Osaka day 2

We had a fascinating Japanese breakfast at our Hotel. Will take a photo later. Today we had booked a 5 hour bike tour of the Osaka region meeting at a Family Mart near the Tenmabashi station - 3 stops from our nearest train station 'Nagahoribashi'. We thought we needed to disembark after 2 stops (wrong!) We saw a Family Mart that was listed as our meeting place. We thought we were very clever arriving 45 mins early. When we finally discovered our mistake we had to hike 2 km to the correct meeting place! We made it with time to spare, but it was very hot!) There were 5 in our group, led by Mike, a 25 yo student studying languages - Swahili and Mongolian! A Canadian couple (Karen & Armand), a Spanish student (Aziden), living in Germany (who speaks 6 languages) and us.
We visited the Osaka Shrine, but it was being refurbished! We then went to a museum, but it was closed! We then went to the Osaka Castle (we actually saw that), before going to a restaurant for lunch - guess what we had? Okonomiyaki (we had that last night!) Anyway it was, once again, delicious! We finished with a visit to a tea room where we drank Matcha Tea and enjoyed Dango (Japanese dumplings).
We found our way back to the Hotel after what ended up being a really enjoyable day. September, we have discovered, is perhaps too soon to visit Japan - October the weather cools apparently.
After a much needed shower and rest we ventured out to find a traditional Japanese restaurant for dinner. We stumbled across this little eatery that looked very interesting! However, we discovered the menu consisted of offal and tongue, etc. Eventually we ordered some beef and a beer each and enjoyed watching the young chef cook our meal in front of us. It was unique and quite delicious.
Tomorrow is a 9.5 hour plus day - we visit Himeji Castle by coach (that's if we successfully get to the meeting point by train - wish us luck - we need it!)Read more