Osaka Photography links

Misterpiggy loves looking at other peoples pictures of Japan.  Here's a few photo links from a Canadian photographer who visited Japan in 2007 and fell in love with it.  Hey, that's the same year that Misterpiggy first went there.

Some outstanding pictures of Osaka here:

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/shooting-articles/shooting-osaka-japan-photography-examples-and-tips/

And he took some really nice pictures during cherry blossom season in 2011.  The Osaka castle grounds and the Sakuranomiya park are two of the first places Misterpiggy has on his schedule (besides Kyoto).
Only wish his picture taking skills can improve. sigh.

http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2011/04/photographing-sakura-around-osaka-castle/

http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2011/04/photographing-sakura-in-kema-sakuranomiya-koen/

One more day to go before Misterpiggy is on his next adventure!

Osaka Airport Limo Bus - Coming and Going

Location of Airport Limo Bus at Itami airport

Misterpiggy's JAL flight will arrive via the Osaka Itami Airport north terminal.  After buying his Airport limo bus ticket from the vending machine, he will proceed to bus stop number 2 to wait for the bus to take him to Namba.  The limo bus terminus point is the Osaka City Air Terminal, but Misterpiggy will get off one stop earlier at the Namba stop (see below).  This stop is the closest one to the Swissotel Nankai Osaka.

Namba Bus Stop

From the bus stop it should be just a few minutes to get to the hotel. After leaving the bus at the Airport Bus Namba Stop cross the major intersection to the south and walk straight below the elevated expressway towards Namba Parks.

Cherry Blossom status

This years cherry blossom blooms got off to an early start in Tokyo due to the warmer weather.

http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/sakura13/130321.html

Fortunately temperatures are still cooler in Kyoto and Osaka, so still good news for next week.

http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/sakura13/130320_kyoto.html

Hanami - Cherry Blossom Viewing

Hanami literally means "flower viewing", however, it commonly refers only to cherry blossom viewing.

Here is the cherry blossom viewing forecast for 2013.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011.html

As you can see, late March is the predicted opening (ie.  "kaika (開花)" when a cherry tree has its first open buds)  and during the first ten days of April, the cherry blossoms should be in full bloom ("mankai (満開)" is the Japanese term for "full bloom")  in Osaka and Kyoto.

Free Domestic flights in Japan

Misterpiggy booked his flight and hotel thru expedia.ca.  It showed the lowest cost flight flying through Chicago via American Airlines (AA) and connecting via Japan Airlines (JAL).  It's easy to find flights to Tokyo but not Osaka. So Misterpiggy was disappointed to find out only recently that if you fly Air Canada to Tokyo Japan, the domestic flight portion is free (ie Tokyo through to Osaka).
Oh well, good to know for his next trip.

Here's the information that he found on Kintetsu's Travel website.

http://www.kiecan.com/toronto/index_e.htm