Osaka (03.08-04.08)

This weekend, I met up with Florian, Alex, Hisham, and Max in Osaka. I arrived earlier than the others, around 12 PM. Since I only traveled with hand luggage, I got out of the plane relatively quickly. I then checked out a few things near the airport. First, I went to Osaka Beach and had lunch there. Afterwards, I really wanted to go to a particular Buddhist temple, and I wanted to do that on foot because I think you see the city best when walking. During that, I also accidentally discovered the town of Tajiri and thought it was really nice to walk through there. However, it was super hot, 38 degrees Celsius, and I didn't have sunscreen with me, so I got a bit sunburned. Because of the intense heat, I took twice as long for a journey of 1.5 hours and sweated completely through my T-shirt. Completely exhausted, I then looked at the Buddhist site and afterwards returned to the airport to pick up the others. It was really nice to see everyone again. We then went to the hotel and checked in. I even got an upgrade from Booking.com, and my room was on the 29th floor. The view was amazing. After everyone had showered, we went to Dotonbori and had Takoyaki there. They were super delicious, but unfortunately also very hot. Even in the evening, I still found it very hot and sweated a lot. Therefore, we decided to drink a cold Asahi beer. We had delicious skewers, including chicken gizzards, chicken hearts (Hisham insisted it was heart), and great shiitake mushrooms. After a few beers, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed some Japanese sweets and a farewell beer in my room. The next morning, we set off at 8:30 AM. First, we went to Osaka Castle and then to the Umeda Sky Building. I was so scared when we went up in the glass elevator. But once up, it was actually okay. Then we went to eat Okonomiyaki in a restaurant that even has a Michelin star. We had the Okonomiyaki prepared on a hot plate right at our table, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, we went to the Namba Yasaka Shrine and finally to the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. There we had to say goodbye, as I needed to catch my flight. I really enjoyed the time. Saying goodbye was also not easy for me, but perhaps I'll see the others again in Tokyo, but I still need to clarify that.