Abusing Osaka Two Day Pass! (Part 1/2)

In accordance to my post about how I've used my two-day Osaka pass  (read it here!), I also wanted to talk more about the details on what happened during my day. But before you continue reading, I wanted to remind you a few things for you to keep in mind:

1. For these two days, I traveled solo, though I did decide to meet my local friend on the second day but that didn't affect my itinerary.
2. For my itinerary, I do not suggest it for reference for these types of people:

• Families with children (Places likes museums, shopping centers/streets might not be suitable)
• For children that are on diapers, they are not allowed to enter into the waters of onsen 
• Toddlers should be welcomed to opposite gender bathrooms WITH the company of the proper gender parent (E.g.: The mother can bring her toddler (son) into the female onsen, and the father can bring his toddler (daughter) into the male onsen (though unlikely if I were the father lololol) :D )
• If you are bringing your children into the onsen, please make sure you watch them because running around could cause them to slip and it is very dangerous. 
• I could recommend still using the pass for one day in Tempozan area, and the other day on anything that interests you and your family! :D
• People with low stamina (Day 1 consists of LOTS of travelling by subway, and day 2 has quite an amount of walking around Shinsekai and Shitennouji areas.
• People with difficulties in moving around (Moving from almost north to south of Osaka, PLUS tons of walking)
• Groups of more than 2 person (since traveling in groups slows down the process and there are many time spent on photo-taking/ group shopping/ chit-chatting/ waiting, etc.) 
• ^ Based on very bad past experience
• Unless your group of people are extremely co-operative, then I actually don't see a problem

3. Most of the cost of my itinerary are covered by my Two-Day Osaka pass (once again, please refer here lol), the passes doesn't include meals (unless you enter restaurants that provides discounts towards the pass users)
4. For all facilities that the entry is covered by the Two-Day Osaka pass, you can only enter it once with the pass you are holding. You can enter again if and only if you have another unused pass or you pay for the entrance fees.
5. This is more personal, but please do not mind the order of images in this post since my phone's time settings screwed up for quite a bit (due to me attempting to change my time to and from my homeland but one of my apps screwed up lol) :'D

Two-Day Osaka Amazing Pass!

Anyway, here goes the super long post!

My day started with Naniwa no Yu. Naniwa no Yu is actually also a place for pachinko and slots, and from what I've heard, the place opens an onsen so that the parents could gamble and leave their children in the onsen. Additionally, besides providing onsen services, they also have tons of other services such as massaging and manicures.

Naniwa no Yu's onsen usually opens at 10am during the weekdays, but on weekends (Sat and Sun) they start at 8am. Since I live around Hanazonocho, my schedule (here) starts and ends with travelling toand from Hanazono. I switched from train to bus from Umeda station and since the Pokemon center in Osaka isn't opening until 10 so I've decided to drop by later after the onsen experience.

Outside of Naniwa no Yu

In Naniwa no Yu, there are different onsens separated by gender. Here, everyone has to go completely naked, not even swimsuits are allowed. It's actually my first time entering an onsen in Japan, and I was only entering onsen in Taiwan with swimsuits on, so I was feeling a little uncomfortable at the first place. However, the thought of "nobody here knows me, and I also know none of these people here, they have their boobs and I have mine so it doesn't matter" and I just went in right away.

I've heard reviews that it might be difficult to find, but to me it was pretty easy to find. I just entered the building and went right to the top floor via their elevator and I immediately knew where I am supposed to head to. :D

There are two lockers in Naniwa no Yu. The first one is for you to lock your shoes, and after taking off your shoes, you will be making a payment. If you have the Amazing Osaka pass, you will have to flash the pass and the staff will scan a barcode on it. The staff will also ask you if you have your own towel, and if you don't, you can rent one (which means you have to return it into a basket, not bringing them home) from the staff with some fee. So on that day, I actually brought a backpack instead of my usual handbags (yes, I brought 2 handbags to Japan) to bring my large towel lol

Also, before entering the onsen, please make sure that you have at least TWO 100 yen coins! If you don't, you can exchange it with the cashier before or during the payment time. One coin is for the shoe locker, and the other one is for your bag locker. The coins are refundable after you slot in the key on the spot so there's no worries about it.

Anyways, after the payment, you can enter the changing room, and there is where you can place your bags in the locker and get undressed. Basically, everyone shove their bags and clothes into the locker and there's where everyone are naked. You can also notice a corner where people could dry their hairs and if it's crowded you might have to queue for the hairdryer after coming out from the onsen.

Shoe locker key

Make sure to take both of your keys with you, along with your towel and perhaps also a comb. You can clean your hands and weigh yourself if you wanted to, and you can find yourself seeing rows of shower area where you can sit down and properly clean yourself before entering the onsen. There are shampoo, conditioner (they call it rinse in Japan) and shower gel provided. I don't recall the brand but they certainly don't dry my hair off like the ones I used when I was in Taiwan.

Since no photography or usage of phones are allowed once you entered the changing area, I can only describe the onsen area with words. In Naniwa no Yu, there are two main areas: Outdoor bath and indoor bath. In the indoor bath, there are mostly baths above 38 degree Celsius, but there's also this one that is only at 17 degree Celsius and I didn't enter the 17 degree one. The only time I used the 17 degree bath was actually to use a small bucket to take some of the onsen water to cool myself down after toasting myself in the sauna (the sauna was freaking 72 degree Celsius and if you find it hard to breathe in the sauna, get outside immediately or you might faint IDK).

The outdoor bath has a few spots that you can have your own space, especially the smaller-sized baths, which is very popular. Each place has different methods of treating your skin so you can give them all a try, or just find your favorite spot to relax. The indoor baths are more like Jacuzzi to me, but I'm sure that my parents would love the indoor baths better because the massaging effects are really nice for muscle aches or backaches. I use the computer a lot so the Jacuzzi are a blessing to my shoulders.

Since the time I was in Osaka is already entering the winter period, the weather is a little cold (but acceptable) so I was all (((ｏﾟДﾟ))｡o(寒ｨﾅｧ…) when I stepped out and went ♡(⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡ upon entering the warm onsen. That's not the best part... The best part is after stepping out of the super warm outdoors onsen...


SUPER COLD.

So cold that I escaped my way to the indoors onsen. By the time I feel really relaxed and almost falling asleep, I realized that I might really need to leave the onsen or else I'll be sleeping in the onsen until midnight, so I went to the sauna for only a few minutes, then cooled myself down with the waters of 17 degree onsen, cleaned myself in the showers, then dry myself, dress up, and used the hair dryers to dry my hair off, and I moved on to the Museum of Housing and Living.

In the elevators, on the way up to the museum

I actually felt a little confused about going to the museum because its entrance is actually on the top. To be honest, I'm not much of a person that remembers a lot about history, but if you are coming to this place using the subway, it's pretty easy to find since upon leaving the subway station you should be able to see the building right away.

The museum area is pretty easy to go around, you start with the traditional areas, then move onto the modern areas. And also, if you have backpacks, you will be requested to leave your bags in the locker (refundable 100 yen). You can rent yukata and roam around this area for a fee of 500 yen, which is quite cheap imo. However, it's a Sunday and it's already very crowded, I didn't even bother to rent a yukata and looked around. Plus, I actually have a yukata in my house so I don't really think I'd need to rent one uwu

The Edo Area

In the Edo area, you can actually see different types of rooms and they are bringing it to as close to the buildings and functions in the Edo era. There are rooms that were used for public functions, or houses that you can see the cooking utilities and inner decorations. Also, there are also areas where you can play the traditional toys (or you might call them retro toys) too! I saw many kids trying it out. I had an experience playing with those during a students exchange program, so I had fun seeing kids playing with traditional toys.

Looks like a hall for ceremonies

Since the museum is actually inside of a building, there wasn't actually many things to see. I have more interest in the Edo area compared to the modern ones, so I didn't spend a lot of time looking around the modern era area.

Modernising

However, the interesting part of the modern area would be their miniature models! They would move and I had a short moment wondering how the mechanism works. I lost some photos, but there is also an area where they show the lightings of Tsutenkaku. Though I was going in without a guide, there's this gentleman who's seemingly a Japanese guide/ local who was standing beside me and asked me in Japanese whether I knew it is Tsutenkaku and I appreciate his kindness. Though I'm not very good in conversations, I didn't really know what else to say besides saying "yes, thank you for taking your time to explain it to me" T_T

They would move!

And that concludes my visit in the museum! A senior of my university suggested me to look around the famous shopping district, Tenjimbashi. I'm not really in the mood of shopping, but you can see many stores! McDonalds is also very close to the museum so if you wanted a quick snack you could head there (though the portions are smaller compared to probably any other countries lol). There are also Izakaya. There are also salons, takoyaki stores, a futon store, some dollar/ thrift stores. I also saw quite an amount of clinics, cafes and restaurants too.

Tenjimbashi

Since I was also reminded that there's a Pokemon center near Daimaru Umeda, I've decided to grab a snack from Lawson and headed to Osaka Ekimae station by bus.

This Pikachu is probably around 2m of height, XXL sized, maybe?

Upon entering the elevator of Daimaru and exiting at the 13th floor, everyone that came out were immediately welcomed by the staff. Though as you go around you'd hear the staff asking if you'd like to have a look at the plush and bring one home. Somehow, I'm not sure why, but hearing those comments makes me not want to bring them home instead lol

Anyways, it was also close to Christmas

Since I can't touch this, I guess I could take a photo of it and touch the photo later. lol

Simply joyfulness just by staring at them

Rowlet plush ahhhh

The ceiling

Hello from Osakako station

From the Osakako station, you'll need to walk for a bit to take a ride on the Tempozan Ferris wheel. Tempozan's Ferris Wheel is currently (as of the day I write this post) the one of the largest Ferris wheel in Asia!

This giant egg makes me wanted to eat again

I doubt anyone would be lost on their way to the Ferris wheel because it's such a huge landmark, but on your way there you'll find some Lego decorations and also seeing the kaiyuukan from afar. Not to mention that the USJ is also around this area that you could go there by bus (with a few transfers).

Look at that fabulous lashes and lips lol

It was kind of surprising that not many people were there at the time I was in Tempozan ferris wheel, but then again it isn't that surprising because I think it'd be more beautiful here if it's in the evening because the illuminations here would be beautiful. I only went up and just hopped into my ride right away. You can also choose between whether you would like to have the transparent bottom, or just the normal, non-transparent bottom.