Tag: panda

A Leisurely Stroll through the Heart of Osaka

After my Autumn Adventures in Kyoto, I decided to stop by Osaka to see a college friend and hit up some interesting cafes with her before heading home to Tokyo. My friend has quite the interesting career history of freelance English teaching in Vietnam and then moving to Japan to eventually accept a software engineer position for Rakuten. She will be moving to Tokyo at the end of this month and I am beyond excited to go on more exciting adventures with her! Crazy how we both met at Michigan State University and ended up here. I’m so fortunate to be surrounded by people who constantly drive me to be a better person!

In celebration of her new job, we bought white wine and chocolates from Family Mart and talked about our recent endeavors. Though I see Osaka as a bustling city full of opportunities, she expressed that there is a lot less to do here than in Tokyo and she can’t wait to make the move. Though Osaka was once a city I considered working in, after hearing this from her it re-affirmed my belief that Tokyo is one of the most exciting cities in the world and has endless things to do and see. More than anywhere else. Despite this reflection, Osaka will always have a special place in my heart as a fun city to travel to. ♥

For more information on Osaka, please see my Super Aesthetic Adventures in Osaka article series!

Cafe Stop #1: TKG Osaka

TKG Osaka, or “tamago kake gohan” as my Japanese friend likes to call it (literally translates to “egg over rice”) is a popular yakitori joint around Kansai. Fortunately it is centrally located and was just a 10 minute walk from my friend’s apartment in Nipponbashi. Though I don’t eat meat, the adorable egg face created with carefully-sliced seaweed completely won me over. This is a dish that you can easily make yourself at home, but this restaurant has special lunch and dinner sets that you can order as a complete meal. I chose a set with vegetables that cost around 1200 yen. Not everyone likes the taste of raw egg over rice, but once you get used to the texture it’s quite the hearty dish.

Address: 〒542-0076 Osaka, Chuo Ward, Nanba, 3 Chome-7, Gems Namba 8F

Cafe Stop #2: Cafe Twinkle’s Recipe

After eating our smiling egg rice dishes, we came across a brightly-painted cafe blaring K-pop with a strong retro vibe called Cafe Twinkle’s Recipe. Not wanting to dash our aesthetic cafe streak, we decided to stop by for a quick drink here. Let me tell you that the banana juice and interior decor was off the chain. Plus the waitress noticed I was wearing a BLACKPINK hoodie so she decided to play “Lovesick Girls” for us. This was the highlight of my trip. Honestly if you have time I would recommend stopping by here because you never know exactly what you’ll walk into. Next time I would love to try their cakes and macarons!

Address: 〒556-0005 4-chōme-17-10 Nipponbashi

Cafe Stop #3 Osaka Panda

Here it is—my main reason for coming to Osaka: to eat panda ice cream!! Osaka Panda is extremely small but serves up delicious baked goods, ice cream, and drinks. I originally discovered it through my Instagram algorithms and was enamored by its adorable design. Though there are panda pies and ice cream drinks galore, we decided to try the seasonal panda parfait. This included ice cream, chocolate, pie crust, granola, and sweet potato flavor which created a rich taste full of flavor. I would recommend this cafe to my friends because it is near Denden Town and offers takeout options. If you go, please tell me what the seasonal parfait looks like! I see the December one had reindeer antlers which really makes me wonder what other new sweets they’ll introduce here.

Address: 4 Chome-13-15 Nipponbashi, Naniwa Ward, Osaka, 556-0005

Pit Stops

Now that we had nearly limitless energy from all of the delicious food we ate, we decided to go sightseeing around Osaka by foot! We first dropped by the Pokemon Center where we were immediately handed a limited edition Pikachu card. The festive kimono it was wearing really fit the mood of this trip. I picked up some Pokemon cookies for my coworkers and then scurried out because it was extremely crowded for the holiday. But really, when is the Pokemon Center not busy? Sometimes you just gotta [politely] push past the crowds to get what you want!

We next walked around Denden Town and looked through the anime shops just for fun. There was an outdoor flea market going on much like the ones you see in Akihabara selling figures, plushies, and DVDs. Though nothing caught my eye, the memories of all the anime I watched between freelancing came to mind and I felt happy. Revolutionary Girl Utena was one of the best anime I had discovered this year. We also stumbled upon a poster with Tifa advertising a game music event called VGM-FUN. Though the event had already passed, we decided we would try to check out a similar one if our paths crossed again in this wonderful city!

Heading Home

Due to the large number of people that came to Osaka through the GoTo Travel Campaign, I decided to head home around 3pm. The reserved seats on the shinkansen were already sold out so I bought a non-reserved ticket. Fortunately there was enough room that I was able to take a seat! But in the future I think I will try to reserve one in advance so I don’t have to stress about it.

When I arrived home, my cat Leo was waiting for me. Though I had a lot of fun and took a ton of amazing pictures, I was extremely happy to be back! This was my last trip of 2020 as international travel is restricted and even domestic travel is discouraged. In 2021, I have my sights set on Okinawa and Kyushu. I would also like to go to Awaji and Aomori in the spring if they are open.

In my next article I will be talking about the limited things I was able to do in Tokyo over the New Year’s holiday. Though there are more things to do here than in other countries, it definitely felt weird to me not spending NYE on a tropical island. However, I was able to make the best of the situation and do a lot of freelance work for extra cash. When the opportunity for travel comes again, I will be more than ready!

Thank you to all of my readers in 2020, and I hope to update even more this year. Please stay safe and look forward to more articles from me!

The Jeju Chronicles: Venturing Around the West Side

After successfully climbing Korea’s tallest mountain, I decided to take a bus tour around the west side of the island so I could relax and enjoy some of the quirky attractions of Jeju Island.  I booked my tour through Jeju Day Tour because they go to the most places out of all the tour companies and are locally owned.  The price for seeing half the island is only $65 USD which is worth it because it’s cheaper than renting a taxi or car.  Mr. Ko, who personally organizes the tours and is the main guide, speaks very good English and answered all of my questions about the culture here.

The tour is about 9 – 10 hours but includes lunch and plenty of breaks.  Our tour only had about seven people on it which was the just the right amount.  The bus came directly to my hostel at dawn so we could get an early start.  I couldn’t wait to see how my third day on the island was about to unfold!

Mysterious Road

Our first stop was the “Mysterious Road” (also known as “Dokkaebi Road”) which was located at the base of a mountain that connects two major highways.  It was given this name because things that fall on it seem to roll up the hill rather than down.  In other words, the road appears to defy gravity due to an optical illusion of its mountainous surroundings.  Since we came on a slightly rainy day, we could see water droplets coming towards us from the top of the hill and it was supernatural.  The demon head statue that marked the road also added to the ambiance, and it was only our first stop!

Cheonjeyoen Falls

Our next stop was the Cheonjeyoen Falls, which are three of the most beautiful waterfalls in Jeju!  The water from the first waterfall divides into the other two making it a beautiful natural occurrence.  The water from this park eventually flows into the ocean, which is why people call it “The Pond of the Gods”.  It definitely looks like something mythical straight out of a video game.  I was grateful to have my guide explain its origin or else I would have overlooked it.  These are the best waterfalls to see on the island in my opinion.

Mt. Songak

Mt. Songak is a little volcano with 99 peaks.  This was the second volcano I visited after Mt. Hallasan and was a much easier climb!  The summit has the best view of the west side of the island, but unfortunately due to the heavy fog it was difficult to see.  The coast and walk to the temple however were breathtaking.  Even with the fog I could still clearly make them out.  I climbed part of the mountain (which only took a few minutes) then opted to go horseback riding for a small fee.  My horse looked similar to Epona so it was totally worth it.

jeju-horse-and-seongsan-ilchulbong-douglas-macdonald

The good thing about Jeju is that the fog usually clears quickly.  Since I was here for 5 days and had already climbed the tallest mountain, I was more focused on the experience of hiking rather than taking photos.

Jeju Trickeye Museum

After spending the entire morning submersed in nature, we had a Korean buffet lunch that was included in the tour package and were dropped off at the Jeju Trickeye Museum.  At Trickeye museums you can pose with various paintings that are designed to make it look like you are part of the art.  I had been to the Trickeye Museum in Seoul the previous year so this was quite similar.  However, the Trickeye App that you can download for free on your phone makes photography much more interesting here.  My favorite part was the VR pandas that were created with the app.  This video I took made it look like they had crawled out of the painting.  It was honestly worth the trip.

Soingook Theme Park

I was not expecting to run into Shrek and crew while I was in Korea, but that just goes to show how crazy this island is.  At Soingook Theme Park you can can see replicas of famous architecture around the world juxtaposed to characters from famous films in a humorous display.  I enjoyed seeing Buddha, Shrek, an Angry Birds plane, and some vaporwave all in the same place.  Not to mention a beautiful bridge and lake from god knows where.  I bought some knock-off Kit-Kats called “Twin Kicker” at a convenience store here and they tasted pretty good.  I’m still trying to process everything I saw here!

Osulloc Tea Museum

Osulloc is the largest tea plantation in Korea and is also a museum with delicious sweets.  From Jeju Island, the plants receive the perfect amount of sunlight so they can be processed into high quality tea and shipped around the country.  You can freely wander through the plantation and learn about how tea is made.  I tried the green tea ice cream and chocolate green tea roll which was amazing!  This is one of the best spots to pick up souvenirs on Jeju too.  I would say Korean green tea is just as good as Japanese green tea.

Teddy Bear Museum (Teseum)

Because meeting Shrek wasn’t enough, our final stop was the Teddy Bear Museum (also called “Teseum”) where we went on a “Teddy Bear Safari” to meet stuffed bears from all over the world.  Not gonna lie, the concept seems childish but this was actually a very fun exhibition.  Seeing everything from the anatomy of a teddy bear to their origin made me think back to all the stuffed Beanie Babies I collected as a kid.  I did not realize how much of an impact teddy bears had on the world before I came here.  Why was this on a sub tropical island in Korea?  I have no idea, but it was an interesting concept.

When we got back on the bus, Mr. Ko kindly gave us mini bear keychains as souvenirs from the museum.  I still have mine and think back to this trip very fondly.

After a fulfilling day of nature, green tea, and some of the craziest museums in Jeju, I was taken back to my hostel Skywalker around dinner time.  I chose this hostel because it was close to Mt. Hallasan Park and the dorms were only around $12 per night.  Unfortunately this hostel is now closed, but my other recommendation GreenDay is still open!

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<insert your own Star Wars reference here>

Final Thoughts

This tour was 100% worth it.  The amount of things we were able to see in one day was astonishing.  We had the perfect balance of nature, museums, and silly tourist attractions (which I never would have went to by myself but I enjoyed them).  Basically we saw the entire west part of the island and were free to explore each destination after listening to a brief explanation.  You could try to reach these places with a local Jeju bus, but some spots such as the Mysterious Road can only be accessed by car or via tour bus.  The amount I paid for this tour was about the same as I paid for my bus tour in Okinawa, Japan, so it was pretty fair.  I was happy to have a Jeju local as my guide.  If you book a tour with Jeju Day Tour then be sure to say hello to Mr. Ko for me!

In my next article, I will be exploring the east side of the island with the same tour company (they were that good)!  The west tour runs on even days and we east tour runs on odd days, so you can easily fit them into your schedule.  Thank you for reading!