Cosplay Festival

Every year, in the geeky district of Osaka, there is a huge cosplay festival. Hundreds of people come dress up as their favourite anime characters - usually wearing homemade costumes - and pose for everybody in the street.

Sumo

Every March, the sumo comes to Osaka. We went last year when my mum was here, and although I didn't post about it we had a great time. We knew that we had to return once more.

Boys in Osaka

Our friends came to Japan! First Louis and Josh came, and Tommy joined us a few days later. We had a lot of fun exploring Kansai, eating, doing karaoke, playing arcade games and drinking.

Skiing in Biwako Valley

To our surprise, we were able to go skiing fairly near to our house! It only took us about 2 hours to get to Biwako Valley, and although it was small we certainly did go skiing. They also had a special deal to rent everything for the day - hence our matching outfits!

Christmas Market!

Osaka has a great German Christmas Market every year in Umeda. My pictures were terrible, but I wanted to post something a bit Christmassy before tomorrow :)

Osaka Birthday

My birthday was spent in a fairly relaxing way. Luckily it was my day off so we didn't have to work - woohoo! We spent the morning drinking prosecco and eating home cooked pancakes, before heading off for a fancy lunch at a Michelin star restaurant! It was delicious and really reasonably priced.

Hanami

The cherry blossoms were out in full force in Japan. Unfortunately, their time has finished and we are left with no さくら. During our last days off before the season finished, we wanted to make the most of it and celebrate with a hanami! A hanami is basically picnic under a cherry tree, where everybody admires the blossom and drinks!

SpoCha (or the most fun possible ever)

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. It was excited at first but now it's boring and takes a lot of effort! We've had a busy and great few weeks; we even had heavy snowfall! 

A couple of weeks ago we spent the day at 'SpoCha'. Standing for 'Sports Challenge', Spocha is a magical place where you pay an entry fee and you can stay as long as you like and everything is included in the price...

Osaka Museum of Housing and Living

I think this may be the best museum in Osaka purely because you can dress up in traditional clothing!

Christmas Day

What a Merry Christmas we had in Osaka!

Universal Studios Japan

Today was the perfect day at Universal Studios Japan.

Korean BBQ and Karaoke

Last night combined two classic Japanese activities: Korean BBQ (which they love!) and karaoke. 

Late Night at Dotombori

Late night at the Dotonbori River is a pretty surreal experience. The first time we walked around the Shinsaibashi area and over the river was incredible and full of hustle and bustle - this is magnified when the sun goes down.

Osaka Castle

Today we visited the incredible Osaka Castle. 

Nagai Gardens

 Today we went to Nagai Park to see the Nagai Botanical Gardens. Nagai Botanical Gardens is huge – it takes up 24.2 hectares of Nagai Park. I imagine that the whole atmosphere of the park will change with the seasons as new plants begin to bloom and blossom… However, our visit in autumn was beautiful and it seems like any other season couldn’t compare.