おはよう、日本! – Japan, March 2019 (Part 1)

おはよう、日本! Ohayou, Nihon! Good morning, Japan!

Naz and I have been to Japan once together, back in December 2017, and once separately. Since the March holidays coincided with the beginning of spring, we were eager to catch the blooming sakura for the first time.

We took a flight to Osaka, made our way east to Kyoto, and then Tokyo, and flew home from there. So here’s my account of our trip:

Day 1 (16 March 2019)

Upon landing in Osaka, we went straight to Akaoni in Dotonbori which sold one of the best takoyaki in Osaka.

We then made our way to Osaka Castle Park. Exiting the train station, we were greeted by a gorgeous sight: a grove of plum blossoms! Not quite the sakura (cherry blossom) trees we were hunting for, but gorgeous nonetheless. Plum blossoms bloom earlier than cherry blossoms – sometime around February.

*An ice cream truck underneath a flurry of plum (not sakura) blossoms*

*Close up of the beautiful plum blossoms*

*One of the many ‘pose with pink flowers’ photos you’ll see in the Japan blog posts*

*Naz, very satisfied with his sakura soft cream*

After walking around the park, we headed to Shitennoji Temple. Shitennoji (四天王寺) is one of Japan’s oldest temples and the first ever to be built by the state.

*One of the numerous pretty manhole covers we spotted in Japan*

Then we explored the Nipponbashi (not to be confused with Nihonbashi in Tokyo, which shares the same kanji 日本橋) area. I just love the streetscapes of Japan – they have this distinct quality about them, like they’re straight out of an anime!

(Not pictured is Naz going ham at Joshin buying gunpla kits)