Day 2 - Osaka & Kobe Port

.Osaka.
After a 5hr 50min flight, our first destination was OSAKA Castle. Everything was on a slow pace, I felt that I was actually taking a stroll in the park. The only thing that shocked me was the number of dogs (leashed) I saw being walked. After passing by a few, I realised they were indeed docile and I was fine, walking past them (with a comfortable distance of course).

Just thought its a nice spot to take a picture.

We ended up in a park after a 5min walk from the carpark. Saw these board figures and found them rather cute.

Kenny, our tour guide, insisted that we should take a pic of the castle from this spot. And well being obedient tourists we did. Hmm Esther, why did we do what we did? hahahah

While walking back down, we decided to take another pic with these naked trees.

.Universal Studio.

After the castle, we had to drop a few, er, actually 3/4 of the group at Universal Studio. Esther and I are not quite into rides and hence we chose to head to Kobe instead. But managed to snap a pic with this huge icon. WOo hoo.

At Kobe, we were supposed to shop around on our own and then settle our own lunch. We decided to Ramen cos while Kenny was walking us to the meeting point, we walked past a Ramen look - a-like restaurant at a back alley. However, as we tracked back, we din seem to be able to find it.

In the end, we met Kenny along the way and he brought us for a nice warm bowl of RAMEN. Now this was GREAT. Gravy a little thicker than those in Singapore but its nice cos we were cold.

Just right after lunch, we saw a bakery.. and if you were to read it clearly its a BOUTIQUE ahhhh yes rather classy as I walked in I was very attracted to this cuboid looking cheesecake. Its rather puny approx a thumb's length but its small and MIGHTY. It costs me about 170 Yen ($2.40 plus)
and it tasted absolutely ........superb!

This is Esther taking her 1/3.

Look at the unglam But Satisfied look ha! Its really very nice. Melts in the mouth. *burps* Full.

.Kobe Port.

As introduced by Esther this is Kobe port.

Nothing much here actually... we just basically took another stroll...

Take another pic together...

Then we discovered that behind us was a whole area of SHOPs. However, we actually had to walked briskly past it to go back to our coach. :( The shops looked like they sell lovely stuff. *sigh* Will go back if I get a chance.

.Shimsaibashi & Dotombori.

Looking at this crowd, would you still wanna walk through it? We did! Brave eh?

Had to pause again from the shopping as this cute Lady Bird pastry caught my eye.

This is the other masterpiece in the same shop.

That night we headed back to Rihga Royal Sakai to rest. Before that, we bought real sweet Persimmons from a fruit stall at Osaka Castle, ate it and it was super sweet. It cost about 300 Yen ( $1.60 x 3) for that little fruit. But well worth it.