Osaka

We didn't make plans for Osaka as we just knew we wanted to eat, drink and see the neon lights of the city. When booking in England originally we only planned to stay one night but we changed our plans. Unfortunately the first Airbnb we found wasn't available for a second night and we couldn't cancel without paying so we decided to split the city and move from Kita-Ku to Namba.

After a nice morning stroll down by the river watching some rowers we checked out and made our way over to our new place via the Pokemon store at Namba station.

This was where our frustrations started. It took us an hour to get across to our next apartment as it was really hard to work out the stations, we finally worked out that we had to get a subway line which wasn't included on our JR pass but it was only ¥300 for both of us so it didn't break the bank. The annoying part was carrying bags up and down stairs as there's no lifts or escalators. The next task was to open the post box to collect the key, we wasted an hour trying to work out the instructions which really didn't translate well into English. In the end we resorted to Google and if anyone else has trouble I hope this also helps you! https://www.leopalace21.com/custhelp/en/other_f/00787.html.

We would defiantly recommend staying in the Kita area and travelling across the city using the JR loop line as this runs really regularly and pretty late into the evening.

Once we finally checked in we were ready to go on the free walking tour but sadly had no time for lunch so just picked something up from Family Mart. I'd recommend these walks as you always learn something new, there was lots of talk about food, toilets and Japan's education system! We of course walked down many busy streets full of bars and restaurants and went into the market. We saw lots of crazy street lights and signs including the famous running man. We also tried some local cuisine called: Takoyaki which is savoury dumpling made with diced octopus, be careful its piping hot!

After the tour we had another walk around and ended up having dinner in a restaurant along the water front and then a drink in the smallest bar ever down an alleyway. Not such a bad day after all!

Are we in Japan or Manchester!?!

We decided to get up and out today as we were travelling to Osaka and we wanted to explore Miyajima island. We'd planned to do a hike to the highest point on the island, Mount Misen but it was bouncing down (raining). The mountain was covered in mist and even Japan's largest island Honshu wasn't visible. We decided to do a short walk that included Senjokaku Pavilion, Toyokuni Shrine five-story pagoda, Itsukushima Floating Torii Gate and Momijidani Park. It was slightly surprising how many tourists were already up and about even with the awful weather. They're resilient and patient folks these (mainly) Japanese tourists.

Momijidani Park wasn't really a park as such it was more like a nature trail and included bridges, waterfalls and more deer. It winds it's way up through a wooded area up to the ropeway and Mt Misen climbing trail where we turned around as the weather defeated us this time! I'll get you need time Gadget!!! (I mean weather).

We decided to make a stop in Himeji on the way to Osaka as we'd read good things about the castle and the weather still wasn't particularly great. We boarded the ferry, back to the mainland, a little after 10am and arrived into Himeji via a local service back to Hiroshima and a Shinkansen to Himeji about 1pm.

We found a local pizza restaurant for lunch not too far from the station as it was just over 1km to the castle and the current queue estimate to enter the main keep was 2 hours!

When we arrived at the castle grounds there was indeed a lot of tourists even at 3pm. We admired the castle from just inside the walls (it's free to go into the outer part) and took a few photos before the heavens opened again!!! This time we'd just purchased our tickets, about £7 each, to enter the main keep. The website still seem to suggest a couple of hours wait....we got very wet but on the plus side it did only take about 45 minutes to get into the castle.

It was an impressive building and has survived wars, earthquakes and fires so is orginal* The main keep is a wooden structure that contain 6 stories but there isn't anything to see on the various level until you reach the 6th floor. This floor contains a small shrine and has a multitude of windows facing all directions allowing us to see the sights of Himeji city and the castle grounds.

After re-tracing our steps back to the station we got on a JR train bound for the third largest city in Japan, Osaka. We were staying in the Kita Ward so reasonably close to Osaka station (in fact only one stop on the JR loop train). It was one of those evening where you just want to get a takeaway and watch a movie but as we don't really know Japanese, didn't know of any local takeaways and we were in a new city we braved the outside once again!

We headed to the food and entertainment district of Kitashinchi and found a quante Japanese restaurant that had a fish I'd never tried before called bonito, tastes and looks a little like tuna. After food we searched for a bar near by and we found one called Captain Kangaroo... We had to go!! It was a fun bar serving over 50 beers (most bottled including Newcastle Brown Ale) and had more of a western vibe to it.