmering oil. Then, voila! The end result was a piece of breaded, deep fried kushiage that was so succulent and delicious albeit very unhealthy with all those oil! However, the Bees enjoyed cooking their own dinner so much that we spent a good 2 hours in this restaurant, with the 2 of them dipping and deep-frying an endless supply of kushiage. Burp! We were so full and sleepy by the time we arrived in the hotel that we slept almost immediately!
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