Now if you’ve read the last couple of days posts, then this may come as a surprise, but we woke up and went to a nearby café. Though a key difference with this one is the fact that it is a Japanese pancake café! If you’ve never had or seen Japanese pancakes, they are like normal pancakes, but around 3-4 times thicker and very fluffy. They make great dessert breakfasts for those with a sweet tooth and are often accompanied with a variety of toppings.
I was craving more of a meal than a dessert, so I got eggs and sausage with the pancake to eat, all of which was good.Though it was a café, the coffee machine was having issues, so we settled with some lemonade to drink, which was also great. The plan for today was to visit Universal Studio, a large amusement park similar to Disneyland, but with franchises belonging to who work with Universal. The park has entire areas dedicated to Mario, Harry Potter, and several others.
From where we were in Kyoto, it was 3 trains away, as we first had to get to Osaka, then go to West Osaka, and finally go over to the amusement park. The park was pretty cool, having themed streets and stores referencing different franchises the whole way through. Now, I am slightly biased against it, as I’m not really big on amusement parks to begin with, so if you are a big fan of them, then it’s probably a very fun a d memorable experience. However like any popular amusement park, it’s plagued with very long lines, overpriced food, and large crowds of people to try and navigate through. The Mario area is also another entry process on top of getting into the park, and some of the waits were upwards of 2 hours.
The Harry Potter area was pretty cool though, as they had a very well done Hogsmeade Village with a replica of the Hogwarts Castle (though the castle also had a queue to get in). The village had many shops from the franchise, including the Ollivanders wand store filled from floor to ceiling with wands. We got a butter beer, which tasted like a butterscotch and maple syrup drink, which may have been too sweet for anyone without a sweet tooth, and carried on looking around the park.
After visiting a couple other themed areas, we decided we had our fill and started heading back, but not before making a stop in Osaka. Osaka is a pretty big city in Japan, and is well known for a having a lot of street food, one of the more popular of which, is Takoyaki. Fried balls of dough with octopus, topped with okonomi sauce, mayo, and nori. I’ve wanted to try street food Takoyaki for a long while, so we look nearby the station to find a stall.
We came across a place serving exclusively that, with a line stretching most of the city block. After finding where the line starts and waiting a out a minute, one of the staff starts working their way through the line asking if we are eating in or getting take out. After replying with take out, we are brought to the front of the line and within not even 30 seconds, I had been given a container of freshly fried Takoyaki. I’m not sure how much time we saved by avoiding the line, but I am very glad we got to. I hop back on a train and eventually end up back in Kyoto, making my way to the Inn to eat and drink on the balcony overlooking the river, before finishing food and falling asleep.
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