"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Japan is not only beautiful, clean, organized (these are my people!), the food is also amazing! Japanese and Korean food is similar in the use of noddles, rice, and many other ingredients but it does not come with the burning sensation associated with the spice of Korean food. This is udon and is one of my favorites. I could eat any soup type dish everyday for the rest of my life.
The city does cut their horns so that people will not get hurt. I do wonder if this affects the male deer during mating season when the horns are used to assert dominance?
This pretty lady let me sit by her. She was my favorite.
These are Gyoza or Japanese dumplings. Lindsey and I lived off of these during our trip. They are so good we actually wandered around searching for restaurants that specifically had these on the menu. They are first boiled and then fried on one side to get crispy. And again you could actually taste the food, instead of just fire because no spice!
I'm not going to lie our true reason for coming to Osaka was to visit Japan Universal Studios. We were super excited to see the Harry Potter World section. Lindsey was so excited she was almost hyperventilating. This section of the park was built to look like a town out of the Harry Potter books. It had all of the shops from the story like Ollivander's Wand Shop, Owl Post Office, Honeyduke's candy shop, and the Three Broomsticks restaurant. For someone who grew up loving the books it was amazing to see what had always been in your imagination come to life.
You know those photos that are always taken during rides at theme parks? And they are always crazy expensive so no one buys them? We bought them. Yup, I spent $30 on a photo, but it came with a frame that plays the theme song!
The only downside to the day was that it poured, the whole day. I was not wearing appropriate rain shoes so my feet were soaked within 5 minutes of arriving at the park. Unfortunately walking around in wet shoes all day caused a terrible reaction. I thought I was dying from some sort of flesh eating bacteria when a rash developed all over my feet the next day but thankfully it cleared up after a few days.
In all of my travels I have never felt the need to go to a country for a second visit. Instead I prefer to see new things and add another country to my every growing list (31 countries if you were wondering!) But then I went to Japan, and I had to see more. Our long holiday was the perfect time for Lindsey and I to go. We went for 9 days and stayed in 3 different cities.
Since we travel on the cheapest airlines we can't choose our seats ahead of time so again we were separated on both flights. We started our adventure in Osaka, the second largest city in Japan. Our first day was spent visiting Osaka Castle. The original castle was built in 1583 but there have been fires, wars, and other things since then. This is a reconstruction of the castle from 1997.
After touring the castle we got on a train and went to the city of Nara, which is about an hour Northwest of Osaka. Nara is famous for the deer in its park. The deer are considered sacred because one of the shinto gods appeared on a nearby mountain riding a white deer. Today there are hundreds of these cuties running around the big park in Nara. You can buy special "deer cookies" to feed to the deer and just hang out with them. These guys are Sika deer. They are much smaller than our Wisconsin white tailed deer, almost the size of big goats, and keep their spots for life
The deer have learned that if they bow they will get rewarded with a cookie. It is the cutest thing ever.
After our magical day frolicking like Snow White with the deer we headed to Dontonbori to get some food. The draw of this street is the restaurants signs. The bigger, brighter, and crazier the better.
I spy a dragon, angry face, and giant crab. Can you find them?
This sign is very famous and is now seen as the symbol for Osaka.
I'm not going to lie our true reason for coming to Osaka was to visit Japan Universal Studios. We were super excited to see the Harry Potter World section. Lindsey was so excited she was almost hyperventilating. This section of the park was built to look like a town out of the Harry Potter books. It had all of the shops from the story like Ollivander's Wand Shop, Owl Post Office, Honeyduke's candy shop, and the Three Broomsticks restaurant. For someone who grew up loving the books it was amazing to see what had always been in your imagination come to life.
And of course they had a replica of Hogwarts, the school the children go to in the books. The main ride was inside the castle. We arrived at Universal before the gates even opened so were able to get to this section before it got really busy to ride the main ride through the castle. After that we loved it so much we went on it two more times!
In the books, Harry is chosen by a wand. They recreated that experience and Lindsey was chosen to be chosen. It was so cool to see and was so well done that it was truly "magical." We then were able to use the wand throughout the park to make different things happen. The final part of the video is the show. It is amazing what people can do with projectors!
What you saw me drinking in the video is butterbeer. It is completely non-alcoholic and tasted like cream soda with whipped cream on top and as I said, it was delicious.
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