we were ready to move out of our kyoto accom and made our way to osaka! but first, a hearty breakfast before that. the elder boy requested for breakfast at kyoto's travellers inn...dont ask me why. still, it aint too bad..
he finished the whole set by himself.. now i shared food with the younger boy instead of the boys sharing between themselves...
though osaka is quite near kyoto, its still some distance. we took the local bus from our hotel to JR kyoto station. from there, we took the kintetsu line to osaka in slightly less than 1.5 hrs time. while shinkansen will whisk us there in much lesser time - think 30-40mins, kintetsu is much cheaper and it stops at local subway (at our accom) as compared to shinkansen stopping at Shin Osaka stop only and you have to transit a local metro again to the city.
we hopped off at nipponbashi stop (1 stop away from the central namba station) where our airbnb is just 3m walk away! :)
this is our first time staying at airbnb and i was rather apprehensive before the trip. how to check-in and how do contact the host when there's problems etc. but the worries were undue. our host is a very nice and responsive lady who sent us clear instructions on how to retrieve the key ourselves from the letterbox. so we walked into this local apartment, entered the building passcode which let us into the main lobby. there, we went to the letterbox where you open it like how you open a safe (eg: think left2, left8, right3) and there is the keys!
the apartment is exactly like how the pictures show on the website! and the place was spotless like how you would expect a jap home to be. :D
this is the bedroom area - its a studio apartment essentially, compact and cosy
outside the bedroom, there's a narrow corridor - to the right its a compact dry kitchen area and toilet (yes, with heated toilet seat and all), to the left is the bathroom completed with vanity top and space for a washing machine too! at the foyer, there's shoe cabinet and umbrellas that come in handy for our day trip to nara the day after next! truly a home away from home!
our airbnb has no tv but came with portable wifi so for this last leg of the trip, the husband and i were more connected to the world while on the go. very handy when navigating around for this trip, we didnt bring any travel guidebooks and minimum planning.. :P
after settling the stuff abit, we ventured out for lunch. our place is a short 10m walk to the famous dotonbori street. along the way, we were spoilt with eating choices. we settled on this local eatery place as the husband wanted to try vending machine for meal ordering and the menu here offers the boys' fav - curry rice and udon.. @_@
lunch!
then, it's time to explore dotonbori! its really every bit as lively and colorful as what i read from reviews.
dotonbori!
and of cos the iconic glico man!
we spent the rest of the day shopping and walking around shinsaibashi the main shopping area in osaka. though i relished city shopping again but shopping in japan can be frustrating...most recognizable brands are more expensive over there than in SG so it really takes a lot of the joy. :(
oh well, help me to save money i guess..
tomorrow we are heading to USJ! *wee*
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