Last January 2010, I had a trip to Kobe and Osaka via plane. I had accumulated enough mileage to book a round trip flight to Osaka by Kansai Airport (10,000 miles can get you a round trip flight for Osaka).
On the day of arrival to Osaka, I planned on riding a ship to Kobe Airport from Kansai Airport. Then from Kobe Airport I rode an unmanned train to Sannomiya, then a JR Sanyo Line train from Sannomiya to Maiko, where the Akashi Kaikyo bridge is just nearby.
I went in the museum under the bridge and around it. Just spent almost the afternoon walking and for almost three hours I left Kobe and went to Osaka.
There in Osaka I visited the surroundings of Osaka Castle and then the castle itself, and the night caught me there. Then after an hour I headed to Osaka Station and dropped there going somewhere, walking around, before heading to the hotel where I slept for the whole night.
The next day, just after eating breakfast at the hotel, I already checked out and walked all the way to Osaka Station. It may be too near for a train ride, but too far to walk. Then I boarded a train to Universal Studios.
Even if I went there, I did not enter since I did not want to spend most of my time there and I was planning to go somewhere else near Nanba. So I just spent my time having lunch there and explore the area before I head back to Osaka proper. I rode the Loop line train to a station ( I can't remember the name) and rode a subway to Shinsaibashi.
When I get off at Shinsaibashi Station, I walked all through the underground passage and went up, knowing that I will end up on a very crowded place. As I believe, that is the busiest ang theost crowded place in Osaka. I went to explore some places there, going south, and ate a variant of okonomiyaki before I reached the very huge Namba Station. In the restaurant I told the waiter there that I would want to eat okonomiyaki and he said that they have okonomiyaki. But when I was looking at their menu, my eyes did let me forget about okonomiyaki and instead ordered another, and just realized minutes after that I went there to ate okonomiyaki when a customer beside me prepared to cook his okonomiyaki. But it was delicious wnough anyway that I did not almost regret the food that I ordered and ate.
Then I went to Namba station and look for a train schedule that will bring me to Kansai Airport, then I found this semi-special express train named Rapid-ß. But before I bought ticket I still looked over a place just south of Namba Station, and the place was just wonderful at night. Anyway, I did not have much time to loiter around there and hurried up to buy train tickets and ride already. The Rapid-ß train just came minutes way ahead of its departure time.
