Day Seven - Kyoto to Osaka - Planet Japan

Transport day, so case packed, bag packed, showered, brioched and time to get a taxi to the train station.  At least this time we had our seats booked. Up,

One of the many similar side streets by the hotel

showered, brioched, packed and out.  I had not even reached the end of the road when Andy had flagged down a taxi.  We were en route to Kyoto Train Station.  When we got there it was still mad.  I swear it is the same people just going round and round.  We went for a coffee.  It is still vile. I could not have a sandwich as they had sold out of the cheese and tomato version and the tuna one, leaving only ham or chicken. No thank you. I went to the bakery next door and punched what I thought was cheesy bread only to find it was also filled with cold mash potato.  Why?  I have also noticed that the women when they go to the toilet and wash their hands as there is rarely a dryer or paper towels to dry your hands on they pull out a small flannel from their bag and dry their hands on this.  All very strange.

We went up the platform to catch our Shinkansen train (bullet) to Osaka. We were told it was around 40 minutes. 15 minutes later we were there. Madness. We are approximately 500 km from Tokyo now, all travelled by train. They are pretty amazing and I cannot ever imagine us having something like that in the UK.  You do not realise you are travelling that fast. I love them.

We arrived Osaka and negotiated the tube network again. All very easy as each station, like Tokyo and Kyoto is named and numbered, so we just follow the

numbers.  We are either going up the line or down.  Found our hotel and could not book in until 3.00 so we went for a look around. We come across a market (have I mentioned I do like a market :)).  This market was great.  It sold everything.  I said to Andy it must be like Japanese tourists walking around Hanley Market.  I cannot get over the size of some of the crabs here.  You only see their legs for sale each leg is approximately a foot and half long.  Thank goodness I have not seen the whole crab yet as that would be terrifying.  

We then come across a second hand Kimono shop; I guess an Oxfam for Kimonos.  They had some really lovely ones in their for sale and some were so intricate and stunning.  So it had to be done didn't it.  Mine is purple, full length and such a lovely, slight patten to the nylon/silk (who knows). The cost £8.31.  Andy purchased a half length male Kimono in black with a beautiful decorative lining.  His cost £3.40 which not even the price of sandwich in Pret!  Needless, to say we are so pleased with our purchases.  Goodness knows when or where I am going to wear mine but it had to be done.  My chopsticks I purchased yesterday cost more lol!

Back to the hotel and we could check in as it was 3.00.  The room here looks identical to the room we had in Tokyo which seems like a lifetime ago. Small,

compact but functional.  That is all you need.  It is not as if I am going to be spending hours upon hours in the room.  We decided to have an hour to unpack, unwind and plan our evening.  They have forecasted rain for later on tonight and tomorrow is going to be a washout with heavy rain and thunderstorms so I do not think I will get to see a great deal of Osaka but that is fine.  Osaka itself has yet again a completely different feel to it.  It reminds me so far more like Thailand. It is has more of an edge to it, it is not as clean as Tokyo or Kyoto; both of which you could have ate your dinner of the streets if you so desired. I guess I will find out more later when I venture out.

So venture to we did.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is supposed to be vile, so the first purchase was a brolly.  Let's face it, you can never have too many umbrellas living in London.  Osaka as a completely different feel. I am not sure so far what I make of it.  It feels more laid back and liberal, but it may just be me and the vibe I am getting.  I cannot say that I do not feel safe as that would be a lie, I am just being more aware of my surroundings. Osaka is the second largest metropolitan area in Japan with and amongst the largest in the world with 19 million inhabitants.  Once again, it was full on. There was less serenity and more Saturday afternoon shopping.  It is good to see different places and to get the feel for them.

We looked around the Dotonbori area which is very much where we are staying. This is the heart of Osaka, the place where all the shops and bright lights are.  Trust me, there were many, many bright lights.  There is also a canal here that runs parallel to the main Dotonbori street.  There are so many restaurants here and some are fish, some are kobe and some are goodness knows what!  We,

Just one row of the one shopping mall - so many people!

well I, found a lovely sushi, sashimi and tempura restaurant.  I had a wonderful selection of food for around £14.  After this we went for a walk through the madness of Oxford Street on speed.  The Japanese like to shop. You see the smallest of young Japanese women, tiny little things, standing on chairs screaming like a Billingsgate fish wife.  Heaven knows what they are saying but boy can they shout.  By 8.45 we had had enough.  We have done so much walking the past few days we both decided to just go back to the room and chill.

We did enquire about having breakfast at the hotel tomorrow, especially because of the weather, but when I explained that I was vegetarian she looked at me like I was full of plague.  So I don't think we will bother.  I did say to Andy if he wanted to go then go, I will grab a croissant next door at the Seven Eleven.  We will also spend this evening planning a very wet day in Osaka and what there is to do.  I think we are still Zenned out and I would go off to Universal Studios for the day but that is not going to be fun in a thunder storm. We have the TV on in the room and the one thing I have noticed a lot is the bowing.  The news has just started and the newsreader has bowed.  During the train journey the conductor walked through the train, got to the end, turned towards us and bowed.  There is a great deal of bowing in Japan.

Before I go I just want to give you a better insight as to what we face every time we leave.  Tonight Andy wanted to get his nephew a little something to take back.  There are not many children shops, plenty of pet shops with live cats and dogs in them.  I remember this from my trip to Hong Kong. Cages of little kittens and puppies and all the things you need for them like clothes and a pram. Yes a pram.  The number of dogs we have seen in a 'baby' pram, thinking they would be like you know babies - but no, they are dogs.  Anyway, we found a t shirt with a samurai sword on it and we thought, cool that is great. He paid for it and while he was doing so I was looking around then realised that they were selling clothes and t shirts for dogs and the t shirt he has bought has the sword on the back, so if you were to put it on a dog you would see it.  That poor little sod is going to have to walk around Chester in a dog's t shirt, with the motif on the back.  Welcome to Planet Japan.

As always, with my love x