Day 9

Day 9 we had to leave our traditional place in Kyoto and get the JR line through to Osaka. We stopped off at the same breakfast place we had been to a few days ago and had the avocado bacon and egg again as was good and cheap!

Metro to Kyoto central and then our first delay of the holiday if you can believe if. The train was 25 minutes late and in Japan that a big thing. Flashing red and blaring on the intercom every 2 minutes apologies and reasons why with updated expected arrival times. Weather has gone cloudy and temperatures dropped a bit so nice to get out the drizzle.

When we arrived in Osaka we went to book tickets back to Tokyo for Friday (JR pass just doesn’t cover the return leg) and also pick up some tickets we reserved for Hiroshima. We then decided to walk 35 mins across Osaka to our hotel. Osaka is much bigger than Kyoto with wider streets and seemed quieter than Kyoto ( maybe due to Japan’s golden week finishing).

After we checked in we went for lunch at a random ramen place and ordered from some screens. Should have known better as was empty and food was not good and slimy but it was 4pm and we were desperate! Then we had our best coffee and fruit and nut brownie in Japan at a small cafe I found overlooking the river. After I accidentally broke off the hand towel rack from the wall (bathrooms here are tiny) we made a swift exit.

Checked out some nice Japanese rose gardens near the river and a local shrine with some bonzai trees. Wondered to the main market street of Osaka. We stumbled into a traditional place where downstairs was full so the guy led us upstairs where we had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor. We had an Asahi each and they kindly brought us some meat on skewers and other nibbles! Japanese hospitality is good. We both can’t sit on the floor for longs and my legs seized up after not too long!

We then found another bar in the market street and had some more ginger ale highballs before deciding to go into a packed restaurant for dinner. We sat at the bar in a very noisy and bustling place and had a selection of sushi with traditional dishes and washed down with more highballs. Back by 10 as up early tomorrow.もっと詳しく