關西 - 大阪府 Osaka

Date: Friday, 11th April 2008 - Day 1

Weather: 16˚C~19˚C (daytime) / 14˚C~15˚C (night time)

When Mom & I first arrived Kansai Airport (at 7:30 am), a coach was already on stand-by to pick us up and brought us to the popular tourists spots in Osaka.

The 1st destination we were fetched to was -> Osaka Castle 大阪城天守閣, with full bloom of cherry blossoms - it was so marvellous & graceful !!!

[ Let me elaborate a little bit about Osaka 大阪府 - it is the 2nd smallest among the 47 prefectures of Japan, Osaka is the 3rd most populated prefecture, with about 8.82 million people. On its land stretching long from north to south, the Osaka Plains occupies the centre, with Osaka Bay in the west, Hokusetsu Mountains in the north, Kongo-Ikoma Mountains in the east and Izumi-Katsuraji Mountains in the south.

In the 7th century, Japan's oldest capital Naniwanomiya was built in Osaka, enabling it to prosper as a major political and economic center. Later, the country's political center moved to Nara, Kyoto and then Tokyo, but Osaka's role as a major cultural and commercial gateway remained unchanged. In the 17th to 19th century, Osaka came to be known as the "nation's kitchen", leading the country's economic development and nurturing its original culture and scholarship. Osaka is also the birthplace of the traditional Bunraku puppet theater.


Osaka is internationally known as a major economic center, boasting a gross regional product second highest in the country after Tokyo's, attracting major world businesses and forming a high concentration of small and medium businesses with high levels of expertise. At preset, bio-industrial projects and next-generation robot developments are particularly active. On Osaka Bay is situated Kansai International Airport, the world's first international airport on the sea - it was built on a man-made island, about 5 km off the coast of Senshu. It opened on 4 September 1994.]