Serene Sakuranomiya

A beautiful and balmy 25 degrees celcius today, when Misterpiggy googled the weather forecast for Osaka.  Looking out his hotel window, it was certainly going to be a wonderful day.

Misterpiggy loves to visit grocery stores when he's in Japan.  There's just so much more interesting items on the shelves.  Don't laugh, but he's always found their sushi and bento boxes to be extremely fresh and excellent value.  Here in the heart of Namba, he found a giant supermarket called MaxValu, not five minutes walk from the Swissotel.  Today he loaded up his shopping basket with drinks and snacks.  Twenty three items for 2922 yen!

Then it was back on the trains, this time to visit the aptly named Sakuranomiya park and promenade along the Okawa river, just north of Osaka Castle.

It was sunny and warm and peaceful and the sakura trees here on the promenade rivalled those Misterpiggy saw on the philosophers path back in Kyoto.  It was nice just to lazily meander along the river's edge and watch the ferry boats making their way on the water.  Definitely one of his favourite spots in Osaka that Misterpiggy will revisit if and when he ever comes back.

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.