Osaka — Osaka, Japan
Today was the day where we thought we might have planned a bit too much :). So let's see if we did it all.
As usual we started with our walk to the subway, approx 7 minutes, hopped on our local subway and went into Kyoto. Got on another train to Osaka, this was around 7:30, so peak hour traffic, no seat on any train, packed and hanging onto the handles for the 30 minute trip to Osaka.
When we reached Osaka, wow the train station was incredible. Every time we go to another city we think 'oh it can't be as big as the last one we just saw' but yes they are :) Osaka is a massive city, 360 degree views of buildings and high rise flats. Back to the train station, it is very very big. There is a dome over the whole building but it never closes anything in so it gives the impression that it goes on for a very long time.
Once we found our way out of the station, we needed to find the information office to buy a ticket that lets us in to lots of attractions and saved up 2000 yen. So we went for a wander, finally finding the information office wohoo. When we went in and bought the tickets, there was an American couple next to us asking similar questions. Then the woman said I need coffee where can I buy coffee? (imagine an accent) So the attendant pulled out a brochure with a list of places to eat, American woman - 'no I wont eat that, no not that, I just neeeeed coffee, where can I get coffee??' It was very funny listening to her hehehehehe We left so who knows if she found a starbucks or not. (We did see them later at Osaka castle, but decided not to ask if they had found coffee :).
So after getting the discount tickets, we needed breakfast, so off we went on a walk to find some. We went down some escalators and found a Parisian bakery, mmmmmmmm so we grabbed a tray and put croissants, two sausage pastry things for G and a scroll with ham in it for me (it is 8:40 by this stage and we have been up since 6am so we are starving :) annnnd the best looking sweet pastry, one each. We got some juice and proceeded to eat the yummiest bakery products ever. Then it got even better when we ate the sweet pastries.... oh myyyyyyyyy I had a caramelised pear pastry and Graham had one with cherries soooooooooo soooooo goooood. Alas they only have stores in Paris, Osaka and Tokyo. Might try and find the store in Tokyo on Saturday :) The only down side is the couple of kilo's we put on eating the breakfast :) and it was not cheap at all of course, it was French :) and the first time we went over our budget for breakfast.
So after being fortified, off we go. We needed to catch another subway to get to Osaka castle, finding this was a bit tricky but we did it. There are sooooo many ways to go in Osaka station, huge like I said. We had to get off and walk a little way to get to Osaka castle, so once we got off the train, walking began. Thank goodness it wasn't too far at all, maybe only 1km. Then we saw the castle, soooo amazing. Photo's cannot do this justice. We went inside and climbed up 8 levels of stairs, (oh my goodness, no more stairs please, can you imagine how many stairs we have climbed coming out of the thousands of train stations we have?) and got to the top and we had a great view and saw how in the 1500's the ruler would have been able to see any enemy coming for days. Spectacular. Then we had to go downnnnnnn 8 flights of stairs. There were also about a million school kids too all laughing at us and pointing and saying who knows what, and then just kept saying "hello"! :) some were cute, some of the boys not so cute :)
So we left Osaka castle, thoroughly enjoying that experience and headed back to the train station to catch another subway to a place called Tempozan market place. This took another good walk back to the train station, then a big walk to get to the other subway, then the train, then another big walk to get to this place. I need a holiday.
So we get there and see this Massive ferris wheel, sooooo cool. We wanted to leave that for dusk, so first off we had a look around at the shops, I bought a top, nice, there weren't too many shops so we were done pretty quickly there. So then we had some lunch, Japanese of course, rice, vege's wohoo and grilled beef. Very very yum. Then we wrecked all that goodness with Haagan daz ice cream :).
Time to move after all that food, so we hopped on a ship cruise to take us around the harbour. This was spectacular, we really loved this. The breeze was fantastic and the sights were amazing. This went for 45 minutes and we didn't want to get off :). Once we did get off, we noticed that the weather looked like it was going to turn nasty and it was only 3:50 and there was nothing else to do in the area while we waited for it to go dark so we could see the ferris wheel at night. So after a lot of debating we decided we were too tired to wait and we hopped on the ferris wheel. This was amazing too!! It went sooo high, that at one point I got a little nervous but when I turned around and saw the view of the harbour and the open sea, that left. It was beautiful. The ferris wheel has a height of 112.5 meters and a diameter of 100 meters. It is huge!
We started the long walk back then, tired but happy. We then had to catch the subway back to where we had gotten off for the Osaka castle, then get off that subway train, then get on another that took us back to Osaka train station. And it is packed of course. When we finally make it back to the train station, for the first time ever, there was a late train. We had to wait 15 minutes, when you catch a train here, there are markers on the floor where to line up as that is where the train stops and the doors open, you should have seen the line up, massive. So the train finally came, it was nearly empty so Graham said get a seat, well of course the thousands of others behind me want one too, so the pushing and shoving that went on!! I got pushed around by two old men trying to grab a seat :) but we got one.