27 November 2016
After visiting Kobe and Himeji, we would be staying a couple of nights in Osaka before flying home. There were two main areas in Osaka that we considered – Umeda or Namba. My preference was to stay in the Namba area where most of the places I intended to visit were located. However, I had some British Airways Avios points which were due to expire and one of the hotels that I could use my points on was the Hotel Monterey Osaka, located in the Umeda area. So, I ended up staying in Umeda which was still alright since one of the day would be spent exploring the Umeda area.
From Kobe’s Sannomiya Terminal Hotel, we took a direct JR train to Osaka Station. The Hotel Monterey Osaka was only a 5-minute walk from JR Osaka Train Station (Sakura-bashi Exit). We did not do luggage forwarding for this segment since both hotels were located near the train stations.
Hotel Monterey Osaka was quite unusual for a hotel in Japan. The decor was distinctly European and there was even a chapel within the hotel.
I like this hotel for its character and charm. Even a ride on its elevator was kind of amusing; watching the archaic floor level indicator slides slowly from 1 to level 12 where our room was located.
Old fashion door bell and a flowery clock.
The room was reasonably spacious, with a King-size bed which was not common in most local Japanese hotels. In addition to green tea bags, this hotel provided coffee bags. These bags were actually well-designed drip coffee bags.
My original plan for a day in the Umeda area was quite ambitious. We were planning to go explore the malls around Umeda such as Herbis Plaza, Grand Front Osaka and also the Umeda Sky Building. However, the day we arrived at Osaka was a day of rain.
The 40 storeys of the Umeda Sky Building made it one of the tallest buildings in Japan. Its unique design features escalators encased in glass tubing, suspended between its two towers, which lead all the way up to its greatest height: an upper atrium that contains the luminous 'floating sky garden.' at 39th floor. My plan to go to the rooftop observatory which was supposed to offer a delightful view of the city (especially at sunset or nightfall) was dashed since it was rainy and cloudy.
While there could be many things to do in Osaka on a rainy day, we decided to have a slow day and just go explore the Grand Front Osaka. The Grand Front Osaka is a large commercial complex north of JR Osaka Station. Elevated walkways connect the multiple buildings of Grand Front Osaka to each other and to Osaka Station. Going from Osaka Station, we reached the South Building first and spent some time shopping for warm clothing, in preparation for a trip to Stockholm in the coming winter.
Simple lunch at the South Building.
After lunch, we went to the Northern Building. We found that the Northern Building, with its Knowledge Capital more interesting than the South Building which was a normal mall.
Knowledge Capital features large interactive exhibits that give the place a fun science centre feel. Shops here are called “labs”. There were the Coca-Cola lab, one for robotic pets, and a Suntory cafe/store/museum.
The Coca-Cola lab was the quite interesting. Visitors can buy bottles of Coca-Cola drinks with customised labels on them. There were also special Japan edition of bottled cola featuring scenes of Mount Fuji and Geisha.
Special Japan edition of bottled cola featuring scenes of Mount Fuji.
We ended the day with wagyu beef steak dinner at one of the restaurant near our hotel. Although the beef was nicer than most beef steak, we felt that still cannot compared to beef that was cooked yakiniku style.
The memory of the best wagyu beef yakiniku meal still lingered in my memory. That was in Hida Takayama a year ago. One last thing we must do before leaving Japan was to have Beef Yakiniku.
This Hotel Monterey Osaka looks nice and ideal to stay when visiting Japan since this is a near from train station. Big thanks for sharing this with us.
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