My Trip to Japan: Part 2

Day 5 (Sunday): We got to sleep in because the only thing on our agenda today was going to Dotonbori which is kind of like downtown Osaka, in the Namba area. It was a quick ride there on the trains and once more we were walking in a crowd of people! So this area is known for street food but see those lines in the photo below? YEAH…my kids didn’t want to stand in any of those lines. It was okay for me because I wanted to take in the sights and after standing in lines at Universal Studios, I couldn’t take more lines 😆. So we walked along the canal, did some souvenir shopping and I had promised my kids to take them to the 2 claw machine arcades we passed by earlier so…there went my yen!

We did less walking today – on purpose! And when I say less, we still hit 10K steps haha!

So we went to a small claw machine arcade first and my kids won small items, the funniest thing being a french fry keychain that my hubby won for our daughter because on this trip her main food was french fries and toast until she taste the chicken karaage from Lawson’s which she LOVES. The next claw machine arcade we went to was big and their prizes were huge like pillows and large plushies but it was so hard to win anything. My son actually won this Kirby keychain plush but my daughter was so frustrated she wanted to cry. She didn’t but still…these claw machines are addicting and oh so frustrating! My parents who had split from us early on went to eat ramen and even found a Don Quijote store so they did more shopping. They met us at the claw machines and we headed back to our hotel with lots of time to relax. We did spy a claw machine arcade by our hotel so I promised the kids I’d take them there tomorrow.

Now since I woke up every morning and stared out the window at Universal Studios I knew what time people lined up and got into the park. They open an HOUR or so early folks. Meaning if it says 9am is the opening time, they let you in around 7:30am. And let me tell you the crowds on Thursday-Sunday were ridiculously large. I could tell from the morning line up and the crowds leaving and packing Universal City Walk at 5pm…it’s a hoard of people rushing to the train stations at times. Also there are lines at all the restaurants at 6pm. But I had a crazy idea because my daughter was sad she only got to ride 2 rides at Universal Studios…I asked her if she wanted to camp outside with me at 5:30am the next morning. The plan would be to line up early outside the gates, be first in line at one of the turnstiles at 7:30am and run as fast as we could to Super Nintendo World to experience what we couldn’t the first time. Okay mind you she’s 6, almost 7 and said YES….so I bought 2 more tickets and we slept early so we could wake up early.

Day 6 (Monday): I buy some breakfast pastries at Lawson at 5am, wake my daughter up, get ready and walk out to the entrance of Universal Studios and already about 10 people are there before us! It’s cold, about 45 degrees, we are in our puffy jackets and I give her my phone so she can watch youtube and we sit on the ground to wait. By 6:30am the workers open the front gates and my daughter is doing fine. Cold but fine!

They position us in front of a rope that is a few feet away from the bag check table and ticket gate and I’m excited that we are “first” in our row. We wait some more then we see a group of people being ushered in and positioned in front of us…and they are holding like green ticket passes? Now we aren’t first in line but like….20th in line ☹️ and mind you there are about 20 lines!! I was like oh no…are these early entry passes? Sure enough these people get to go in around at 7am? There was about 100-200 of them? They kept coming and I was like there goes our chances to Super Nintendo World and I was regretting my decision, especially since by then my daughter wanted to go back to the hotel. But 7:30am rolled around and the group is gone and we are motioned forward. It was our turn and I told my daughter once we get in we have to RUN. As if I could run! lol We got in and I tried to run and realized I was out of breath fast. I mean there were grandmas running past me! Mostly everyone was running towards Super Nintendo World. It was a ridiculous mad dash 🤣.

At least we knew where to run! Or that would have been a disaster. We did our best and ran/walked.

When we made the turn into the path into Super Nintendo World we were wondering if we made it or we would be cut off…well I saw the staff coming with the metal poles and ropes and so I told my daughter to walk FASTER. I couldn’t believe I was running for Super Nintendo World LOL but I wanted my daughter to enjoy this because this is why we came to Osaka in the first place!

We made it in time…and look how vibrant it looks in the day time! 🥰 It was definitely worth camping out I think! We got power bands – Princess Peach for my girl and I bought my son a Luigi one even though he wasn’t with us. My daughter had fun hitting the power blocks, and I did too since I was using the Luigi band. There was only a 5 minute wait for the cute Yoshi Adventure right which gives you a nice view of the park. There was room to walk around and not be bumping into people taking photos. It was really amazing and if you are a big Mario fan I think camping out at 5:30am is worth it!

We even made it into Wonderland and rode the Moppy Balloon Ride. She wanted to go into the play area again and we got to do that. I did ask if she wanted to do more rides because they were only 10-30 minutes long wait time but she was actually satisfied with everything we accomplished especially all the fun we had at Super Nintendo World. We stayed inside the park almost 3 hours and the churro stands weren’t even open yet by the time we chose to leave. It was mission accomplished and honestly…now I know better for next time we go. Try to go to the theme park during Monday-Wednesday I think (although there were a lot of school groups…like high school groups staying at our hotel on Monday and going to the park but it was still way less people than from Thursday-Sunday). Camp out at 5:30am to get into the park early and shorter wait times.

Did I mention I bought a small hand carry luggage when we went to Dotonbori the day before? I did…why? All the merch we bought – the plushies, etc…😅. Speaking of merch…so we buy her favorite chicken at Lawson’s at go upstairs to eat while my son and hubby are still lounging in bed relaxing (but hungry because they didn’t leave to go eat breakfast) – good thing I bought them some things to eat huh? 🤦🏻‍♀️ I told my daughter she could take a nap this afternoon but since I was still awake and promised my son I’d take him to the arcade, I told him to get out of bed and we went down. This arcade was a medium size one but wow…we were getting plushies way more easier! These were small size plushies like keychains or a little bit bigger but there was a Pikmin claw machine and we got 2 of them! We tried repeatedly to get the red Pikmin but failed so many times. ☹️We were so excited…my 1000 yen went fast again. We went back up to rest before our last buffet dinner with my parents but my daughter was so excited to see the Pikmin we got at the claw machine, I promised her I’d take her before dinner.

I was trying to get these Summiko, they are all so kawaii (cute) and didn’t know there were buttons for the upper level (it was like a two level claw machine) and without even knowing where my claw went I won a random Dark Moon plush? I don’t even know what Dark Moon is but my hubby said he’d take it. 😅 Anyway the Pikmin were the highlight but we won so many at this place! Even my daughter won a bunch when I brought her down here before dinner.

Day 7 (Tuesday): Our check out time was 12pm which is nice since usual hotels in the USA have a 11am check out time. We got to have our last buffet breakfast, then we went up to the room where my hubby had to pack. He decided to catch the train to the airport since it was cheaper and he had a carry-on so he left before us. The kids were super sad because they will see him again when he comes home on the 16th for 3 weeks. He did panic without me when he was on the train thinking he did something wrong or didn’t pay for enough fare or something to that extend but I told him he’d be fine and he was. I noticed he had lots of anxiety when we were on the trains because he was afraid we’d miss our stops and get lost – while I felt calm on the trains. Anyway…we checked out at 12pm, had the hotel hold our luggage since our flight was at 10:10pm….YEAH….it was a long day of waiting. We had lunch, took the kids to the arcade again, spent more any left over 100 yen my mom had. Then at 3pm after being bored in the lobby I said we had to go to the bus station to get tickets for the Limo Bus ride to the airport and lo and behold there was a bus already there and instead of waiting for the next one at 4pm, my dad wanted to hop on this one so we got on the 3:10pm to Kansai Airport. It took us about an hour and 20 minutes to get there – my son and daughter napped. We got to Kansai and found a spot to sit thankfully because we had to wait another 2 1/2 hours to check in.

We did our bathroom breaks, ate snacks, bought water, and more bathroom breaks. I hit 10K steps just walking around the airport for a few hours! Anyway I thought it was kinda funny that so many people were on the side repacking their luggage and it was filled with snacks! 🤣 I had merch and no snacks and my luggage was 5 lbs under…whereas my parents mostly bought snacks and food and they were almost at the limit! 1 lbs shy I think haha.

Check in and security lines are so easy in Japan – I love it. And because we had such a late flight I guess there wasn’t as many people there as earlier in the day? There is a lot of construction going on at Kansai though – seems like they are opening a new wing next year or in 2025 but compared to Haneda Airport – Haneda is much nicer. We got to our gate and ate more snacks but man was I really feeling exhausted. I needed to sleep so badly. But Japan Airlines has that quick boarding and take as I said and flying to Osaka was 9 hours and I was dreading the flight home but thankfully we made it back to Hawaii in less than 6 hours…WOW! We fell asleep after dinner was served, actually only I ate dinner my kids and parents were sleeping. I knocked out and woke up when it was one hour to landing. The flight was smooth and we got back to a very rainy Hawaii and our Tuesday started ALL OVER AGAIN…oh man…it was 11am Tuesday – jet lag was gonna hit and it sure did.

But we made it back home to our dog who was waiting and barking anxiously. My sister did a great job watching him and organizing my tupperware drawer! And then he knocked out with me when the jet lag hit me at 2pm.

What a trip and honestly I need to go back to see more of Kyoto, and more of Osaka but I definitely want to be in Tokyo next and see the cherry blossoms bloom. We already miss it!

>>>Go here for Part 1<<<