Japan 2023 Day 3: Kyoto - Osaka
DAY 3: 13 JUN 2023
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| Tofuku-ji Temple |
Our last morning in Kyoto!
As we were staying near Tofuku-ji temple, we decided to visit the temple before leaving the city.
We popped by a convenience store to get tamago sando aka egg sandwich for breakfast.
The exterior sections of the temple were exempted from admission fees.
While roaming around the temple grounds, we found a pond with little ducklings!
We were done exploring the temple after 30 minutes.
We made our way back to our townhouse and set off for our next city, Osaka.
We used Google maps to decide our travel route to Osaka.
We went for a route which required 2 train line changes and it costs about 610 yen.
The journey took more than an hour and we finally arrived at Nippombashi station.
We took a 5 minutes' walk to our hotel, Sotetsu Grand Fresa Osaka.
I love the location of this hotel!
It was a stone throw away from Dotonbori and a short walk to Kuromon market.
Our room was a double room with a sofa bed and we paid S$50 per pax per night.
Super good deal discovered by Michelle!
As we arrived before the check in time, we left our luggages at the hotel lobby and headed out for lunch.
Michelle brought us to Gyukatsu Motomura, which serves beef cutlet!
We joined the queue at the main outlet but a staff approached us to ask if we were willing to head to another outlet which has available tables.
We decided to make the change and took a 5 minutes walk to the second outlet.
We got our table immediately!
All three of us got the set meal with 1 cutlet.
The entire meal experience was so good.
We could grill our cutlet on the little stone to heat it up and the meat tasted so good.
The side dishes were yummy too!
After lunch, we explored Shinsaibashi shopping streets.
There were many fashion retail shops and drug stores located along the stretch.
There were a few gachapon shops and we tried our luck at the machines.
Initially, I did not have any intention to play.
But as Michelle started and then Amanda joined...I decided to try my luck at a machine that has pouches with dog prints.
I was really unlucky though.
I was alright with all prints except for one and I just got to have the one I didn't want.
Oh well, it was alright for the fun of it.
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| Bake cheese tart |
As we were walking towards another section of the street, I spotted Bake!
Amanda has never treated Bake before so we immediately joined the queue.
All of us got the crème brulee cheese tart and we saw how it was made.
The amount of sugar was shocking which made the tart a sinful treat.
It was too sweet for my liking so I will stick to the original version in future.
After shopping, we headed to the Wonder Cruise ticket booth.
We wanted to make a reservation in advance for the evening boat ride but the staff told us to return at 6pm when the ticket office officially opens.
We hung around the area till 6pm and joined the queue.
If I remembered correctly, we originally wanted the 7.30pm slot so that we had time to rest in the hotel and catch the sunset.
However, the staff was inflexible and said we couldn't do advance reservation and had to re-queue at 7pm for that slot.
That would be an utter waste of time and we decided to take the first slot available.
The boat ride costs around S$11 per pax and the ride takes 20 - 25 minutes.
I got a free pass from purchasing Japan activities on Klook so we only paid for 2 pax.
There are other cruise operators along Dotonbori which operate during the day time and you may consider these operators if you wish to do the cruise earlier in the day.
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| Kushi Katsu |
We headed back to our hotel for a short rest after the boat cruise.
Dinner that day was kushi katsu!
Basically, they are fried items on skewers and are commonly found in izakaya.
Michelle brought us to Kushikatsu Daruma which had a few shops in Namba.
We were lucky to get counter seats immediately as a queue formed outside the shop 10 minutes after we arrived.
Ordering is done via a QR code assigned to your table.
There were a good selection of skewers available and the batter tasted really light and good!
We also ordered doteyaki which was stewed beef tendon, konjac with miso.
It was not great but edible for me.
The both of them didn't like it at all haha.
After dinner, we took a walk along Dotonbori for the night lights!
How can you miss the famous Glico man when in Osaka!
As the plan for the next day was Universal Studios Japan, we headed back to the hotel for an early rest!
That's it for day 3!
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