picture posters

So it seems to be that time of year where you receive a million and one emails from online stores with different sales and offers. Most of mine are deleted (the christmas presents are already bought – so no more spending for me!) however a recent snapfish.com.au email took my fancy when they were offering 40% some of their best sellers – which included posters.  You could blow up one of your existing photographs up to 50x75cm (if you’re mega pixels will allow) for $24, and anything smaller was even cheaper. So, despite my self-imposed spending ban, I purchased 5 posters. Below are the photos of the posters I bought – I am not sure quite where they will fit into my house yet, but I’ll be sure to take photos when they have arrived and they are hanging in the house.

the gondolas from my trip to Venice

a view of the trees in the dandenongs

the fushimi inari shrine in Kyoto

a small church in Santorini

one of my favourite photos, the paper cranes from a Japanese temple .

The cranes photo I ordered in 50x75cm, the biggest you could get. All the others were 50x60cm. I am hoping this assortment of bright colours can add some ‘pop’ to my home. Most of these images were adjusted slightly in picnik.com – mostly just adding a boost of colour to all of them to improve the brightness. Hopefully the posters arrive before I head home for Christmas! Or else I will be waiting until I head back to work in the middle of January next year.

memoirs of a geisha

Ever since my visit to Japan I have had a longing to watch Memoirs of a Geisha again to view the cinematography that captures the beauty of Japan (just checked imdb and although most filming was in the US – they did visit some sites in Japan) . The first time I watched the movie, was when it was released in the cinema – and I was quite disappointed. I had just finished reading the book (I had wanted to read it before seeing the movie) and was in awe of the story, and the movie just didn’t capture that same intensity. I was most pleased to discover during the second viewing, that in the movie Chiyo (the main character) visits the Fushimi Inari shrine – exactly where Jane and visited in Kyoto. It was almost surreal seeing her run down underneath the tori gates, the same gates Jane and I had walked under.

Chiyo running underneath the gates

Jane and I under the same gates – spooky!

Although the movie didn’t really improve on a second watching – it certainly made me want to return to Japan, especially in the cherry blossom season. I’m thinking of planing a 2011 trip there in spring to see the blossoms – and maybe head to some of the smaller towns of Japan. Sigh, only been home a week and I wish I was back there.

heading home

Day nine

My last day in Japan! I could hardly believed it had gone so quickly. It was a sunday so I went back to Harajuku to see if I could see more of the famed Harajuku Girls – I did have a few more sightings that with Jane the day before, but I was disappointed not to see that many at all, maybe winter isn’t the time for them. I’ll just have to go back to Japan, sigh.

Sunday did however bring a lot more activity around Harajuku, the streets were packed with shoppers and all the stores were a buzz. I walked the streets enjoying the energy, and making sure I had bought everything that I wanted from Japan. About mid afternoon I was ready for a break – enter the crepe shop! The french and Japanese fusion is just not one you would expect, but you find french bakeries, patisseries and creperies all around Japan. I ordered a ice cream, banana, and chocolate crepe – I love ice cream in the winter!

yummy

I also had a first when walking around Harajuku – I saw my first graffiti in Japan. For such a clean city (despite the lack of rubbish bins?!) I had never seen any graffiti or needless destruction of any kind.

graffiti in a Harajuku street

Even in Japan the graffiti is still clean and precise. So I left Harajuku a little disappointed but on wards and upwards to Shinjuku. I had planned to visit Shinjuku as the Lonely Planet had suggested a book store which had english books – and since I finished my trip book on the plane over, I required some reading for the way home. It was a bit tricky to find, but once I did it was a god send. An entire floor with english books – I ended up buying The Watchman, and also Sophie’s World. I knew the Watchman was on my 1001 books to read book which I had been working my way through. Sophie’s World was a book I had read when I was younger, and remember enjoying it hugely, I thought it deserved a re-read.

And with that I headed back to Tokyo station and began my journey home. It was such an amazing experience – Japan was such a different world to what I was used to – I am so looking forward to continuing my exploration of this amazing country oh so soon!

goodbye to jane

Day eight

Saturday was Jane’s last day in Tokyo before she headed to the snow so we went to Harajuku hoping that the cosplay costumes came out on saturday as well as sunday – however  no luck! Again I think the rain discouraged many to venture on the streets.

All, however, was not lost. We discovered Forever 21 – which has insanely cheap clothes, I’d liken it to a Temt or Valleygirl, but with a better selection. It was 4 floors of clothes and more clothes – with accessories all in between. Not wanting to add to my suitcase size too more I only bought a few accessories – namely more scarves and Berets to keep me warm! After walking through some of the smaller Harajuku streets we stumbled upon another Kiddyland and ventured through the levels of toys, gadgets and things you could never need. This venturing brought us to lunch – which we decided to have back at Tokyo station, as this is where Jane had to depart from.

After browsing through Restaurant St, as Tokyo station called it, we settled on a humble Japanese restaurant that served a bento box for Jane and Chicken Katsu curry for myself. It was the first Katsu I had had with the curry – and I was pleasantly surprised.

I soon left Jane at the station and headed over to Ikebukuro to have another look around some more Tokyo stores and to have one last look through Loft and Tokyu Hands. The top storey of this Tokyu Hands had something quite unique – it was a room which you could pay to enter, and to hang out with….cats! By paying 600 yen you could go through to the cat room and spend as long as you wanted and just sit and play with the cats. I couldn’t believe there was a market for this sort of interaction. I was missing my Bailey by this stage (my 8 month old ragdoll) so I paid the fee to spend some time with the kittens.

it was like a cats utopia – cat runs, scratching posts and all the pats they could want

After what was a rather uneventful afternoon (except for the cats) – I headed back to the restaurant where Jane and I previously had Chicken Katsu and tried their other appealing dish, a sizzling beef with lemon and ginger.

it certainly was sizzling

On the way home I managed to stop by the local 7/11 and bought one of my favourite Japanese snacks

It was a frozen treat, with some sort of dough around vanilla ice cream – it even came with a stick to eat it on. I am going to miss what ever these are.

And that was my last night in Japan…

time to shop

Day seven

We awake in Tokyo hoping for a better day – thankfully the weather was on our side – it was still cold, but the day was clear and no rain was forecast – phew! Our plan was simple we were going to hit Ginza and Shibuya for the shops – key stops on our way were; SaniroWorld for Hello Kitty, Tokyu Hands, Loft and H&M.

We began by catching the subway straight down to Ginza, conveniently enough the Hello Kitty store was in a department store connected to the subway via the underground – we didn’t even have to face the cold!

I am always so surprised at how much merchandise they manage to put Hello Kitty’s face on! Hello Kitty humidifier, blenders, cooking utensils – you name it, there is a Hello Kitty version. Jane bought a few items and we headed out to the cold of the streets. We walked the streets for a few minutes before we encountered an Abercrombie & Fitch store. Being curious, since we don’t have one in Melbourne, we went in. What we found was not at all what we imagined. Firstly we were greeted with ‘Hi, how’s it going’ in a strong fake american accent, then as you move into the store you are now in near darkness. A male employee stands topless posing for photos with shoppers, we pass right on by and begin the climb up the seemingly endless amount of stairs. Each floor only held a small amount of clothes – the employees however were plentiful. There was one at each floor to greet you from the stairs, usually one girl dancing in the corner, and then a couple at the registers. If if wasn’t 11 in the morning, and for the presence of some clothing I would guessed I was in a club.

Back in the light we were elated to see a H&M across the road – although not strictly Japanese, we indulged slightly in some shopping (my excuse will always  be that the japanese sizing was all wrong for westerners). After a big jolt of retail therapy we went searching for Itoya – a nine storey stationery store – you couldn’t contain my excitement.

itoya – nine storey stationery store

Floor after floor contained more than you would need in a lifetime – concerned for my bank balance I narrowed my purchases to just some origami paper, cat notebook, four pieces of Japanese Washi (paper) to be framed at a later date and some cute valentines day cards. Pleased at my restraint we exited the store and headed back to the subway to journey to Shibuya.

Shibuya had two major points of interest – Tokyu Hands and Loft. Tokyu Hands is described as a creative life store, which pretty well sums up what’s inside. It is just floors and floors of everything you could need – pet supplies, toiletries, electronics, pretty much everything but clothes. Loft is very similar, probably just a bit more a slant to the more wacky. We decided that we could only go to each store once – so it was buy now, or regret it. I certainly brought home a haul that day.

A long day of shopping also needs a relaxing, filling dinner. Many bags later (have I mentioned how much Japanese stores like giving a bag for every little thing! as well as a receipt!) we were venturing on the streets of Shibuya looking for a place to eat – we found a little okonomiyaki place, where the grills were on your table! I suppose you have to feel a little robbed paying for dinner but still having to cook it yourself – but the novelty makes up for it. We both ordered basic okonomiyaki’s but just added a few extras – I added egg (we found out later that egg is already included, so we ended up getting two eggs!), vegetables and bacon. The process was pretty easy – and both of us managed a pretty good result.

our table – the grill

ingredients were brought to your table

first the meat needs to be cooked

then everything is mixed and you pour it onto the grill in a pancake shape (it’s around 5 minutes either side)

the cook at work

nearly ready

add okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and then some red pepper spice – yum!

After a successful dinner we headed back to the hostel where we were amazed at how much we had managed to buy!

Our sleep was restless as we wondered if we’d make it under the baggage allowance…

hello tokyo

Day Six

After another breakfast of various pastries from our favourite bakery in Kyoto station we said goodbye to Kyoto and hello to Tokyo. The train from Kyoto to Tokyo was approximately 2 and a bit hours long, not unbearable but certainly not as comfortable as the 20 minute train ride from Osaka to Kyoto. Thankfully both Jane and myself had rail passes (pre-purchased in Melbourne) which meant we could ride all the JR lines without paying a cent.  We arrived to a very cold and rain Tokyo station. From here we had to catch two connecting trains to reach our station to the north of central Tokyo. The instructions from the hostel on how to get there from the station seemed foolproof – they had a step to step guide on how go from the exit in the station to the door of the hostel – it would have been foolproof, if we could have found the exit they were talking about. We realised that Tokyo wasn’t as luggage friendly as Osaka and Kyoto and the only exit we could use without hauling our luggage up flights of stair threw us off our hostel instructions. After some guessing and a little walking, we discovered a tourist centre – we decided to bite the bullet and ask for directions, luckily we did. It turns out we were walking in the complete opposite direction! We were soon corrected and we quickly walked through the rain and the crowds to our hostel. After checking in and dumping our l uggage we set out on the town – optimistic that the day would improve.

After I was to head back to Melbourne, Jane was headed to the snow. To do so she decided to buy some snowboarding gear to Tokyo to take up with her – so we headed out North central Tokyo to the sporting goods side of town. We had picked up a place for lunch in advance from the lonely planet – and set out to search for it on our arrival. However, rain and street signs were against us! For the life of us we couldn’t find the suggested restaurant – feeling cold, tired and wet we took shelter in a nearby Starbucks and warmed our sorrows with a hot chocolate and a sandwich.

With a full stomach and a bit more warmth we headed out snowboard shopping – we couldn’t be more surprised with the amount of shops and choice in each that there was! It was floor upon floor of snowboard gear – every possible colour and style you could imagine. After seeing this – it would be impossible to not to find what Jane needed! Little did Jane know that an australia size 9 foot isn’t catered for in the Japanese market! We ventured to over 4 shops searching for the appropriately sized snowboots – we were finally successful – however she did have limited choice, the shop only had one style in her size. Quite a few bags later – and a few trains of lugging the bags later – we arrived back at the hostel.

Feeling a bit downtrodden and less optimistic of the wonders of Tokyo we set out to find dinner near the hostel. The hostel had a recommended restaurants list – and after choosing one and venturing into the rain, we again ran out of luck, we couldn’t find it! We think we walked right past it, but there was no sign posting of any sort. We started in the direction of our second choice, and thankfully we were able to locate it, and headed inside for some warmth. It was a katsu restaurant and so it was only fitting that we ordered chicken katsu.

oh so yummy chicken katsu

Our moods lifted with a warm meal, and the hilarious Japanese game show playing on the TV at the restaurant. Tomorrow would be a better day – we were headed to Ginza and Shibuya – it was time to shop!

geisha and monkeys

Day five

Day five held with it rain, monkeys and geisha. An interesting mix, but a fun day none the less. We traveled quite far out of Kyoto to go see the monkeys to the east of the city, we even had to pay extra on the bus as it was considered a long distance journey. The day started with rain, rain and more rain – but we soldiered on and visited some temples and the bamboo walk. Both were amazing to look at – but the rain dampened our spirits, and the photos.

temple – try to not look at the overcast sky

the bamboo walk

After the rain subsided we headed up to the mountain for the walk up to the monkeys. The signs were a plenty in directing us in the right way. One good side effect of the rain, was that the walk was relatively quiet, not many tourists were out and about. We got to the ticket gate for the monkeys, and were perplexed when we had to buy a ticket from a vending machine, only to had it over to a lady at the office right next door? I though Japan was supposed to be efficient? Any who – we headed up the mountain (or was it a hill?) and 20 mins later were met with the monkeys! I was surprised that you could literally walk amongst them as they were quite tame. You had to head inside a small hut if you wanted to feed the monkeys, as I imagine when you have food it’s good to have a barrier between you and the 120 monkeys on the hill. For 100 yen you could purchase some mandarins and feed them through the wire. I was amazed at how well-mannered these monkeys were – as soon as they saw you had food they climbed up the wire and placed their hands out to receive the food. Unfortunately at this time it started raining hard, so Jane and I waited inside the hut for 15 minutes or so to see if it was going to subside – unfortunately it didn’t. We decided to venture back down anyway and we slowly (as the mud was slippery at this point) headed back down the mountain.

to the monkeys

a sign half way up – push the button if you’re scared, yet somehow the button has been removed – handy

feeding the monkeys – they were very mild-mannered

the rain came – and so did our exit

We then ventured back to central Kyoto away from the rain and back to the underground of the main central station. It was coming up to lunchtime and we had begun to search the multitudes of plastic food models for either a sign saying English menu available or something we could recognise. We had our fill of guess what you’re eating, and although both of us love japanese food, we did want to eat something where we knew what it was. We settled on a tempura restaurant which had an english menu for us to choose from. We both went for tempura vegetables and seasoned rice – which was one of the cheapest meals on the menu, but still came on a beautiful tray.

vegetable tempura and seasoned rice

We had planned to go to a traditional tea ceremony at 3 – however we had some time to spare. We decided to wander the shops inside the Kyoto station, and we stumbled across something quite marvellous.

could it look more delicious?

After we decided we had walked sufficiently that day to allow ourselves one (it wasn’t a long justification process) we ordered our own.

yum – oh so delicious

We waited as they made the waffle fresh and then piled on the cream, custard, banana and lastly the chocolate. Perhaps the best 300 yen I spent!

With enough time sufficiently wasted gorging on said waffle delights we started on our way to Gion corner for our tea ceremony. The rain was still coming down, however it had calmed to a light drizzle when we arrived in Gion corner. On arrival we were seated on smalls stools in front of a podium on which the head Geisha prepared the tea in a traditional fashion. This included blessing the instruments and swirling the tea in a particular direction. On completion we were all given our own tea and had to turn the cup twice before drinking (can’t remember why?). The ceremony ended with photo opportunities with the three Geisha girls. All in all, for 500 yen, it was great to see the Geisha up close and experiencing the traditional ceremony.

the geisha preparing the tea

the geisha girls

That night was our last night in Kyoto so we again consulted the Lonely Planet for restaurant recommendations and came upon a sushi train restaurant. The restaurant was easy to find, and on arrival we saw that all plates for 136 yen – which only improved the find. We were ushered upstairs to find a busy restaurant with the sushi chefs working in the middle of the conveyor. The waitress gave us an english menu which included pictures of what should be on the belt – although mildly helpful most of the sushi that intrigued us wasn’t included on the menu, so there was some guessing going on.

the conveyor belt sushi restaurant

tuna nori roll, cucumber nori roll

chicken katsu nori roll, and what I think is beef on rice

All plates chosen were delicious – the beef one in particular is supposed to be a Kyoto speciality? For what the Lonely planet called ‘average’ sushi it certainly beat any australian sushi we have back home. The rain had finally stopped and we ventured back full and tired – ready for our adventure to Tokyo tomorrow.

temples and shrines

Day Four

Breakfast at a french patisserie – who would have thought we were in Japan. Our day started with heading off to the central train station to begin our journey and happen to find a bakery with an assortment of delicious pastries.

maple bread, raisin scroll and hiding behind the paper is a twisted doughnut

After the perfect start to the day we moved on to the fushimi inari shrine – which is possibly the most post card like location I went to on my trip. We took the bus down to the location, as it was quite a bit south of central Kyoto. The bus system in Kyoto was probably the most efficient and easy bus system I have ever had to use. Firstly the bus map we received on our arrival was our godsend – it includes every stop on every line, so you can exactly plan when you were getting on and off. Secondly, each bus had an LCD screen which displayed what the next stop was – so you could never miss where you your stop. So on our bus adventure began and we headed down to the shrine – and even though we had prepared exactly when to get off, we still had a lovely old lady making sure we knew where to go, and when to get off.

map to the shrine

entrance to the shrines

postcard perfect!

you could buy one of these wooden triangles and write your wish and then hang it on the wall

The shrine also contained this section with two heavy rocks on stone platforms. The sign to the left says that you need to make a wish, and then lift the rock. If the rock appears light your wish will come true – unfortunately my rock still felt heavy! Better luck next time.

the sign next to the rocks

no luck! still felt heavy to me

Luckily on our way out from the shrine we were able to catch the end of some sort of dancing ceremony. We weren’t able to take any photographs or video, but it was pretty cool to watch the traditional dance. In many of the shrines we went, they displayed rows and rows of folded paper cranes that were hung onto the wall of the shrines. I have a great love of the origami crane, I even have it tattooed onto me, so you could believe my excitement of such a display.

paper cranes at the shrine

We then left from the south and headed over to start our suggested lonely planet walking tour. We began at another temple and managed to bump into some girls dressed in kimonos – they started laughing at us when they realised we were trying to secretly photograph them.

laughing girls in kimonos

Our walking tour then took us through Gion – home to the geisha. The streets reminded me of Memoirs of a Geisha, they had quaint little stores and cobbled streets. We didn’t manage to see many geisha unfortunately – they must have been hiding in their houses, since it was lightly raining. We stopped at a few shops a long the way and I bought an amazingly delicious green tea cake, which, in true japanese fashion, was beautifully presented in a wooden box.

We were nearing lunch time, but we had one more stop to make before we could search for lunch. We headed north to go visit the Kyoto handicraft centre. We didn’t quite make it – we stumbled across a little sushi shop where we managed to grab amazingly fresh and tasty sushi for around $5!!  Yum! By this stage I was getting used to all the free green tea we get at every meal. Each tea was slightly different from the last, some with a sesame taste, others with something quite indistinguishable.

390 yen! madness!

And then we were off to the handicraft centre – where we came out with a handful of bags - a casual kimono, japanese art and miscellaneous japanese items! With our day plans ending much sooner than we planned we decided to walk through the imperial gardens. A few of the trees had begun to blossom – and you could just imagine how amazing it would be to walk through in the spring. I had fun trying out the focus features with my new camera!

the first of the blossoms

We again headed back to our ryokan for a mid afternoon pit stop before heading out to dinner. We decided to take some advice from the lonely planet and find  restaurant recommended for soba and udon noodles. The restaurant was easy enought to find and when we arrived we were directed to the back of the restaurant and we ordered hot soba noodles (still unsure of the cold noodles idea). We also ordered hot sake, and udon noodle nori rolls.

restaurant signage outside

noodles in the front and udon nori rolls in the back

yum! luckily its good manners to slurp in japan

And that calls the end of day four.

from osaka to kyoto

Day 3

We awoke early on Monday to start our journey from Osaka to Kyoto. We had seej everything we wanted to see in Osaka, and thought time would be better spent delving into all the temples of Kyoto. It was an easy enough journey as we could leave straight from our nearby station (Shin-Osaka) and head on the shinkansen to Kyoto. The ride was only about 30 minutes so nothing too long – and before 10 in the morning we arrived in Kyoto!

jane and I on the train to Kyoto

the shinkansen

Once at Kyoto main station we had to journey on the subway to Kitaoji station – the closest subway to our Ryokan. We later found out that the bus is the way to travel in Kyoto – and the bus stop was just outsite the ryokan, we didn’t end up using the subway again after that. The Ryokan we stayed at was Rakucho Ryokan and was the best place we stayed the entire trip. We had a double room – which included two ‘beds’ which were mattress on the floor (surprisingly very comfortable, heated blanket and all) and a little table with tea. You also got slippers and a casual kimono to wear around the ryokan.

entrance to the ryokan

inside our room – loved the little table for tea!

Once we had settled in, and got over the awe of the room, we headed off to explore Kyoto! First stop was a lolly shop on the way to the station, the Japanese are fanatical about presentation and packaging, and it really shows in their shops. I ended up buying a packet of hard lollies, which at first were quite tasty, however they had an odd aftertaste. I didn’t end up finishing them – they were pretty though.

By the time we had arrived in the centre of the city, and had a bit of a look around, and had an unsuccessful attempt to visit the shrines in the south (due to some mis-reading of the train lines on our map), it was time for lunch. And as always, you don’t start looking for places to eat until you’re really hungry, and than it becomes a frenzy to find someplace, anyplace that will feed you! We ended up deciding on what looked like a rather posh restaurant, however they had a meal advertised for 1,500 yen that looked like a mix bag of different things. What the different things were we had no idea – but it was worth investigating. So we ordered our lunch and were presented with:

Now what exactly was this meal? Well that took some investigating. In the top right hand corner we had tempura vegetables in a cute little basket, then below it the pot contained some sort of thick soup – it reminded me of cauliflower cheese in its taste. Then we had the box – inside was savoury rice, tuna sashimi, grilled salmon, egg and then the rest is still a mystery. Some things went down a treat, others (like the green blob in the middle of the box) were unfortunately not quite so appetising. This presentation of what was essentially a AUD$20 meal just amazed me though, you almost don’t want to eat it!

After lunch we went on a walk to the Nishiki Markets , and on the way we discovered a small shrine/temple in the midst of the shops. Looking at the lonely planet later that day we discovered this specific shrine was to pray for educational success. At this was our first temple/shrine we looked on in awe at the processes involved. First there was the running water tap which you had to wash your hands through, and you could also drink. (Apparently these are called purification fountains)

Then at the shrine, you could insert a coin, ring the bell and make your prayer or wish.

All in all it certainly made me excited for the next day – in which we had a whole day’s worth of temples planned! We then headed to our original destination, the markets – which was full with the hustle and bustle of market activity. Half the food there I couldn’t identify, mostly seafood I imagine, but they did have some choice sweet treats. Jane purchased some Japanese sweets, which were apparently jelly like in texture, and extremely delicious.

japanese sweets

We ended what was a tiring day with a trip to the local supermarket – which proved quite fruitful. I bought some Pocky – which although not native to Japan, they certainly are delicious! I also took a bit of a gamble and bought an everyburger - it was placed in amongst the chocolates so it couldn’t have been too bad.

the every burger

the mysterious every burger – it was a biscuit, with a chocolate centre, and seasame seeds on top

Unfortunately no dinner was had on this night – we were full of snacks and decided against it (there may have been some KFC chips consumed…). Our first night in the ryokan was pleasantly comfortable – who knew that sleeping on the floor could be so restful.

Camera searching and Dontombori

Day Two

Our first full day in Osaka was well planned from the get go. Since my previous camera had given up quiet a few months earlier, I planned to buy a new one in Japan – and because I didn’t want to miss any shots this was number one on the agenda for Osaka. So we headed to Den-Den town, supposedly home to everything electronic. As it was a Sunday, it turns out we arrived too early – most of the shops didn’t open until at least 11. This called for a good time waster – McDonalds. Luckily, the thoughtful japanese have both an english and japanese menu, which allowed us some easy ordering. Turns out hash browns are the same wherever in the world you buy them!

Once we had wasted sufficient time we headed out – not knowing whether we were on the right street or not (due to Japan’s street signage being tricky to navigate) we were looking a little lost when we experienced our first bout of Japanese generosity. An older man came up to us to see if we were ok – after some major gesturing and trying to understand his japanese while he tried to understand our english we figured out we were exactly where we were supposed to be – the main street of Den-Den town.

After visiting a few shops, and the awesome Kiddy Land, I found that my camera was a model later than what I had researched – although the same price as the current model that is in Australia. Slightly confused a put off buying the camera in Den-Den until we headed to Umeda to check out Yodobashi Camera. We were met with a 7 storey electronics store that had all you could possibly imagine. Finding that my camera was the same price here, I made the purchase, and waited while the multitude of duty-free forms were filled out.

After all this electronics shopping we started searching for our first japanese lunch – quite appropriately it turned out to be sushi.

After visiting a few of the restaurants (and their plastic food models outside) we decided that this restaurant looked the most friendly in terms of ordering – and knowing what we were ordering. After deciphering some photos and guessing on what some of the dishes were, we ended up ordering cucumber and tuna nori rolls, tempura vegetables and some sashimi.

It was amazingly fresh and even though it was probably average in Japanese standards, from what I was used to it was beautiful! These were also the first photos of the new camera (a Panasonic Lumix DMC-F38) and I was quite impressed. I became quite trigger happy over the holiday with this new toy – chalking up over 600 photos for 10 days.

After lunch we decided to go for a wander to Osaka Castle – passing the Giant Ferris wheel on the way. We decided against riding it as we had planned to go to the rooftop observatory that night, and I’m sure you didn’t need two skyline views of the city. Without too much trouble we came upon Osaka Castle - according to the lonely planet the Castle has been rebuilt, so technically it isn’t the original – I found it very stunning none the less. There were a few street performers on the walk to the castle, being a Sunday it’s apparently the day for it. A small pit stop in front of the castle allowed Jane to discover the wonders of Japanese vending machines – as well as the normal drink beverages found in most vending machines, japanese vending machines also include warm beverages – enter the hot chocolate vending machine drink!

osaka Castle

osaka street performer

vending machine hot chocolate

Jane and I headed back to the hostel for a quick pit stop before we headed out again for dinner. On the way back through the station I stopped to get a snack that had intrigued me – it was in a freezer and looked somewhat like a profiterole without the chocolate on top – the result was an amazingly delicious ice-cream covered in pastry – the Japanese do love french food – and for this I thank them!

Back at the hostel both me and Jane fell into an accidental nap – luckily Jane woke at about 5pm that night and we got going for our night adventures. We headed to Dontombori which – according to our Jetstar destination video – was supposed to be all lit up with neon lights and a perfect place for dinner.

bridge over to dontombori

Luckily it was! The main street was exactly what I imagine when I think of Japan – big neon lights and full of colour and life. After a brief peruse up and down the streets (and many a photo later) we decided on an okonomiyaki restaurant (I love how easy it is to choose when you have a plastic model of the food outside each restaurant!) We chose a package meal that we saw advertised outside – 1500 yen for an okonomiyaki, fried vegetables (like tempura but more in a katsu batter), some sort of dumplings and a drink. Stepping inside we were ushered upstairs as soon as we said we wanted the meal – apparently this was the cheap section. The menu was placed in front of us, as well as a rather large pen like instrument. The menu contained bar codes and images which you scanned with the pen to order – perhaps one of the most sophisticated ordering systems I have seen for a cheap restaurant! Once ordered we waited for our food to arrive - one thing I do like about Japanese food is even though it’s always so fresh, it usually takes no time for it to be prepared. Our food then arrived – the okonomiyaki and the vegetables looked delicious – the dumplings looked, well, questionable.

outside the restaurant with the plastic food models

the okonomiyaki

the battered vegetables

the mystery dumplings

Two out of three ain’t bad.

After dinner – we ventured to the Floating Garden observatory Roof Garden – why there are two gardens in the title I’m not sure, because I didn’t see any greenery. It was quite a nerve-racking experience – venturing up the 100 odd levels in the elevator, and then traveling up a preciously located escalator, to reach the top observatory level. You could see the city with 360 degree views, and unfortunately, although the night sky was gorgeous, my photos didn’t turn out as well – you never seem to be able to capture that night beauty on film. That was the end of an action packed day in Osaka – we were headed to Kyoto in the morning – and with all the walking we did that day, I had an amazingly restful sleep.