Day 16 - Nara to Osaka

Today is my penultimate day in Japan as I fly home tomorrow night, whilst Gabby continues on to a skiing holiday with her husband Craig and daughter Kate who flew into Osaka last night.

This morning we left Nara for the short train trip back to Osaka to join them for the day. Well...it was short-ish, aside from walking all the way to the wrong version of our hotel which was in completely the opposite direction to where we needed to go. Not happy, Jan, especially as my pack is heavier due to the Yukatas and Obi I had purchased in Nara. Sigh....

Aside from that, all was well and after leaving our gear at the right hotel we joined up with Craig and Kate for a stroll around Osaka. Our meanderings took us past a mochi pounding gathering which we stopped to take a look at and ended up participating in. We then continued on through the grounds of the Osaka Castle, and to a very, very, very long covered street with lots of shops and LOTS of people, culminating in a bridge of some fame or another in the Dotonbori district. Along the way we had lunch, almost but not quite went in a cafe to pat a capybara (we decided it was too expensive for the effort) then had an ice-cream before going back to hotel to check in and have a short rest.

Late afternoon saw us heading to a very, very, very long shopping arcade running the length of 10 city blocks, called Semba Central. Then we went in search of dinner, which we eventually found on the side of a canal, near the aforementioned famous bridge. We tried the Osaka version of okonomiyaki, which was different again, but still very nice. It was more pancakey this time.

By this time, my feet had decided to go on strike, so I was very glad when we headed back towards the hotel for an early night.Read more