Well, last day… What a shame, I wish I could stay here for another month! Anyway, we have to switch hotels because the Brighton Hotel had no availability for tonight, so I booked a place closer to the train station.
We checked out around 9, had some onigiris and Japanese sweets for breakfast, and headed to the new hotel to drop off our luggage.
We took the wrong exit at Umeda Station (this one and Namba are huge, so getting lost is pretty easy) and ended up on the exact opposite side of the hotel. We tried to navigate with GPS, but what seemed like a simple walk turned into a half-hour odyssey under the blazing sun, dragging our suitcases… We finally arrived at Hotel Monterey, sweating like crazy! Anyway, we left our bags there and went back to the metro—this time, we made sure to memorize the way back. No wonder we got lost before; we had spent 20 minutes just walking through Umeda’s underground tunnels to reach the red line.
Off we went to Kuromon Ichiba Market to walk around, do some last-minute shopping, and check out all the local food. It was amazing and really cool to see the covered streets with air conditioning! We finally found some traditional Japanese souvenir shops instead of just the usual fridge magnets and tried some sweet fries that were absolutely delicious.
With our mission accomplished, we headed to Tempozan to visit the Osaka Aquarium. It was beautiful and huge, but like everything here, super crowded—we could barely walk! Oh, and before going in, we stopped at a small, humble restaurant run by two elderly ladies, where we had some incredible curry rice and pork cutlet bowls. I swear, it’s impossible to eat badly in this country.
After exploring the aquarium, we went back to the hotel, and this time, since we paid attention, we took the correct exit—what a detour we took earlier! We checked in, got our keys, left our stuff in the room, and rested for a couple of hours to escape the crazy heat.
Around 6 p.m., we went out for one last stroll around the city, this time to Shinsaibashi-suji, another packed shopping street. This one had stores like Zara, Adidas, and other big international brands, but also plenty of sweet shops and dessert places. We ended up trying a kind of sweet waffle filled with cheese (it was good, but nothing mind-blowing) and a chocolate ice cream with a chocolate churro—now that was amazing!
After that, we left the area and looked for a nice sushi spot for our farewell dinner. We had some incredible sushi—tuna, salmon, and a delicious mixed platter. Olivia went for grilled wagyu beef, which must’ve been amazing because she didn’t let me try it! 😂
And that’s it, time to head back to the hotel because tomorrow is travel day—we have to wake up early to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo and then our flight home.
By the way, my legs got a solid workout! According to Garmin, in the first week, we averaged 16,000 steps per day, covering a total of 95 km. This week, even more—20,500 steps per day on average, adding up to 117 km. So, in total, we walked around 210 km across Japan!