Sunday was Carla's birthday! We didn't do anything special...other than taking a trip to Japan lol.

I woke up very early again. Went to bed around nine, but was up at 2:30 and then dozed until around four, when I finally just got up. Carla also woke up early and we took a little walk around 5:30 and got a snack at yet another 7/11.

Breakfast was at Cafe Veloce, downstairs from the hotel. We'd passed by it multiple times the previous day and they had a sign outside advertising Belgian waffles that looked really good, but when we got there, we found the waffles weren't starting until the next day, so we got some little sandwiches instead.



I do not remember much about the sandwiches except that mine was a type of tuna melt, but they were both very tasty.

The decor is all black cat themed and super cute.





We were still a little hungry and I was craving something sweet, having been denied my waffles, so I was poking around in maps to see what was open (it was only a little past seven, so not a lot open yet) and remembered the Komeda Coffee we'd spotted across the street. They turned out to be having a Pokemon promotion, so between that and the fact that Carla had seen some of her Japan youtubers go there and was curious about it, we decided to go check it out.

And speaking of Pokemon, there was this cute Pikachu vending machine outside the hotel:



I actually ended up seeing quite a few of those on our trip. None of the drinks seemed to be Pokemon themed, so I'm not sure why the machine was, but it was cute!

The theming of Komeda Coffee is so cute.







The current Pokemon campaign was featuring Ditto, and it was ending soon, so two of the three items were sold out.



The one on the left is a fish and mentaiko (fish eggs) sandwich, which I wasn't interested in, but on the right are fried sweet potato balls, which I definitely would have gotten if they'd had them.

In the middle is the shiro-noir, which is a pastry filled with like condensed milk and topped with ice cream and various toppings. In this case it was blueberry to match the Ditto coloring.



They have a regular size and mini size, and we were originally going to get the regular and split it, but then we noticed on the menu that you get one Pokemon keychain for each promotional item you order, so we each got a mini. They were very tasty!

The keychains were blind bags, but we got two separate ones, not dupes, so that was nice.



There was a new promo starting later that week with a different Pokemon and so different flavored items (and different keychains) and we talked about going to one when we were in Tokyo, but never did get around to it.

We went back to the hotel for a while after that and then headed over to the station to meet up with nintendoh and his husband at Osaka Castle to take in the sights and the cherry blossoms.

Spotted this cute model of Osaka Station outside that we hadn't noticed the day before:



Selfie time!



We got a little turned around in the station again but managed to find the right platform. There are two stops by the castle and we got off at Osaka Castle park station, and I'm so glad because the station decor was really lovely.







Robbie and Katsushi hadn't arrived yet, so we walked around and did some sightseeing first. There were some really lovely views right by the station.







While we were taking pics on the bridge, I noticed that across the river was a statue with anime characters, so I went over to check it out and as I got closer, saw it was Detective Conan. It was in front of the Yomiuri TV building.



There was a tiny combini and I went in for a cold drink (the forecast had said overcast all day but it was already very sunny and continued to be sunny all day and we had not put on sunblock or brought hats so we ended up kind of wiped out by the end of the day). Unfortunately tons of people were buying onigiri for their cherry blossom viewing picnics and the onigiri were right by the front door so there was a clog, and the shop was so tiny you couldn't go around people even once you were inside, it was all just one line to the cashiers. But eventually I made it through and got a Pocari Sweat, then we grabbed a shady bench and waited for Robbie.

Once they arrived, we walked through the park, taking in the beautiful cherry trees and the castle and grounds.

There was even a guy with a hawk, who is apparently a local celebrity.



Despite the sun, we had a great time and it was really beautiful.















We didn't go inside the castle as there's not much to see in there and the lines are super long. There was also some exclusive cherry blossom viewing area with more huge long lines, but there were so many beautiful trees just all over the grounds that there's no need to line up for that.

There were a bunch of food stalls selling all sorts of tasty looking stuff, so we stopped for a snack. Carla and I got pork belly skewers that were amazing.





After that we headed back towards our hotel to have okonomiyaki at Fugetsu. There are actually three separate locations right around our hotel, including one in the Umeda Links food hall, which is the one we ate at.

The okonomiyaki was so good! We also had some salt yakisoba, which was super tasty with thick noodles rather than the usual thinner type.

After lunch, Katsushi wanted to do some shopping and then head home, while Robbie, Carla, and I went across the street for karaoke. There are three big karaoke places to choose from, but the first one we went into, Manekineko, had some system where you have to download their app and be a member, and you need a Japanese phone number to sign up. Robbie has one, so he said that was no problem, but then as he was signing up, the app was also asking for the equivalent of a social security number, and we decided that was pretty creepy and went to the next place down the street instead. I had overheard the woman behind the counter explaining the app situation to a group of Japanese women who had their suitcases with them, and asking if they had a Japanese phone number, and she told them the reason they do this is because they don't want foreigners there. So...kinda don't want to give them money anyway.

But we went down the street to Jankara and they had no such system and also had free drinks, which was great. We sang for about two hours and it was so much fun. None of us had been karaoke in ages (like pre-pandemic) and it really made me remember how much I love it. It was also a great way to relax for the afternoon after having been out in the sun too much in the morning.

After parting with Robbie, we went back to rest at the hotel for a while and then over to the station to check out the Pokémon center and Nintendo shop. The shops are on the other side of the station, so we had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get to them from where we were, and when we were wandering around we spotted this teen band doing a little live show. They were pretty good!



We found the area with the shops and there were a bunch of other shops there, too, including a Tomica shop, where we bought a few cars.



(Actually the two on the bottom were purchased later at the airport, but I just photographed them altogether.)

The Nintendo shop had lots of cool decorations:







But it was so crowded! There was a huge long line for the register, so we didn't bother buying anything except some gachas.



The Pokemon Center was even busier and had not only a line for the register, but a line just to get in. There was less than an hour till closing, so I'm not sure everyone in line was even going to be able to get in there before closing, and we didn't want to stand in line anyway.

There were other shops like Monster Hunters and a One Piece shop with this neat Luffy statue:



We went back to the Links Dining food hall to check out a restaurant we'd seen when we were there for lunch, but they had a huge line. As did all the other restaurants. Carla still wasn't feeling that well stomach-wise, so we ended up just going back to our room and I went downstairs to Burger King to get dinner for myself and brought some fried chicken up to her from FamiMa.