Travel to Osaka, Japan 2025 (7 Days) EP.1 My Beloved Osaka

Lifestyle and Travel > Travel to Osaka, Japan 2025 (7 Days) EP.1 My Beloved Osaka
07/03/2025 11:00

At the beginning of the year, Osaka has quite cold weather, making it a great season for traveling to Japan. For this early-year trip, I chose to go abroad for a vacation in Japan, and the city I picked was Osaka.

We planned a 7-day, 6-night trip to Osaka, departing on February 17 at 1:00 AM. The flight to Kansai International Airport took 6 hours. For this trip, we chose AirAsia’s Business Class, which has reclining seats, so we didn’t feel exhausted from the flight. Once we arrived in Japan, we were ready to explore right away. That’s a great advantage!

17/02/2025 - First Night in Osaka

After arriving at Kansai Airport, we rented a car to travel to our hotel, Hiyori Hotel Osaka Namba Station, located near Dotonbori Market, also known as the Glico Market. The journey from the airport to the hotel took about 2-3 hours.

We arrived at the hotel too early, and check-in was not allowed yet, as the check-in time was at 3 PM. So, we left our luggage at the hotel lobby and headed out to explore Osaka on our first day.

We started with matcha bingsu, a popular and delicious dessert, at a store inside a nearby mall (I can’t remember the name, but it was in the mall near our hotel).

Our first actual sightseeing spot was Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. We took the subway and got off at the yellow line’s Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan Station, exiting through gates 1 to 4.

From there, we walked for another 15-20 minutes. The weather on our first day was cool and refreshing, around 5°C, making the walk quite pleasant.

You can buy entrance tickets to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan at the ticket counter in front of the aquarium. There were quite a lot of people lining up to purchase tickets.

We took some photos inside Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. The aquarium houses a wide variety of fish and other sea creatures, with over 620 species and more than 30,000 animals. The highlight here is the whale shark, the largest fish in the world. There are also manta rays, sharks, tropical marine fish, and many sea creatures from the Pacific Ocean.

For our first meal, we had ramen at a shop near our accommodation in Namba. The taste was similar to ramen in Thailand, but I feel like the ones in Thailand are slightly tastier.

By the time we finished at the aquarium and had our ramen, it was already nighttime. Around 10:30 PM, we walked around Dotonbori Market, but most shops were already closing. Shops here close quite early, though there were still a few street food stalls open, but not too many.

The temperature at night dropped to around 1°C. We were lucky to witness snowfall on our first day! It didn’t last long, but it was enough to excite tourists and warm our hearts.

That’s the end of our first day. Stay tuned to see where we’ll be heading next tomorrow!

Read more here >> Osaka Trip, Japan 2025 (7 Days) EP.2 – Exploring the Sacred Land.

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