Ōsaka and Kyoto with kids. Day 5: Yodobashi and the Nozomi Shinkansen

Our Day

Checkout time for us was 10:00, and our Nozomi tickets were for just after 12:00. Our plan was to grab a quick breakfast in the train station, stuff our luggage in a locker, do some shopping in Yodobashi, then pick up our luggage and head to the Shinkansen. It almost went as planned, except we didn't realize how absolutely confusing Umeda and Osaka station were. 

Our daughter has adjusted so well to Japanese life that this is a perfectly acceptable breakfast to her!

Yodobashi

Yodobashi is a shopping center just across the street from Osaka Station. It has everything from clothes to electronics to toys, so we thought it would be a good place for our kids to spend the last of their money and pick up souvenirs. Again, we needed a little more time than we had, and our day probably would have been a little smoother if we skipped this step. 

Osaka Station

We headed back to the train station and this is where things got a bit crazy. My husband split off to get our luggage, and we agreed to meet at the entrance to the subway. What we didn't realize is that there were multiple ticket gates. I dashed to the information desk with my kids in tow, trying to get directions to the landmark my husband could see. They couldn't help us. We had to give up when we both realized we were wasting too much time, so I floundered my way through buying subway tickets for the first time (it's exactly the opposite from train tickets; you're supposed to put your money in first and then choose how much you want to pay, and buying mixed adult and child tickets is not as straightforward. I ended up having to buy each ticket separately), and we caught the next train out.

Happy ending: our family reunited at Shin-Ōsaka and we made it to the Nozomi with two minutes to spare. We were out of breath and so relieved! The rest of our trip back home was entirely uneventful. We all settled back to watch the movies we brought with us and enjoyed a quiet ride. Footsore but happy, our first trip to Ōsaka and Kyoto was behind us.