3. First Night on the Town: Osaka, Japan

a hotel room, first ramen, and late-night fun!

When we last left off, I had just arrived in Osaka via Tokyo’s Narita airport and had taken a taxi to the W Hotel downtown. My travel-witch Emily had booked a high floor with a spectacular view.

This was a genius plan: to bookend our vacation with spectacular views of cities. The first and last nights of our trip, we pulled out the stops and splurged.

Despite this view, or maybe because of it, I wanted to get out and do something! The city lights were calling!

That said, the inside of the W Hotel Osaka is worth describing. There’s a spectacular tunnel from the street to the elevator

breathtaking coming and going….

We got a large room with two excellent beds and a mini bar, two huge closets and a bathroom that could be drawn closed by a sliding panel. The walls were soft linen and the sheets were white and cool. Everything was soothing on the eyes — until you opened up the closets! There were two humongous closets, and each one had crazy cartoon illustrations in wild colors if you opened the door. Or leave the doors closed for a spa-like smooth walls.