I’m back in America! Wooooo-hoo. I touched down yesterday afternoon and then immediately booked it to San Diego for the CEC Convention. I’m exhausted from all the traveling and I’m veeeeeeeery ready to get back into my day-to-day routine.

 Even though I have enjoyed the gin&tonics that come along with business class seats!

Our last day in Japan was really nice because we weren’t scheduled to do any tours, so we were left to explore Osaka on our own.

We woke up and had a leisurely breakfast before heading out around 10AM. Our first stop was Osaka Castle.
It was raining and probably the coldest day of our trip, but according to Sister’s Bible [AKA her guidebook], the castle was a must-see.

I liked the park outside of the castle more than the castle itself. I think all the tourists were out taking pictures of the cherry blossoms. So, we got this beauty all to ourselves.

We ate at the infamous Mos Burger for lunch. It was, hands down, my favorite meal we had in Japan. Which is probably silly to say because Mos Burger is probably equivalent to our Burger King. But maybe it’s more equivalent to In&Out, in which case my obsession with it is completely acceptable.

 

Afterward, we opted to walk back to our hotel instead of take the subway so we could shop along the way.

But once we passed all the stores, it started feeling a little colder, so we popped into the subway station to take it the rest of the way. I assume it was also around the time that school was let out because the station was filled with so many little kiddos in their school uniforms.

They’re so cute!

When we got back to the hotel, we had some coffee and snacks in the lounge. I was avoiding these candy-shaped things…until I realized they were mini salami sticks. That looked like candy. And then I proceeded to eat them ALL.

After resting up a bit, we walked to the basement of our hotel building to get dinner. The two floors at the bottom of our hotel were similar to that of Ginza Station where it looked like a fancy food court set up like the jewelry/make-up areas in regular department stores.

I love being able to watch the food being prepared. It’s my favorite part.

You know what I don’t love so much? A box of strawberries that costs $60.

  We grabbed a few items and then went upstairs to eat in our room. The last supper.

I think, after all the hating I’ve done on Japanese food, I ended up really liking some dishes. The problem is that we went on so many tours with our lunches included as part of the tour so, naturally, they chose the bento box style lunch. Which I wasn’t a fan of. But, when I was able to pick out my own food, I usually ended up enjoying the meal.

But, now we’re back to America.

Back to Subway sandwiches.

Shucks.