We made a brief overnight stop in Osaka. I was blown over by how many people and how many neon signs there were in this city. It is more exciting than New York City as far as the activity.

But population wise…

• Osaka: ~2.7 million
• New York City: ~8.3 million

👉 New York City is about 3× larger than Osaka by city population.
But in the total metro area they are almost equal… both around 20 million.

When we arrived by train, we were both totally overwhelmed by the size of the train station. It was like a city in itself. When we finally figured out how to get out of the train station, we walked out into this mind-blowing view of tall skyscrapers lit up and surrounding us. It was overwhelming & extremely impressive. Based on the number of specialty stores, I think we could’ve stayed here and shopped for several days.

We were on the top floor of the Swiss Hotel (not sure why we’re at a Swiss hotel when we’re in Japan🙃) … but arriving on the 36th floor (rooftop) for dinner, I began to understand…the view was spectacular. The whole city was lit up. We also had breakfast here the next morning and were able to see the view with the sun out …very, very impressive. I suggest if you plan to go to Japan, you spend at least two or three days in Osaka to get the real feel of it. Unfortunately, we needed to move on to Mount Fuji because we are running out of time before our plane back to the US takes off… And we don’t want to miss it because we’ve got to have our fix of Mexican food.😜 we are sushied out.