8 January – Osaka

It was our last day in Osaka, and we’d ticked off most of the things we wanted to do during our stay here so had a fairly easy (for us!) agenda for the day. Soren was almost better, after being sick since leaving Australia, but I was still sick, so I was looking forward to a day with less walking …. well that didn’t work out!

Cat cafe cuddles……

We thought we’d go to an animal cafe during the morning. We’d not yet managed a cat (or other animal) cafe during our time in Japan, and the kids were very keen for this quintessential Japanese experience.

We spent some time researching to find one that was both ethical and looked after the animals well…. and also allowed kids under 10 (which some didn’t). We found a cat cafe 16 minutes walk from us that fit the bill, so we set off.

Aside from it costing about half the cost of a purebred cat, it was a super fun experience. There were plenty of very well looked after cats, the place was clean and they had someone attending to all their needs. Plus the cats could go to another room to use the litter or get away from too many attentive cats. When we arrived their weren’t many other guests and plenty of cats were awaiting cuddles. We had to put all our gear in lockers and put the supplied footwear on and order our drinks.

We all immediately found plenty of cats happy for pats and cuddles. There were some extremely gorgeous cats and we all found our favourites.

You ‘had’ to buy a drink from the cafe, which made the kids happy and Soren’s chai latte had some excellent cat latte art. It even looked like the cat that befriended him!

We can see why these cafes are very popular. It was rather relaxing hanging out with a hot drink patting cats.

The cats were gorgeous and we had a lot of fun patting them, giving them brushes and helping them play with cat toys.

Hello Kitty torture and shopping fun….

We could have stayed all day with the cats in the cafe, but then would have forked out enough money to buy 4 cats. So we reluctantly dragged the kids away from the cat cafe and indulged in some retail therapy. The cafe was inside a large mall and we found plenty of fun stores right nearby.

This included torturing Soren with more Hello Kitty stores. Zinnia was very keen on some Hello Kitty and Miffy purchases, and Astrid did some shopping for friends back home.

Soren was not impressed with all the Hello Kitty, but we then made his day by finding the Jump shop with more One Piece items. The Jump shop also gave out One Piece stamps, so Soren was in heaven. As we are walking around with their ‘train stamp books’ in our bags for every time we are in a station, we added to the train stamp book collection with One Piece stamps.

We also found a Loft store which has awesome stationary. We were all happy to find plenty of things we ‘needed’ and our bags got loaded up a bit more!

Lunch and more shopping…..

By now it was lunch time. In previous days we’d spied restaurants near Tsutenkaku Tower that had vegetarian options as well as plenty of non-veggie options the others would happily eat. Places with dedicated vegetarian/vegan and gluten free menus here are hard to come by. All keen for a hot lunch not from a konbini we set off towards the tower and the highly entertaining Shinsekai district.

I managed to get a verified vegetarian udon bowl and some dengaku eggplant. Astrid had a giant tonkatsu set, and Soren some wagyu tartare (he loves tartare and couldn’t resist trying a wagyu version). Anto ordered himself a tempura set, and Zinnia desperate for more salad ordered a tomato salad and an onigiri. You know you’ve been on holidays for too long when the kids are seeking out vegetables!

All happy with our feed. It was a great meal and we’d enjoyed the sit down in the warm. As it was our last day in Osaka we were up for some souvenir shopping in the Shinkesai district. Soren was still on the hunt for his Japanese thongs (geta). The stores in Kuromon arcade weren’t open earlier in the week but were (in theory) today.

We were off on the metro followed by some walking. The metro stations are quite varied and one we happened through today had some very cool artwork in frames!

Of course the usually reliable google maps took us on an adventure, but we eventually found the Kuromon arcade again and the shops were all open.

As we’d just eaten we were less tempted by all the different food offerings today.

After locating the stores that supposedly sold geta, one store didn’t have the shoes in the right size for Soren, and the other had a very cranky old man who did not want Soren to even look at them. This made Soren in a bit of a mood for several hours, but at least we’d tried.

It was a cold and grey day and hadn’t made it over 7 degrees. We even got rained on a little bit on our walk back towards our apartment. All a little weary, we enjoyed an hour or so to chill before our last Osaka activity. The kids enjoyed some Mario Kart time (or mostly fought over it), while the adults enjoyed some hot coffee while we planned our next few days.

TeamLab Osaka….

By now it was after 5pm dark and about 2 degrees but it was time to head out the Osaka Botanical Gardens where the Osaka teamLab is. International art collective teamLab, who are well known for their exhibits in Tokyo, now have an exhibit in Osaka. We are also visiting a teamLab in Tokyo at the end of the trip, but were keen to see the Osaka one as each is unique. The Osaka teamLab is based in the Nagai Botanical Garden, which is around 15 minutes south of Namba.

We walked to our local Tennoji station and caught the Midosuji subway line and hopped off in an area that we hadn’t yet visited. It was already rather dark and very cold. The 15 minute walk from the train station to the Garden was an adventure, we passed lots of football and baseball stadiums, and I managed to walk into a low bollard in the dark and skin my knee, graze my hand and rip a giant hole in my jeans, but did thankfully avoid smashing my camera.

After feeling like we were walking in the middle of nowhere we finally found the Botanical gardens. We were all wearing coats and gloves but were freezing and starting to doubt this was a good idea. We had to listen to spiel about the exhibits and then we were released into the gardens.

The teamLab Osaka is an interactive outdoor art experience. The forests and fields of the botanical gardens host a variety of illuminated exhibits that you can walk amongst and interact with. We set off following the signs and were immediately captivated by the lights and colours.

At least when we reached the gardens it was worth the cold walk and now painful knee and grazed hand. It might have been 1 degree and very dark but the exhibit was amazing. The artworks are all interactive and the lights and shapes change as people approach or touch them.

As we followed the paths around we found different displays. Some used natural features of the gardens, like the trees and grass, and others did not.

The giant inflatable balls were a favourite. The were fun to touch and push and changed colour as you interacted with them.

There were large fields of the balls and you walked through them like a maze. The big ones were huge and we weren’t sure we hadn’t lost a Zinnia in them at one point!

There were a variety of different areas, with different projections. You had to stop and watch as the changed colour and shape over time.

The giant inflatable pillars that danced into the wind were one of the best exhibits. These were truly beautiful.

We were all enjoying all the exhibits. Zinnia was right though that it would be much more fun in Spring or Autumn! Unfortunately we were in Osaka in Winter, and this was our one chance to visit. It was pretty spectacular in the cold Winter air, and we discovered you can get hot drinks out of vending machine even in the middle of the botanical gardens. The kids warmed their hands and tummies on vending machine drinks, powering us through the last couple of exhibits.

It took us about an hour to wander around and appreciate the exhibits, we could have spent longer but were pretty cold even with coats and gloves.

Each exhibit was amazing and the photos and videos don’t do it justice.

Once we’d done a lap and spent time making every exhibit interact with us, we decided we were cold and it was time for dinner and warmth! We set off for the walk to the train station. This time I avoided walking into any more bollards. On the way back we stopped by the 7-11 to pick up a random selection of hot items to eat on the way back to the apartment.

We made it back just after 8pm, having racked up between 20 and 30k steps each again on our ‘easy’ day. My favourite jeans were now sporting a large hole, and my knee and hand were very grazed and bruised but at least there were no serious injuries. Between that and still being sick with an ear infection a quiet few days were in order. We were off to snow the next day so were somewhat looking forward to a day of sitting on trains as made our way to Hakuba in the Nagano prefecture.

Up next…

A scenic and snowy trip to Hakuba and the Japanese Alps. We were staying in amazing chalet and there was plenty of snow and attempts at skiing!