Yin & Yang

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Osaka is bold, bright and brash. We stayed in the Dotombori area, right in the heart of party town. I have never seen such a concentration of restaurants, shops, and neon. And the architecture is bonkers. No two buildings are the same. One has a ship wrapped around it, one has a statue of liberty on the top, one has a huge ebisu face, one's in the shape of a barrel, it goes on...

The perfect place to spend the weekend. We had a great Friday night, a complete contrast to our Nagasaki night out. A very British night out, but with a Japanese twist. Well, we have been away from home for five months. Unlike Nagasaki, restaurants here are easy and accessible. Lots and lots of very helpful resin food models! We found our target, Santana, first time and had a great Indian meal... great people, great atmosphere, great food and a local celebrity for a maitre 'd. Then we went for 'just the one' in the Pig & Whistle, a British pub. We weren't expecting much, but it was packed and had good music and a great atmosphere. We got talking to some Turkish guys who are living here and inevitably ended up having more than just the one.

We visited Osaka Castle, a very impressive 1931 concrete reconstruction of the 1583 original. As with most of Japan's wooden castles, it was 'lost to a fire'... The outside looks traditional enough, though the interior is very modern - lifts, museum, gift shop.

For some proper old trad action we took a day trip to Nara, Japan's capital back in the 8th century. At the train station we were 'adopted' by an old guy who stayed with us all day and took us round the sights. We seem to attract kindly old men... So the three of us set off into the bitterly cold afternoon for a non-stop hop around the temples in Nara Park. The park is also home to 1200 deer that stalk you if they suspect you might have a tasty morsel hidden about your person.

Todai-ji (temple complex) includes the Hall of the Great Buddha, the largest wooden building in the world, and houses a huge bronze buddha. Following our guide, we then walked along a pathway through the woods, lined with hundreds of stone lanterns. This led us to Kasuga-taisha, Nara's most important shrine founded in the 8th century. By this time we couldn't feel our feet. No matter, Kofuku-ji was our next and final destination. This temple complex had 175 buildings back in 710, but fire (again) have reduced this to a dozen, the most striking being its five-storey pagoda. Our guide then showed us to the restaurant area and left us to defrost with a big bowl of steaming hot ramen.

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