The Big 40 in Japan - Day 7: Old is New
August 3, 2026
Now that my 40th birthday is behind us, we can celebrate Jenn’s last year in her 30s by leaving Tokyo and heading to Osaka. We booked a 10 AM train out of Tokyo, so we had plenty of time to call Elle and enjoy our final breakfast at The Mandarin Oriental. These calls with Elle each morning are a mix of pure joy and worry that seeing her Mom will make her sad, but we’ve been consistent about doing it every morning. When we made our way to breakfast, it was an overcast morning, but they finally gave us a window seat. We had another great breakfast before grabbing our bags and a taxi to the Tokyo train station.
The last time we took a bullet train in Japan was to Kyoto in 2017. I remember being slightly overwhelmed by the train station and by finding our way, but this time, given our continued extensive travel and time in Japan, we easily found our train and waited 20 minutes for our departure. We booked first class (also known as the green car) and had our two seats together for our 2-hour journey to Osaka. It could have been triple that if you ask me. It was smooth, fast, and insanely relaxing. We ordered some water and nuts with a QR code to our seats and enjoyed the stunning landscape. When we arrived in Osaka, we left the station and hailed a taxi to the St Regis Osaka.
We arrived a little after noon and were able to go to our room immediately. We got very lucky and were given one of their recently renovated rooms (some of the hotel was still being renovated). It was stunning, with great views of Osaka. We noticed right away that the air conditioning was working, but not well. After a few tries, they got it working, and we were never anything but freezing for the rest of the trip. Our first order of business was a light lunch, so we went to the St Regis Bar, where I had to try their take on a Bloody Mary. Each St Regis serves their own take on the drink as well as the original Bloody Mary, also known as the Red Snapper. At the St Regis Osaka, they have the Shogun Mary, a gin-based Bloody Mary with a wasabi salt rim. Jenn had one of their signature cocktails, and we split the fish and chips.
Our only outing this afternoon was to Osaka Castle, one of the main tourist attractions. Originally built in the 16th century, it lasted only a few decades before war and weather tore it down. It wasn’t rebuilt until the 20th century and was modernized in the late 1990’s. We got there by taxi but still had to walk for 10-15 minutes in the blistering heat to reach the castle. There we walked through rows of mist sprinklers, grabbed our tickets, and made our way inside and up the castle. The inside of the castle was a museum showing the history and garb of past centuries, along with a little about the reconstruction. We didn’t spend long there before grabbing another Taxi to take us close to our hotel.
We had an hour to spare before our dinner reservations, and Jenn was still buzzing after the antique purchases from a few days ago in Tokyo. I found a store called Dandelion (via a mix of Google Maps and ChatGPT), and it was our first stop. At first, we thought the store either didn’t exist or was closed. Our taxi driver couldn’t find it. But eventually we saw it was up some stairs. When we stepped in, I knew our wallets would leave lighter. Jenn found a few small plates and, right before checking out, bought a beautiful decorative plate for our buffet table. Everything here was handcrafted and stunning; I’m shocked Jenn didn’t buy the entire store. The store owner packed it for our trip home, and we were off to one more antique store a few blocks away. It wasn’t as memorable, but Jenn did buy another small bowl there, dating to the late 1800s. We started walking back to our hotel, and, just like Jake and me in Tokyo, we could see the weather turning. We huddled in a parking structure and hailed an Uber to take us back to the hotel. This wasn’t just a few drops of rain; it turned into a torrential downpour that lasted over an hour.
We relaxed and unpacked when we got back to the beautiful St Regis and later went back down to the lobby level for dinner at Jenn’s birthday choice, Teppanyaki Wajo. This is the second time on this trip that I have visited a teppanyaki restaurant where we were the only ones there. The service was great, and we enjoyed their tasting menu, but there was still an awkwardness to having a few people watching you eat the entire meal. The food was exquisite, from the Kobe beef to the incredible rice-and-shrimp dish; there wasn’t a bad course. They were nice and brought Jenn a beautiful cake and additional desserts to celebrate her 39th birthday. We were stuffed by the time dinner was done, so we went out for a humid but beautiful walk around the nearby neighborhood before retreating to our room that had been decked out for my 40th birthday (without asking). What a great way to close out our birthday celebrations.
