I woke up at 6:30am today, so hopefully the jet lag is finally over and I’m on Japanese time now.

We all met in the lobby and went out in search of a breakfast spot, which turned out to be harder than we expected. We first tried the Osakura Hotel, but it just looked like another overpriced hotel breakfast, even more expensive than the Edition, so we kept walking. We eventually found a café called Tully’s, and it was perfect. We had croque monsieur sandwiches with coffees and a few pastries, which hit the spot completely.

After breakfast we went back to the hotel, finished packing our bags, and Vivi had a meeting with the Director of Sales at the hotel, who she had been in touch with before our arrival. It’s nice that this trip can also be a networking opportunity for her.

We decided to take advantage of the luggage forwarding service that many hotels in Japan offer. We sent one of our checked bags and a carry-on to the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo so they’ll be waiting for us when we return in a week. Since elevators and escalators are hard to come by in many train stations, I figured the less baggage we have to carry around, the better. It cost $23 to send them ahead, and that was absolutely worth it.

We checked out and left the hotel at 11:15am, got an Uber, which was a big beautiful Toyota van, and headed to Tokyo Station. We stopped at a convenience store inside the station to pick up food for the train, then found the platform for our shinkansen, which departed at 12:33pm.

It was cool to see that when the train arrived, all the seats were facing east, but the staff came through and spun them around so they were all facing west for our direction of travel. Makes sense—you wouldn’t want to be facing backward while going over 200 mph.

The train ride took about two and a half hours, which was a great chance to catch up on the blog, some Inspire Travel Designers work, and emails. Vivi and Ale both napped for most of the journey while Bart and I worked. Time well spent. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see Mount Fuji as we’d hoped since the sky was too overcast.

We arrived in Osaka at 3:30pm, found the metro we needed, and walked the last five minutes to the W Osaka. The hotel is absolutely stunning. It reminds me a bit of the W Bogotá, but only in terms of energy and vibe. Visually, it’s completely different but just as cool.

Our room is on the 24th floor with a great view of the city, and we were welcomed with our first amenity of the trip—a lovely anniversary message and treats waiting for us in the room.

We didn’t have time to relax, so we jumped in another Uber and headed to the Sumo Hall for a show we had booked. It was a fun experience designed for foreigners, explaining the rules of sumo before a small four-man tournament. We were given bento boxes and drinks during the show, which lasted about an hour. It was a bit cheesy but still worth seeing.

After the show we walked about fifteen minutes to Dotonbori, the main tourist area of Osaka filled with big neon signs and flashing advertisements. It’s not really my style, and it was absolutely packed with people, but it was still interesting to see. We walked around for a couple of hours checking out the arcades and shops. Eventually we found a tiny restaurant serving meat on sticks, so we took the opportunity to sit down for a while and grab a bite before heading out again.

We were close to a metro station, so we hopped on a train back to the hotel and called it a night. We were all pretty beat after another long day, but it was fun to be in a new city and start discovering what Osaka has to offer.