Derrian was eager for an early start. Woke up at 7am. We all cleaned up and packed while he went to the station to book tickets for Shinkansen. Came back with 4 coffees from Starbucks. Checked-out of Budget Inn around 8.30am. Kimi gave us free chopsticks eat as souveniers! How nice of him. We rolled our luggage to Kyoto station. We didn't have to wait long for the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. Only took 15min train ride! Lucky for us, our hotel was at Shin-Osaka station so we just walked there. So tired carrying luggage! Arrived at Chinsan Hotel around 9ish. We were too early for checkin so we dumped our bags there. The receptionist baldie was very friendly, courteous and spoke english with a canadian accet. Walked back to Shin-Osaka station and caught a JR train to Osaka-jokoen staion on the Osaka loop. We saw lots of old ppl heading towrds the Osaka Hall. We proceeded to walk through the park to Osaka Castle. A whole garden of cherry blossom so prettyyyy. We lost derrian on the way but then we spotted this red thing on the top of the high wall. Walked inside that vacinity and saw the castle close up. So much gold! There's a time capsule at the front of the castle which was buried in the 1970s. It contains some artifacts in 2 capsules. 1 is to be opened at beginning of every century and the other 5000 years from now. Then we walked through Osakajo-Koen Park which had funny looking trees to Morinomiya station.

From there we caught a train to Shin-Imamiya for Festival Gate, which used to be an amusement park but its now been closed. Its a building with a rollercoaster running through it. Very cool. Its also the place for Spa World - 2 levels of public bathing areas. Very big! Down a bit is Shin-Sekai which is a place that "time forgot". The centrepiece is the tall Tsutenkaku Tower. I was reading about this place - apparently its the bad part of Osaka - criminal activity, transvestites, homeless ppl hang around here. We went there in the day time so we saw some restaurants, shops, mahjong clubs and pachinko parlors.

We caught another train to Bentencho, changed trains to Osako-ko (Bay area) for Osaka Aquariam. On the way, we ate Maccas for lunch. Teriyaki burger with chips was my meal 580yen! Entry to the aquariam was 2600yen. Saw otters, whale shark, jellyfish, dolphins etc. There's this big tank housing the whale shark with lots of other fishes. Found fish that resembled each of us: dez = whale shark; cat = skinny shark; mimi= cool shark; me = ugliest potato cod.

After aquarium, we went shopping at the Tempozan Marketplace next door. Paid 500yen to go into this kiddy Ninja house maze thing. hahaha so silly i swear. We found it funny coz it was so dumb. lol. Then the ultimate - Ferris Wheel in Tempozan Harbour. 17min ride offering views of Osaka and the harbour. It used to be largest in the world until London took over its position. We went when it just got dark so it was nicer...