In May 2016, I travelled to Osaka, Japan with my husband for a religious purpose, it was to attend Buddhist Talk by The Holiness, Damai Lama. It was a 4 day talk from 9am-3pm at Osaka Convention Centre and attended by thousands of people around the world. It was amazing to see so many people coming to attend this religious Buddhist talk and I was truly blessed to be one of many thousands people coming to get blessing from The Dalai Lama. I would say it was a truly amazing experience of the lifetime money can't buy! Truly blessed! And it was a beautiful fate!
My pass, eventhough I sat in the last row but the strong vibes from Dalai Lama were still very strong!
1st day of Buddhist talk - felt the excitement despite having a few hours of sleep only. Thickened up my eye concealer hahaa.. We arrived Osaka Japan on 9th May late evening and we went to bed at 1am after settling everything down :P
Can you see how amazing this convention rom is? very very huge! simply amazed with everything! everything was professionally done, the translator, the sound system, the arrangement, it was very neat! Dalai Lama had his Dharmma Talk in Tibetan language and we were given a translator device with earphones to listen to him in English (there were many other languages too)
The Holiness Dalai Lama's public teaching :)
I saw him walking to convention centre. Many people were trying to touch him but the security was pretty strict, so they said that only very lucky person was able to touch him to get his blessing :)
The beautiful stage
Holding a beautiful Holy silk scarf given by one of Dalai Lama's followers. It was a belief that when we held this scarf and Dalai Lama passed by, we would get the blessing through his powerful religious vibes. It was very interesting! I was also told to keep the Holy scarf at home, so our home and family would always be safe and blessed! What a beautiful belief from the Tibetan! :)
Getting ready for group photo - so lucky that we were able to take a group photo with him as it wasn't easy due to the strict security system and a group photo was only allowed on special request with the organizer.
A group from Singapore! How blessed we were to be able to get this close to the Holiness, Dalai Lama! A precious fate!
Simple Vegetarian Lunch Box provided by the organizer daily - simple Japanese rice with green tea drink
A group of Tibetan followers. They sat behind us and although we didn't understand their language but they offered us candies, they were nice and friendly and very devoted Dalai Lama' followers. I saw them kneeling down, bowing down and praying with tears. Full respect to their religious belief! Salute!
Where else I visited in Osaka?
1) Dotonbori, a street food tour
Found so many delicious food in Dotonbori district. Very huge district you should visit when you visit Osaka!
Spring but rainy day, so it was pretty cold weather!
Authentic Japanese Pork Cutlet, so tasty!
2) Strolling around the city, looking around interesting shops for good Japanese food!
I didn't even know what street was that. I strolled around with my husband at night for good food in Osaka street!
Found a ramen shop
super delicious pork ramen!
strolling around without destination was a great experience indeed
Waiting for good food!
So yummy!
This was really tasty, so much nicer than the one in Singapore absolutely!
Yup, pork noodle again! Japanese pork was really nice, no pork smell at all! It was well marinated and so tender!
3) Relax at Spa World
This was very very nice! I hope I could take some pictures but of course I wouldn't be allowed to do so. I can't remember the price in Japanese Yen but in SGD, it was around $10 for unlimited hours to go for hot spring baths, saunas, steam rooms, etc. I super loved it and I felt very relaxed! And hot spring helped me to unblock painful milk ducts (I was pumping and I couldn't clear my milk well, so well I got engorged with painful lumps). I would recommend breastfeeding mums to go for hot spring baths if they have similar problem when they are away from their babies, hot spring and hot bath worked like magic!
There were many baths to choose, from wine bath (Yes I tried wine bath and it was so nice!), milk bath, flower bath to herbal bath. From warm bath to cold bath. So many varieties! Super awesome and cheap! Worth of money and a must to visit if you are comfortable being nude in the hot spring (don't worry men and ladies have separate area for hot spring baths) :)
4) A visit to Osaka Castle
Worth to go if you want to take historical pictures and learn about the history!
Oldest Castle in Osaka
5) Osaka Museum of Housing and Living
This museum features re-creations of buildings and streets in Osaka to depict life in the past. I visited
this museum because I wanted to take good pictures of Japanese housing and living in the past and hopefully to learn a bit about Japanese culture :) It was really interesting although the place was rather small and in my opinion, it's best to go to Kyoto (less than 2 hours from Osaka by train) if you want to take great pictures of Japanese traditional houses and the living environment just like in the past. Kyoto is more worth visiting for this reason!
The location
Too crowded!
Hubby & me!
Japanese Train. Nice!
Bye-Bye Osaka, Japan!
That pretty much summarizes my Osaka, Japan Trip. Of course if I had extra day & time, I would explore more of Osaka beautiful city but my purpose to visit Japan was to attend Dalai Lama's teaching and the teaching was from 9am-3pm (4 days), thus I didn't have that much time to explore more places. Nevertheless, it was a very meaningful trip to me, religiously and a memorable experience to Japan, it was my first time too! I was simply amazed by the politeness of Japanese people, the beautiful culture, the super clean toilet, the good attitude of Japanese people in working, no-lateness and good customer service! I love Japan and I will visit Japan again!
Sidetrack, I went to Japan for 7 days 6 nights and I had to stop breastfeeding Calysta, she was 17 months old at that time, so my helper fed her with formula milk in either bottle or glass, she accepted it luckily and drank almost 1.5 liters of formula milk. I had to carry my breast pump everywhere I went, pumped milk 4 times a day (unfortunately, for direct latch mommy like me, my body couldn't react to breast pump well, so my pump yield was only 50 ml and I was engorged with blocked milk ducts). I found hand expressing was the way more effective to clear all my milk. It was really tiring! But I was glad that it wasn't the end of my breastfeeding journey with my girl. She continued to latch on again the day I reached home! As long as she's not ready to wean, I will continue breastfeeding her!
I also visited Kyoto, it was only a day trip but Kyoto was so beautiful! Will write and post more photos in my next post!
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