I’m condensing multiple days into this entry since it was round 1 for Osaka (and I couldn’t be asked to make multiple):

Day 1:

The flight from Okinawa went smoothly. I landed in Kobe, where I took the train to Osaka main station. There I finally managed to activate and load my Suica card, which made life a lot easier. From there I took the metro to my hotel. It was my first proper capsule hotel experience. 

After checking in I went to Dotonbori where I got my first Ramen in Japan. And wow! I’m honestly not sure what could’ve made it better. I’m definitely looking forward to having a lot more 🙂

Day 2:

Having barely slept, I was forced to vacate my capsule by 10 am.

Although I was really tired, I forced myself to touch some grass. After a coffee, a sandwich and a red bean paste bun from family mart I felt more or less alive.

Not having much of a plan, I decided to check for the best view in Osaka. There I stumbled upon Abeno Harukas, the tallest building. 

So I made my way to it on foot. Through bustling shopping alleys, enormous electronics stores, past maid cafe lined streets and retro gaming arcades. 

I finally ended up at the Osaka Zoo which was adjacent to the tower. Walking through the park I came across a very pleasant surprise. Osaka had their own little Oktoberfest!!!

As it was a little early for a beer I decided to stop by again later on.

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The view from Abeno Harukas was breathtaking! Despite the slight drizzle I was still able to spot Universal Studios and even Yumeshima, the site of the 2025 world expo.

Since I was starting to get hungry I made my way back to the Oktoberfest. There I got myself some Weisswürstl paired with a Bretzen and a Paulaner Oktoberfestbier to top it off. 

My rating of the meal was as follows (out of 10): 

Bier: 9.12

Bretzel: 7.8 (no salt unfortunately)

Sauerkraut: 6.9

Weisswurst: meh

Mustard: 2 (at least sweet)

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The atmosphere was fantastic. I made friends with a Japanese couple over a “prosit”. The wife excitedly told me about her travels to Germany and her love for the culture (and beer). Who knew that I’d have my first proper Japanese encounter at an Oktoberfest.

Day 3:

My sleep was still on a low. So I had a really slow morning. 

Since it was Jimmy’s birthday the plan was to watch the f1 race in Kyoto in the evening.

Until then I spent the morning / midday click-clacking (new word for planning, thank you to A & B) and catching up on the blog (yeah ik I’ve been slacking lately)

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In the early afternoon I took the train to Kyoto. After some sightseeing (mainly from Kyoto Tower) I made my way to Jimmy’s hostel where we met up with Chaïra. There I had a rather interesting beer to say the least. We watched some f1 academy and learned how to play “shithead”.

Then it was time for the birthday dinner at a steak house. Pretty good grub!

The main event of the evening was f1. We went to an English pub where we watched a rather uninspiring race. At least the beer was good. 

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On my way back to Osaka I witnessed my first substantial delay with the Japanese public transport. This unfortunately resulted in me missing the last metro.

So how to get back to the hotel?

I signed up for multiple bike & scooter sharing apps in the hopes of finding one in the closer vicinity. Unfortunately there weren’t any or they simply didn’t work.

In the end a taxi had to do…

Day 4:

This was the expo day. But I’ll go more into detail in the next post.

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Yeah I must say, I’m not sure if I’ll book another capsule hotel ever again. Especially for multiple nights…

Since I’m a very light sleeper, I don’t really profit from many people sleeping in one place. Especially when it comes to snoring, loud people at 2 am or early alarms in the morning. Bumping into the wall while sleeping sounds like a bomb going off as well. So yeah… can’t really recommend it.