Shimotakahara

Travelling down to Osaka this morning, only an hours flight and then we will be done with airports for a couple of weeks thank goodness.
We’d just taken off and Graham had the window seat, and he says to me “ There’s a big snow covered Mountian coming up, looks volcanic, could be Mt Fuji? “ and then suddenly there it was right outside the window Such a clear day and so close, Amazing!

We’ve managed to make it tomOsaka with everything in tact. Dropped our bags at the motel and after a couple of wrong turns found the nearest subway and with the help of a lovely man on the counter managed to buy ourselves a IC card and we were on our way.

First stop is Osaka Castle. Beautiful big park right in the center of the city. Amazing to come out of the subway and there it is! Eight stories high and set up as a museum. We spent quite a while there wandering the gardens and the eight floors of the castle looking at scrolls, tapestries, armour and other artefacts.

It’s getting late and we’re hungry again by now so after checking out our subway map we headed down to Dotombori! I’ve seen photos of this section of Osaka so was keen to see it lit up at night. I’ve never seen so many food places and all so busy. We had a drink, beer for Graham and hot Sake for me in a little cafe, with some octopus balls they were cooking out the front. Umm Graham liked them , but not for me. Found a jape ese Barbeque place next, cooking all sorts of meat on skewers. Yum much more my thing, although they did have some choice one, Gizzards, chicken intestines, beef heart. Had a great chat to a Canadian couple in there next to us while we all had more drinks and more skewers.

It should have been well and truly dark but it didn’t seem to be and when we came out we could see why, so many neon lights everywhere.!

I think we walked a million miles today and we’ve yet to get back to the motel to check in.Read more