Coming For Fun

When you have friends and family coming to visit town, it’s always fun to take them to the tourist attractions around along with underground activities. What if I told you that you could get all of that at a decent price? By chance, I came across a very cost-effective and easy-to-use pass that I want to share with everyone who comes to Osaka.

Reservation

My best friend from America visited as well as my friend from a rural area in Wakayama. That being said, it was on me to choose what we did as I’m the “Osaka girl” between all of us. I thought a lot about what activities would be fun for both personalities and ended up deciding on the Osaka Amazing Pass.

Different Tickets

Through the app, Klook, there are two types of tickets that are available:

Osaka Amazing Pass, which is a physical ticket

And

Osaka E Pass, which is a QR code that is on your phone.

You either have the option of choosing a one-day ticket or a two day ticket

When it comes to transportation, you can choose ‘none’, ‘only the Osaka Metro pass which gives you access to a variety of different train stations’, or ‘the rapid One Way Ticket’ between the airport and Nanba station.

As my best friend was staying for a couple of weeks, we opted for the 2-day ticket while my other good friend opted for the one-day ticket since he was only in town for one day.

I recommend getting the two day pass with the Osaka Metro pass as it will save you a significant amount of money if you’re in town for more than a day.

The main difference between the Osaka Amazing Pass and the Osaka E-Pass is that the Osaka Amazing Pass allows you free admission to all facilities as many times as you would like while the Osaka E-Pass is only once to the facility you go to. It’s not such a big deal as you’ll probably only visit once, but the difference should be noted.

If you do the Osaka Amazing Pass for 2 days with the Osaka Metro pass, you will spend 3,600 yen. It may seem a bit expensive at first, but when you see how much you save between train fare and facilities, you easily make the money back after the first couple of activities that you do.

Day 1 of Fun

I reserved the tickets the day before, though you can reserve them at almost any time. At around 2:00 p.m. we all went to pick up the tickets. ( It should be noted that if you’re picking up the Osaka Amazing 2-day Pass, you should go to the Jr Station to pick it up. If you’re going to pick up the one day pass, you should get it from the Hankyu Station.)

You’ll be asked to fill out a paper with your name, phone number, and nationality. After everything is completed, you will get a ticket that you can use that will be scanned and looked at by each facility that you go to. The employee will also show you a flyer of the facilities that are open that day because the places are open and closed at different hours/days. There is also a QR code that you can scan so that you can have this information readily available as you decide what you want to do.

Umeda Sky Building

We kicked off our day by going to Umeda Sky Building and going to the KUCHU TEIN area. Despite living here for 6 years and my other friend living here for 12 years, none of us had been to the sky area before. After going up the long escalator (MAJOR PHOTO SPOT), you’ll be met with a lovely sight. It was such a wonderful experience as everything was decorated with Christmas decorations due to the winter season.

It was really fun to walk around outside despite it being so cold. I can’t stress enough how beautiful it was to see Osaka from such a high point of view. I truly love this city! The view will take your breath away.

As it was cold, we didn’t stay outside very long, but we enjoyed the time there. Additionally, when you go to KUCHU TEIN, you can buy a lock pad and write your name on it along with your partner’s name and hang it outside along with the others. It’s the perfect place to go for a date!

Christmas Market

While this isn’t included with the Osaka Amazing Pass, we were lucky to go during the time the German Christmas Market was active. I highly recommend going when the German Christmas Market is around as the food was absolutely delicious and it really put us in the Christmas spirit. We only ate a little, but I recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Museum

After, we went to the museum at the West Wing of the area that the Umeda Sky Building is located at. There was a sign that said our KUCHU TEIN ticket and Osaka Amazing Pass could be used for the museum. It was a VR Art Museum where you could interact with the art through different activities as you walk throughout the small museum. For anyone that likes art and that likes learning, this is the perfect place for you.

Nanba

Of course I had to take them to Nanba where they could get pictures with the famous GLICO sign. We decided to go on the Tombori River Cruise where we were able to learn about the history and take a really nice cruise on the river with the city lights shining all around us. I cannot recommend this enough as there was just something very movie-like about seeing Nanba at this angle. It was also fun to wave at people as we passed by them. Easily at 10 out of 10 experience.

Day 2 of Fun

The next day we didn’t do very much. Unfortunately, my best friend and I were both sick with a cold, so we just wanted to sleep most of the day. Either way, we still wanted to get at least one experience out of the day despite feeling a little under the weather.

Osaka Castle

I didn’t want my best friend to leave without seeing the castle, so this was the perfect time for us to go. It was nice to tell her the little bit about Japanese history that I know as we walked through the castle. As someone who loves Japanese history and culture, I always get a feeling of excitement when I go to museums and castles. ワクワク！

Osaka-jo Gozabune Boat

I really enjoyed this boat ride! You can show the employees your Osaka E-Pass ticket to get a ride around the castle and learn some interesting facts. You can also look at the cute duckies as they swim by. When we went it started raining, but overall, it was fun to look at the castle, learn new facts, and enjoy the day. Not to mention we had the boat all to ourselves as we took the last time slot before the castle closed. The employees laughed and joked with us about how this was our own private boat experience, so bonus points for the funny employees.

Fun Days with the Osaka Fun Pass

Overall, this was a very fun and cheap experience. We definitely would have spent over 7500yen between the experiences and transportation costs any otherwise. This is a pass you need if you know you’re going to be doing lots of activities and want to get your money’s worth.

I really wish that I was someone who could handle cold weather because if I was, there were so many other activities that I would have loved to do. There are over 50 Facilities that you can access with this pass and we hardly even did 10 of them. No doubt, once the weather gets warmer, I will be back out again and will be trying the other activities that I have yet to experience. Maybe I’ll pass you along the way~