From Tokyo to Osaka

On this trip my daughter Courtney and I flew Delta Comfort Plus and at the last minute before lift off the man between us moved up a row, so we made our 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Tokyo with an empty seat between us! We flew into Tokyo to save thousands of dollars on our tickets, so when we landed we still had a 3 hour bullet train ride to reach our destination in Osaka.

We were a little travel weary by the time we reached my daughter Caroline and her friend Kayleigh at our train stop. We had a quick bite to try regional items at the nearest McDonalds (Courtney got a teriyaki chicken sandwich and a melon soda, I had a drink that turned out to be barley tea), stocked up for breakfast at a convenience store, and finally turned in. We're staying at a comfortable and convenient condo in Osaka that Caroline found for us, and it's so much better than staying in a hotel!

Our first full day in Osaka, Courtney, Caroline, and I explored the neighborhood and had lunch at a maid café. The maids were so cute and looked like dolls. When they delivered our food they drew art on Caroline's iced latte and on Courtney's omurice, and I was given a wand to perform "magic" to turn our curry pink! We had photos taken with our maid before we left. Such a sweet lunch experience! Then we took the metro and thought it was really cool to have “women only” cars that were less crowded.

Photo Gallery (tap and swipe)

For dinner, the girls treated me to a super nice meal of shabu shabu, a huge multi-course hotpot experience. We were served soup, salad, and sushi before a huge pot of dashi broth was heated up on a burner in the middle of the table. We added our udon noodles and veggies to cook some while the broth got to simmer, and then we cooked thin slices of very tasty beef by adding them to the broth until they changed color. Delicious!

It seems the shabu shabu meal was quite pricey, as the girls said I would never know how much it cost, but they were happy to split the bill and treat their Mommy! Love my girls!