Japan Trip - Day 2 (Tokyo to Osaka)

Our bf at Toyoko Inn. Served the same breakfast as the one that we stayed last year but it's not as yummy. Guess this is the standard Japanese bf, miso soup, rice ball, bun and pickles. It's free so can't complain.

Checked out and went to Shinjuku station to take the Shinkasen to Osaka. We have already booked our tickets at the airport yesterday. Will be staying at Osaka for the next few days, day trip to Kyoto and Hiroshima. Will retun back to Tokyo next Wed.

Some random pics of Shinjuku station.

Delicious looking bento set. There's quite a no. of shops selling bento set at the station.

Big locker for travellers to keep their luggages so that they can travel light to other part of Japan

Our train to Osaka will arrive at 9.40 am. It's around 500+ KM from Tokyo to Osaka and the ride will take 2hr+.

Nice look Shinkansen. So sad. Couldnt take a nice picture of it.

Toilet in the Shinkansen

Inside the Shinkansen

They have vending machine in it. They have Shinkansen Stewardess pushing their trolley around and selling food and drinks as well.

Ours are reserved seats. Cabin 1 to 5 are for non reserved seats while 6 onwards are reserved

Our favourite drinks in Japan. Green Tea and Choya

View of Mt Fuji. Sigh.. No luck again cause it's convered by crowd again.

Reached Shin Osaka station and transfer to the subway to Osaka and then to Shin-Imamiya station. Got lost at Shin Osaka station and Osaka station. The different lines at these 2 stations look intimidating at first, more confusing then the Jr and subway line at Tokyo. But after a few rides, it's actually quite easy to travel around.

Our lunch at 1 of the restaurants near our hotel. The food is so so only.

Checked in and slack in our hotel room. The building and room look a bit rundown but it's cheap, only around $11o for a 3 bedded room.

I was standing in our room and the room started to shake. I thought I was daydreaming or was sick and tried standing straight but the shaking became more vigiourous. I asked Kennie and she felt it too. Oh no. Earthquake!! What should we do? The building looks so rundown. Will it collapsed? I told the kids to wear the shoes and get out of the room but they were taking their own sweet time. We took the stairs instead of taking the lift. When we reached the lobby, the shaking has stopped. Asked the receptionist and they didnt feel anything. Maybe only the higher floor could feel it or they are too used to such earthquake

Pic of our room and toilet.

We spend the rest of our day shopping at Shinsaibashi. Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade and the surrounding Shinsaibashi area is Osaka's premiere shopping center. Approximately 600 m long, this area is unique as it combines chain retail stores and trendy boutiques with expensive department stores and top designer fashion labels. It's just walking distance from Namba station and is beside Dontobori.

Dontobori is well known for its food and you will be spoilt for choice as they have all the Osaka Speciality like Tako Ball and Okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients). At night it is lit by hundreds of neon lights and mechanized signs, including the famous Glico Running Man sign and Kani Doraku crab sign.
At Dontobori. The famous Kani Doraku crab sign. Can find the imitation one at Jurong Point.

The bridge that link Dontobori and Shinsaibashi

Dontobori Canal

Some street performance.

Convered shopping area at Shinsaibashi. The clothes here quite ex. Kennie was quite disappointed as she's expecting cheap clothes here.

Famous Crepes at Shinsaibashi. Japanese love to eat Crepes

Eating ice cream crepes in this cold weather.

Sushi set from Daimaru supermarket.

A conveyor belt sushi chain restaurant in Shinsaibashi. This is quite a well known sushi restaurant. Can find 1 in almost every part of Osaka. The price is almost the same as Sakae or even cheaper but it's definitely much nicer then Sakae.

Pretty neon light signboards.

Tako Ball stalls. There's at least 5 stalls selling Tako Ball within a 100m stretch

Nice

Supper at Kinryu Ramen. Easily spotted as there's a Dragon above the restaurant

Need to go to this machine and choose the menu. The machine will print a receipt and we will need to pass the receipt to the chef. There's only 2 selectons, Noodle in soup (600 yen) and Noodle in soup with extra serving of Char Siew (900 yen). It looks as if there's a large varieties to choose from.

Free kimchi, vegetables and garlic to go with the Ramen.

Btw, something very sad happened today. The earthquake that we experienced today was not a low magnitude earthquake but a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in northen part of Japan.The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 38m. Many houses were destroyed and thousands of people were killed/missing. Tokyo was also affected. It's so serious that it disrupted the train service and power supply in Tokyo. Narita and Haneda Airport briefly suspended service but reopened within 24hrs.

We received phone calls/SMS from Mum, Mil, siblings and friends asking if we are safe. They told us that there's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We did not know the seriousness of it as we thought the earthquake happened in some ulu part of Japan. We tried asking around locals in Osaka but no one seems to know what happened. Since no one knows abt it, it couldnt be that serious. We were shocked to find out what really happened when we on the TV in our room and log on to the internet.

We were a bit stressed as we are worried that there might be aftershock affecting Osaka. What if our old hotel collapsed?