Day 3 in Osaka - Universal Studios and shopping!

We'd bought a 2-day ticket for Universal Studios, so that we could take our own sweet time to explore the park and queue for the rides. On hindsight, 1 day would probably be enough, since the kids couldn't take most of the rides.

Anyway, on our second day there, we were more focused.

Waiting for the train to Universal City

We headed straight for the Sesame Street 4D movie before going back to Universal Wonderland, where the Sesame Street characters were out in full force.

All the rides in Universal Wonderland were for young kids, except for Elmo's Go-Go Skateboard which provided us adults with quite a bit of fun and thrill! The children loved it too, and we went on that ride 3 times!

We stayed there for another hour, and as the sky became darker and darker, we decided that was enough theme park for the day.

Comparing Universal Studio with Disneyland, Disneyland definitely win hands down. Disneyland has such a magical feel about it that Universal Studio lacks. Would so love to go back to Tokyo Disneyland again!

After lunch at a restaurant just outside Universal Studio, we went back to the apartment for a rest before heading out for shopping!

We went to Shinsaibashi, which is just 2 subway stops away.

The first shop we stop at - Daddy's candy shop, where he almost bought a snare drum.

Then while the parents shopped at Uniqlo, which has so much more variety than Singapore's outlets, and cheaper too, the kids fooled around at the accessories section.

We unknowingly walked to Dotonburi, which really was very near to Shinsaibashi. And of course, we had to take a shot with the landmark, the Glico man!

Dinner was at a not-so-impressive Japanese restaurant. Not what we were expecting of Japanese food yet. We promised ourselves that we must find better food the next few days!

Day 2 in Osaka - Universal Studios

We'd thought Universal Studios was very far away from where we were staying, but it's just a 20min train ride. Very convenient.

We started the day with a McDonald's breakfast!

Inside the park, this is the first character we met - Woody Woodpecker

Followed by Shrek and Fiona

And first thing that Nadine wanted to do was to paint her face!

She was so pleased with the result

Aaron, on the other hand, wanted to take photos with all the cars he saw

Including the Flying Ford Anglia from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which he recognised as the flying car in Harry Potter instantly.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was really a replica of the show. As soon as we entered the place, Nadine immediately shouted "Diagon Alley"!

Aaron was too young for the rides, and the queues were super long anyway. But we managed walking tour of Hogwarts Castle.

We went to the more age-appropriate Universal Wonderland next, where Aaron went on the Elmo drive repeatedly, while Nadine and I went on the Hello Kitty Cupcake ride.

And after that, Daddy and Nadine went on the Elmo's Bubble Bubble ride, Aaron happily played at the Grover's Construction Company area, all by himself. 

That's the difference between Nadine and Aaron. Nadine would go to the playground and make friends within 5 min with anyone and start playing with them. Aaron, on the other hand, is happy playing on his own.

Next, Daddy brought Nadine for the Spiderman ride, which freaked her out big-time. She burst into tears as soon as they got out of the ride. And that sure reminded us that Nadine is still a little kid even though she sometimes makes us feel like she's a teenager.

That rounded up our 1st day at Universal Studios. The kids were so distracted that they didn't care for any lunch and only had ice-cream. So we decided to take our dinner at ... McDonald's before heading back to the apartment for an early night.

The McDonald's in Japan tasted so much better than those in Singapore. The beef and veggie were so much nicer and fresher. Wish we could have such quality in Singapore's Mc's!

Day 1 in Osaka - Tempozan and Osaka Aquarium

Our first full day in Osaka - we went to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.

From our apartment, it was only a 30-min subway ride. The kids were really excited to be on the subway. Wanted to look out of the window even when we were underground.

By the time we got to the Aquarium, it was almost lunch time (we started out late). So we decided to have lunch at Tempozan Harbor Village first. It has a nice food court, as well as numerous restaurants. We were really impressed that there were no cleaners around, but everybody just clean up after themselves, returning trays and disposing rubbish after they eat. What a good practice!

The kids had fun at these picture standees after lunch.

They were also drawn to to the Legoland Discovery Centre on the 2nd floor of the complex, and we promised that we'd go there after the Aquarium.

The Aquarium looked really impressive from outside. Huge complex with a great variety of marine life found in the Pacific Rim region.

The star of the Aquarium - the whale shark, which got Aaron really excited.

There was also a "discovery room" of sorts. But everything was in Japanese, so we couldn't understand anything, nor explain what we were seeing to the kids. What a shame.

After the Aquarium, we kept our promise to go to Legoland Discovery Centre. It was bigger than we thought, even had a laser battle ride which both kids and parents enjoyed. Aaron turned out to be a better shooter than Nadine!

Aaron was totally enthralled by the Miniland, where there was plenty of models of landmarks in Osaka.

Nadine was happy playing in the Lego Friends Olivia's House.

And she also had her first go at karaoke-ing with Daddy!

Aaron building his loooooooong train

And there was Mr Lego, walking around to greet the kids.

At Tempozan, there was a big nice ferris wheel. But it was a rainy and windy day, so hardly anyone went on the wheel. Neither did we. Quite disappointed, although we were unsure if the kids would enjoy a long ferris wheel ride.

By the time we were done at Legoland, it was dinner time. We had dinner at Tempozan's food court again before heading back for an early night, in preparation for Universal Studios the next day.

Osaka - May 2015

We had a wonderful week of vacation in Osaka. Love the place - so massive yet so well-organised and well-connected. Its infrastructure is amazing, and the people are really helpful. Aside from the numerous attractions for children, there were also scrumptious food and fantastic shopping. Kids and parents all enjoyed the vacation, except for the endless walking!

The kids behaved really well on the flights. Kept themselves entertained with the ipads, inflight movies, and goodie pack from the airline. Of course, they kept asking if we were there yet.

We stayed at the Weekly Green in Nanba - a very basic apartment. Very old-fashioned, but very cozy, has a small kitchenette, conveniently located in a nice, quiet neighbourhood, which made us feel like we were residents moving about, rather than tourists.

Our 4-bedder room cost us only about SGD178 per night.

And the kids were totally amused by the toilet bowl that has a sink on top of the cistern.

There was no housekeeping. So we had to clean up after ourselves - including bringing our rubbish down to the garbage area.

Very importantly, their staff speak very good English and could give us good and clear directions to the places we wanted to visit. It was also near the Daikokucho subway station, and the JR Osaka loop and Imamiya Japan Rail station. There were also a number of convenience stores and a 24-hour supermarket nearby.

It's definitely a place that we'd highly recommend ..... for those who don't mind "lao-goh" and lack of room service!

Musical preference

Nadine and Aaron both love music, but have very different preferences.

No surprise, Nadine prefers girl singers. Faith Hill is currently one of her favourites.

Her taste is more poppish, but she also developed a liking for Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name" and can even sing along with the song!

Aaron, on the other hand, is a rocker! He likes loud and fast music, and U2!

But his "favouritest" song at the moment is Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" - heard from a movie we watched recently - Bedtime Stories. He can sing the chorus pretty well!

Only problem with these 2 is that once they like a particular song, they can listen to it over and over again. It can then be quite hard to convince them to listen to something else. So far, we've not been able to get them to like jazz. That would be the next goal!

More lego creation from Aaron

Aaron can play with his legos for hours. Recently, he's become a lot more imaginative and precise with his creations.

Fire truck with siren, ladder and a long hose

A crane, which Daddy said was too short ...

... so he built a taller one!

A cleaning truck which sucks up rubbish with its big green block in front

Mothers' Day cards

Nadine drew this Mothers' Day card earlier in the week for me.

I thought this is me giving her a present. But no, it's me receiving a present from her! Love the dress she drew for herself!

Aaron, seeing the sister drawing, decided that he wanted to draw me a card as well .... and his was more "abstract"! It's the thought that counts, I guess.