Nara to Osaka

Not a massive journey today, but we were still up earlyish, ate half of our ¥194 apple each, and set off to the train station to journey on to Osaka. The train station that bamboozled us a few days ago on our way to Koyasan was equally as bamboozling today, but we eventually stumbled on to the correct metro station. Unfortunately for us, mainly because Lynette did a bit of shopping yesterday so her pack now weighs at least 5kg more, there are three hotels with the same long name before the little bit at the end that differentiates which one is which. We walked to the wrong one! It was a long walk back the way we came to walk to the correct one. And here I am reunited with my husband and daughter.

After dumping the packs, we set off to Osaka Castle, but didn't even make it to the first block from the hotel when we heard a crowd down the street, so we gravitated to that the minute we realised they were doing mochi pounding. We narrowly missed seeing this a few days before elsewhere. And the most awesome thing was that we were invited to actually pound the mochi! Refer video, ignore obviously bad technique on my behalf.

A long walk to the castle, we then made our way around the edge and into the Dotonbori district of neon lights and a lot of people... Like a LOT of people. We hung around for the 3D dog billboard, had our photo taken with the Glica running man by a kindly gentleman in the crowd who seemed to just be offering to take everyone's photo of the Glica man, which at the time of him gesturing to us to assume the Glica man position, I was completely unaware that this is "thing". I have now researched this phenomenon and I am now suitably informed.

Lynette and I had looked up a capybara cafe yesterday so after telling Kate about it she was now the prime navigator to the cafe location through what was very visibly the funky party of town. We made a reservation for 15 minutes later, but in the meantime looked up how much having a drink next to a giant guinea pig was going to cost and decided we don't like oversized rodents that much, so rescinded the reservation and meandered back to the hotel to check in.

We then headed out a little later to trawl through the Semba Buildings which are a series of shops in the bottom level of at least 9 identical buildings built over a metro. We were in search of some obis, and managed to find them just as the shops were closing up for the evening. We then started the slow walk back to the Tonbori Canal to find places to eat. It was barely 5.00pm but Kate was starving. We found an okonomiyaki place right on the canal and were able to sit here just out of the main crush of people enjoying life going by. That is our third okonomiyaki now, and I think the Hiroshima style was my favourite.

We wandered along the canal back to Ebisu Bridge to check out all the neon billboards in their glory before meandering back home. And I thought that was it for the night until my daughter told me she had gone to the 7-Eleven with her father and bought one of the famous cheesecake souffle things famous in Osaka. Craig and Kate are staying in a different room to Lynette and I. So shoes were back on and I was now on the hunt for two cheesecake souffles... Two 7-Elevens and a Pitstop later, I am back at the hotel empty handed because they had all sold out! Disappointing to say the least.

After all our smaller, quieter villages, Osaka has been sensory overload!Read more