Last 2019年6月27日～29日, Dyan, Marianne, and I went to Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara! It was our first trip together outside of the Shimane Prefecture, and it was a blast! We really enjoyed it, and honestly, we didn't want to go back to Shimane (lol)
We took the night bus on the 26th, our bus was scheduled to leave at 10:30 PM JST, and since I live far away from the bus station, right after work (we had a shift that day), I went straight to Dyan's apartment, luckily, I left my small suitcase with my packed items weeks before the actual scheduled date, so I did not have to bring my suitcase to work that day. From Dyan's apartment, it's about a 5 min walk to the train/bus station, so it was pretty convenient, we met up with Marianne there.
Photo inside the bus! Marianne brought her Fujifilm disposable camera and that's what I used to take this shot! super vintage looking! (90's feel). Our bus was from Izumo Station to Kyoto Station, so we had to drop by Kyoto first, then we took the train from Kyoto to Osaka, the hostel we were staying at was located in Dotonbori, Osaka. THE TRAIN FARES ARE SO EXPENSIVE! but what shocked me to my very core was the amount of people! It felt like the Philippines ALL OVER AGAIN LOL I got used to Izumo city, we don't have that much people living there, compared to Osaka lol but it was still a fun experience, we had to lug around our luggage though haha!
Since we took the night bus, we arrived at around 6:00 am in Kyoto, and got to Osaka about a little past 8:00 AM, we got a little lost lol but since check in was not till 3:00 PM, we just asked if we could leave our luggage in the hostel, and they said okay! so we just took our essentials and started taking random photos around the Dotonbhori area! since it was still early, most of the stores were still closed, and there weren't a lot of people, which is a good thing for picture taking lol.
Of course! we had to take photos by the Glico Man!
And we settled for selfies lol since we were getting hungry, we decided to eat at Yoshinoya for breakfast (not a lot of choices since most stores open at around 10:30~11:00 in Dotonbhori lol), then we decided to head straight to Nara, upon my request, to visit the Deer of Nara Park!
We took the train again, and it was about 30 min away from Osaka station...
Too bad it was raining that day, and the rain actually became a little stronger throughout the afternoon... but! after playing with the deer from Nara Park, Dyan wanted to visit the famous, abandoned Nara Juvenile Prison which was used during the early 1900's... 1911 I think was it's peak? her reason for visiting? it was where the movie Shounen Tachi was filmed! We watched Shounen Tachi in the cinemas early this year, and she wanted to see it for herself!
I took a photo by the gate wearing a raincoat since it was raining a little hard..
no one's allowed to go in! but to be honest, we kind of wanted to, lol Marianne was a little scared though.
The funny thing is, we could actually hear like the sound of old cell doors being opened and closed from the outside.. we were thinking it may be someone who is managing the prison, but it was eerie because literally, no one was around, it was just the 3 of us lol
After that, we had time to spare, so we roamed around Nara for a bit, and found a lovely Owl Cafe!
The owl's were very relaxed, and the ambience of the cafe was also relaxing! they even had a Hedwig look-alike housing in front of a Hogwarts backdrop! You can stay there for an hour, for 1,300 YEN which includes free drinks, and a few snacks/sweets, plus you get a cute Owl freebie at the end of your visit, and you can pet the owls as well, they will teach how to do it, so no need to worry!
Plus, you get to pick an owl of your choice (there are 3 owls that you cant pick because they are too heavy), and you can take a photo with them! I picked my favorite Owl, cause he reminds me of me lol
After the Owl Cafe, we decided to head back to Osaka to roam a bit before having dinner!
We went to Tower records first, then decided to eat dinner near our hostel so it wont be a hassle going back lol we were pretty tired since we walked A LOT during the day!
I think we got back to the hostel at around 9:30-ish? and we were just... dead.. lol
But it was such a fun day!
Although, I did vlog the entire trip lol
so if you want to watch the Kansai vlog series, here's the link to Day 1!
KANSAI VLOG SERIES DAY 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRwa6naTpI&t=8s
I hope you had fun reading, and will watch the vlog!
Byebeeee!
