FIRST DAY IN TOWN

 March 27, 2024

We slept pretty well, but we woke at around 4:00 a.m. The time change caused us to be early for Osaka time.

We checked out the TV selections. No English stations, but they did have BBC. It was overdubbed in Japanese, but we could read the crawls and headlines. It was actually nice to be able to avoid some of the hyper coverage in the US right now.

I had added breakfast each day when I booked the room. Larry likes being able to start the day with a leisurely meal. We then usually snack for the rest of the day.

Breakfast is served between 6:30 and 10:30 a.m.

After a shower and dressing, we went down to eat.

The buffet room is on the second floor. Since our last trip, the hotel has been re-themed with the Minions. This was a great decision. The last time we were here, this was the upscale, elegant hotel. Now, it is filled with families, most with small children.

When we arrived in Osaka in 1998, only one of our daughters, Yasuko, was married. She and Toshihiro had a two-year-old son, Daisuke. Toshi was one of the few fathers we saw who actually helped take care of his child. At that time, mothers alone cared for the children while fathers went out to work.

Now, many fathers share the duties.

In 2011, on our ten-year anniversary of park opening trip, we saw lots of mothers and small children, but not so many fathers. Today, much has changed, and I think for the better.

Breakfast is a multi-station buffet. (It was much like the hotels we had enjoyed in England, Scotland, and Ireland on our last trip.) There are American choices as well as more traditional Japanese breakfast foods. One station had Chinese and Korean items as well.

We were both delighted to find two cappuccino machines. The hotel got extra points for those!

I stuck with “safe” items like scrambled eggs, croissant, yogurt, and fruit. Larry was far more adventurous. He was in heaven, and so was I. We each had the kind of meal we enjoy!

We returned to our room to brush our teeth and get ready to explore the area. Since it had been thirteen years, the City Walk area had changed a lot!

First, they have built several large new hotels. When we finished the park, there were only three, and we are staying in one of them. Now there are several others.

The most impressive one was this Art Deco one across from the park entrance, The Park Front Hotel.

USJ Entrance

I looked up the website for the hotel. All beds in this one are twins. Some of the rooms have spectacular views, and they are well-equipped to handle family groups. The architecture is gorgeous.

Everywhere here we see Mario items. All the kids (young and old) are running around sporting Mario hats (except those wearing Harry Potter wizard robes).

I thought about how much our Kae would have loved the Mario hats. She loved anything silly and funny. I look around, and I see her everywhere. Many of the young girls resemble her (although none are as beautiful as she was). But then, I am biased. This morning, I spotted the chef in the restaurant at a distance—just the white coat and hat. For a second it looked like Kae in her Cordon Bleu chef’s coat and toque. The last time we were here, Kae and Toshi joined us for a few days. We will see Toshi next week, and I miss Kae terribly.

We walked around City Walk and looked into some stores. It was quite cold, so we stopped for coffee and to warm up a bit. Then we returned to the hotel.

Shortly after we returned, the housekeeping staff arrived to clean. We read and answered email while they worked.

We made a second trip out later on, just for a walk. Everything seems so familiar yet strange. They have added a lot to City Walk, and some places have changed. It resembles City Walk in Hollywood.

Back in our room, we made cups of tea and ate granola bars.

Larry lay down and was asleep by 4:00 p.m. I gave up by 5:30. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. No agenda.