Woke up at 08:00, down to breakfast – not really a lot for me, it was mostly noodles, raw fish and deep fried stuff. I managed an egg and some yoghurt, and a sip of the worst coffee I’ve had for a while.
Dropped the bags, then followed google maps to Osaka castle. Managed to find a cafe on the way so stopped off for a not great but drinkable coffee. It was a shopping mall and Song spotted a UNIQLO so did a bit of browsing.
Headed round the corner to Osaka castle, it was pretty warm, around 24 and sunny.
The castle is surrounded by a moat, and in a large park with several out buildings and guard posts.
It was very busy, but not overly crowded. We bought our tickets to 3 of the out buildings and the castle. The 3 small buildings weren’t very impressive really, we had to take our shoes off, put sandles on, walk about 10 metres through the building, put our shoes back on again, then walk 10 metres and off with the shoes. The last building was a gunpowder store which was just an empty stone room.
Walked around the park a bit and joined the queue to get into the castle. Luckily they had a lift to the 5th floor then stairs up to the observation deck on the 8th floor. The castle was packed but managed to get some photos and have a look around, but to be honest the displays of calligraphy didn’t really interest me. There’s nothing left of the castle on the inside really, it’s been turned into a museum and changed to accommodate the lifts and stairs.
Went back to the shopping centre and had lunch at a sushi place which had the plates going round on a conveyor belt which you grabbed as they went by – different coloured plates cost different amounts.
After generating a decent pile of plates we walked back to the hotel and got a taxi to the train station to get the super fast train to Kyoto.
Hopped on the train, put the luggage on the rack, pulled out some food, sat down and already the train was hurtling along. Started to read, had a couple of bites of an apple then there was an announcement that we would shortly be arriving in Kyoto. We scrambled to pack everything away then we’d arrived, it was 14 minutes. We thought it was 40, but that was obviously on the normal train.
Walked down the road to the hotel, a modern one with a lot of tourists milling about. It offers free tea and coffee, a free welcome drink, a traditional bath house and spoke good English.
Pottered around the hotel room for a while, the room was bigger than the last but not by much.
Looked through the tourist info and found out that the main shopping street was a few metro stops away so went there to eat.
Wandered around for a while then found a small place which looked OK. Song had noodles and I had a combination that consisted of a strange assortment of dishes – a plate of pilaf rice, sliced steak and a bowl of spicy noodles. It was quite good, cost about $40 for the two of us.
Walked back to the metro and were back at the hotel in about 10 minutes, headed straight to the bar for our free drinks. I had a beer and Song had what she thought was a juice but was a cocktail.
Feeling very tired after a long day, went back to the room to sleep.
Tomorrow we’re going to the golden temple.
