“Travel far, travel often, and travel without regrets.” – Oscar Wilde
We spent the day meandering through London catching glimpses of Buckingham Palace, historic statues and buildings, and St. James’s Park (where we had ‘99’ ice cream with a flake). We went to Notting Hill and bought the most delicious navel oranges in the street market. We took pictures in front of the blue door (from the movie) and had bubble tea on the walk back.
We found Earl’s Court to be the nearest Underground station. It was an easy walk from the hotel and surrounded by good food and shops. We had lunch at Nando’s and hopped over to King Cross to take photos at Platform 9 ¾, then on to Piccadilly Square. (Another photo opportunity with sites from Bridgette Jones and Bend it like Beckham.)
London called! We answered! When we arrived in London, we were told we had no room because we should have checked in earlier. After a few phone calls that was sorted and we stayed on the top floor of a lovely boutique hotel. We spent the remainder of the day getting our bearings and walking through the city center.
We cleaned the condo, took one last selfie, and left in an Uber taxi for Shin-Osaka train station, where we went our separate ways to catch trains to different airports. By the time I got to Haneda my bags were getting heavy so I found a rolling cart (what a blessing!) and had one last tempura meal in the airport.
On our last full day in Japan, we took the train to Kyoto where we had lunch near the Happy Terrace at the top the sky dining hall. I love the little restaurants where you have a heated grill between you to cook your meal. We had a delicious beef rice (that reminded me of a dish my mother used to fix) and grilled veggies.
Today we got a late start and had lunch of soup, rice, pork cutlet, and barley water in the Chuo district of Osaka. Our first stop was at the Harry Wood hedgehog café, where we spent a half hour with Brûlée, our sweet little hedgehog. We watched him sniff, eat worms, and sleep (great life!).
We spent several evenings in the Dōtonbori (or Dōtombori) area, which is the shopping and neon-lit nightlife district in Osaka. We could walk there from our condo, so we kept going back for all the touristy stuff.
We finally got to Tsūtenkaku tower, which was walking distance from our condo in Osaka. The skies were clear and the views lovely. We could see the top of the Golden Pavilion, which we plan to visit on our last day.
We spent our entire vacation in and around Osaka and Kyoto, but made a day trip into Tokyo via bullet train for rice balls at Sakura Sabou Tea Salon, a special little shop that Caroline and Courtney discovered on a previous trip to Japan.
Since my children were little, we have traveled together. On many trips, we visited local aquariums and zoos. On the way to the aquarium in Osaka, we saw a giant Ferris wheel, and had just enough time to ride it before our entry into the aquarium! Since so many people visit here, they are very organized and give you a time window for entry.
Today we spent a full day at Universal Studios Japan. This park has the only Super Nintendo World anywhere, so we had to arrive early to reserve our spot, and still got one of the very last slots just 50 minutes before the park closed. So yes, we did close down the park. It was really fun but extremely hot and humid. It was so late when we got back to the main station we actually took a taxi back instead of another train, and fell asleep in the car on the way home!
After a relaxing morning, we had a tasty tempura lunch in a very small restaurant before leaving for the deer park. We could barely fit the door closed behind us, and the owner fried our food just to our right. He is featured in the photos on the wall.
