Osaka

Working on weekends has its perks. Two weekends ago a group of us used our days off in lieu to make a long weekend out of the Halloween weekend and headed to Osaka! The weekend wasn’t filled with any cultural excursions, just Halloween parties, eating Osaka’s infamous street food, visiting the Glico man, and of course the main reason we visited Osaka: to visit Harry Potter World at Universal Studios Japan!

Racing along with the 80 year old Glico running man billboard.

After arriving at the busy Osaka station in full costumes and face paint for some, we made our way through the busy streets to the club our party was being held at. What was supposed to be a 10 minute walk was closer to 45 minutes, and ended up being the best part of my night! The long walk was due partly to people asking to take their photos with us, but mostly me asking to take photos of other people! Check out some of the cool costumes below:

Cloud and Aerith, the all male Power Rangers, the Teletubbies with Princess Mononoke, and 2 Madelines with an adorable little girl. 

The incredibly scary zombie, cross-dressing Sailor Senshi! 

The not so scary Monkey D. Luffy and Minnie Mouse! 

One of our days consisted purely of going from breakfast, to lunch, to dinner! We went to a lovely English tea house in the morning where I had real Eggs Benedict and a pot of Chai tea! Unheard of in Japan to me until now! After walking for an hour or two and not knowing what else to do, we tried some of the local specialties. We had Okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese savoury pancake where you choose the ingredients (pork, squid, cheese etc.) and grill it on a hotplate. We also tried Takoyaki, small balls of batter with a piece of squid inside, grilled on special hot plates that look really similar to a Poffertjes hotplate. After a nap at home, it was out again for some delicious Mexican food and frozen margaritas! Ahhh Osaka, my waist line does not love you!

When I closed my eyes it felt like I was back at Tilleys! Apart from the side salad though, that was a bit random.

We stumbled across what appeared to be a huge, unused, unorthodox ferris wheel while meandering between meals.

I know these Okonomiyaki don't look very appetizing but they were delicious and Tom's favourite meal of the trip!

MANGO MARGARITAS!! 

The highlight of the trip though was our final day, when we visited Harry Potter World at Universal Studios Japan!! Stay tuned for the next installment to read about the magic of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts!