Osaka, Japan

After a red-eye flight and 24 hours of minibuses, ferries, and planes, we made it to our last country of this trip - Japan. I don't want to jynx it, but I think we saved the best for last.

While the prices are a bit of a shock compared to SE Asia, they're inline with most US cities, but filled with a lot more entertainment. The people watching and cultural differences has been exceptional. It also helps that sushi is one of our favorite foods back home, so we were excited to escape fried rice and curry after the last few weeks.

Osaka is the third largest city in Japan and was a great introduction to the country's unique culture and food.

We enjoyed our ramen experience where you order through a vending machine and then get served from behind a blind counter. This famous restaurant supposedly set the record for serving 6,000 people in one day and I don't doubt it. We also tried octopus balls which were ok, and some delicious tuna, scallops, shrimp tempura, and white strawberries in the local market all of which was just so fresh and tasted amazing.

Finally on our way to Kyoto the next day we stopped at the Osaka Castle at the recommendation of our bartender (who we met at a bar in a tiny alley that was smaller than the size of most bathrooms). We actually just checked out Osaka Castle from a distance and admired the plum blossoms in the garden which Japan is known for. They were still in bloom but looked pretty nonetheless.

It's really hard to narrow down these cities in Japan to a few pictures...literally every store or walk down the street could be a full set of pictures!Read more