Japan, Day 3 - Sakura, sushi & shopping

We were so lucky with the timing of our visit when it came to enjoying the cherry blossoms. Normally they would bloom early April, but we actually arrived right on time - the first few days of our stay they were out in full bloom, and then the petals started falling and the bloom went down to only 70-80%.

On our second day we went to a few other places in Osaka which are known for cherry blossoms. I especially liked this one which was close to the concert hall Izumino Mori Hall. We took so many lovely photos as you could get so close to the trees and the branches.

We went to a fun sushi restaurant for lunch. We had to separate and sit on two tables as we were so many, so the boys had one table and the girls one.

In this restaurant you could choose to take plates off the conveyor belt as they were coming around, or use the screen at each table to order exactly what you wanted. It only took a few minutes and those orders would come on a special "train" to your table!

So much fun!! Kept the kids busy pushing all the buttons, and cleaning up the plates - for each 5 plates you put back into the system, you had the chance of winning a price!
 

Here's Linnea crossing her fingers for us winning a price, which we did - a fridge magnet. The boys "won" lunch though, with 41 plates to our 25..!

After lunch we went to an outlet mall for a quick shop. I wasn't really on the look-out for anything special though, so I didn't buy anything at all, but fun to have a browse nevertheless.

Finally in the evening, we did a bit of a stroll to a playground where Misuzu used to play when she was a little girl living here in Osaka. It was a nice walk along the water, with lots of cherry blossoms in different shades of white and pink lining the path. Sooo beautiful!