Travel Notes #2 — Osaka 大阪

4 min readJul 5, 2022

In previous articles, I talked about the trip to Nagoya; in the following, I will share the journey to Osaka. （中文版在下方～～）

Outline:

Itinerary
Universal Studio Japan
Baseball Game
Shopping Streets
Postscripts

Itinerary

Day1: Expo Park (Didn’t open🥲) → Osaka Castle → Shopping Street

Day2: Universal Studio Japan

Day3: Online classes(10:45–15:15) → Baseball Game

1. Universal Studio Japan (USJ)

If you ask me, I would say it is the most thrilling part of the trip. I have been dying for it while I knew I could come to Japan. Furthermore, because of COVID, the people in USJ would be fewer before COVID. I must take this advantage to play as much facility as I want.

Actually, I had been to USJ when I was in elementary school. Compared to that time, I can discern many differences between them.

First, The area is smaller than I used to think. When I was a child, I felt like everything was soooo big that I couldn’t use my short legs to finish all of them, whereas, It became easier to go through the whole park because I got longer legs.

Second, I could appreciate the decoration with my heart. For instance, As I walked into the Harry Potter area, at first, there was a long walk surrounded by cones meanwhile playing songs feeling that we were actually in the magic world. After that, the building was impressive; the staff was wizards, and all of the classical things in harry potter must be included in that area. (Butterbeer, Ollivanders Wand Shop, and so on)

Furthermore, I asked myself, what are the unique things about this theme area? What kind of reaction would the staff do when wearing specific clothes. For example, Every time I went to a new facility and the staff would give me the gesture of “心臓を捧げよ” because I bought the Attack on Titan cloak. I knew that people wearing Mario clothes would get another reaction, but I didn’t know what that was.

Third, I could feel that anything could be possible in this park. As a child, I only thought about playing and playing, but now I am drawn by their high technology. The Attack on Titan facility uses a roller coaster track with VR glasses, which means we absorb ourselves in the anime scene. How awesome it is!!

2. Baseball Game

Watching my first baseball game at T-Mobile Park in 2018, at that time, I didn’t feel any excitement about the game. However, this time is different because my friend is a big fan of baseball, which means he could explain to me the situation immediately, whether the runner steals bases, and which types of balls the pitcher is good at.

Watching a baseball game in Japan definitely cannot without a cup of beer. Japan’s baseball game is known as their beer-vending girl. These girls need to carry about a 10-kilogram keg backpack. If you come to the stadium, please try the beer and enjoy it.

3. Shopping Street（Shinsaibashi, Shinseikai）

I guess because the government still prohibited the self-guided tour, the shopping street on a weekday isn’t have many people as I expected. I am surprised that even someplace seems to be a central district still hanging on the “For Rent.” sign. Furthermore, I am wondering what does Japanese think about there being only fewer tourists traveling their country?

All the things you can imagine are all on the shopping street.

4. Postscripts

Compared to previous traveling alone, The trip to Osaka mostly was hung out with friends, then I could deeply feel the differences between traveling alone and traveling with friends. About the advantage and drawbacks, I would like to talk about it later. Thank you for your reading~~