Osaka with Masaya!

On Sunday morning I met Masaya in Umeda and we have started our full day of sightseeing and various Japanese attractions around Osaka! As a true Osaka-jin (a local) he could show me more than what I would have been able to see on my own.

We started at takoyaki (蛸焼) restaurant! Osaka is famous for its takoyaki and you have to eat them while in Osaka, as nowhere else they taste better than here! Masaya took me to a place where we could not only eat but also MAKE our very own takoyaki! It was so much fun turning small takoyaki balls and looking after our early lunch/late breakfast!

After getting our stomachs full with yummy takoyaki, we headed toward a building where we took a lift to 33rd floor and got a chance to look at Osaka from the top! The view was amazing and we had such a nice weather for taking pictures that my true photographic spirit has been awakened!
Worth noting: According to Masaya there are no foreigners in this building as it so mostly known only to Japanese people. You can only imagine how special I felt being inside!!! Ahhh... ;)

From there, we headed towards a small Shrine in the middle of big, crowded, modern Umeda! There we drew our very own おみくじ (Omikuji, random fortunes written on a strip of paper) to read into our futures! After reading about my slightly good luck for the upcoming future (like JOB: it may take time, do not try to hassle it ~ even if i desperately need one?!) we tied our おみくじ hoping for its better effects and maybe even a slightly better luck ;)

Then we started walking towards Namba! And it cannot be stressed enough that we have actually WALKED there! Japanese people love taking public transport or even their own cars wherever they go. Very little people walk around the city, unless they are currently in the middle of shopping ~ and shopping streets in Japan can actually be very long and crowded! Walking toward Namba, I could not believe my luck! We stumbled upon a Hard Rock Cafe! Before my departure to Japan, my brother started collecting Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts. So we had to step in to get him his end of high-school present (congratulations Mateq, if you are reading this ~ as always you make me the proudest sister on Earth):

Soon after, we found ourselves in 心斎橋 (Shinsaibashi), one of the biggest and most famous districts of Osaka! It was extremely busy so we were desperately trying to beat the crowd. If you type in Google search: Osaka, tones of the following images will pop out! Therefore, not surprisingly, yet again my photographic spirit has been awakened! 

Lastly, we headed for a relaxing evening in the HUB! As it is extremely difficult to get a pub in Japan (and by that I mean a PUB, where you can buy JUST a beer, drink, cocktail, without a need to buy food) we ended up in a very English style place taking it back to bases and an old Oran Mor like atmosphere :) We were lucky enough to get in for a happy hour and ended up with a Jumbo sized drinks. What a relief to our pockets and bodies after a whole day of walking and sightseeing Osaka:

It was a truly amazing day! I had tones of fun in playing my role as a professional photographer. 
At the same time, it was such a weird feeling seeing Masaya here in Japan! We saw each other not even 2 weeks ago in Oran Mor in Glasgow and now here we were in the center of Osaka! This world is indeed small! Hahaha...