Street food fun in Japan

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After a long flight we found ourselves walking through a very quiet, well lit, excellently signed tunnel to our beautiful hotel in Kansai International airport. While Narita airport in Tokyo was not particularly impressive, Osaka's certainly did not disappoint! Having only been in Japan for only 24 hours, we are constantly amazed at the technology and efficiencies. Going to the loo has taken on a whole new perspective as we get used to all the 'extras' provided. Even though finding the flush button can be a little time consuming, the heated seats are well and truly worth the incovenience, let alone all the other features designed to give you the cleanist clacker possible! Imagine my amazement to also discover that trains not only arrive, but they do so on time and are so clean and quiet. Maybe one day this new concept may come to Albury. Yeh I know, it's just a dream. After determing the cheapest fare for a days travel in and out of Osaka ($20 return), we started wandering around this amazing city. The sense of quiet was a little disconcerting but again, it was the sheer practicalities that stood out. Who would have thought that having traffic lights syncrohnised all along the street would make traffic flow effectively?? I seriously couldn't believe as I crossed the main street in Osaka that as far as you could see, all pedestrians were crossing at the same time. And all those pedestrians seemed to converge in one of what we thought was a side street. It wasn't until we were admiring the view from a bridge and looked to see where the street ended that we realised how busy and crowded it was. Heads were bobbing everywhere! And sooooo many shops!! Oz may also have some competition for crazy big things. We found big octopus, big crab, big beef, just to name a few. We enjoyed the most delicious coffee infused with orange and chocolate - fantastic! Then to top off our Osaka street walk, delicious Kobe beef (thanks for the info on this one Justine!) and enjoyed eating standing in the street, drinking wine and some other drink that smelt like medicine but tasted awesome. Found the rooftop gardens quite by accident and managed to find the train station on purpose. Mal decided all that walking needed a reward and has taken himself off to have a massage while I keep you all informed on today's adventure. Tomorrow we head off on the official tour. Can't wait to see more of this amazing place but I have to say that our first taste of Japan has been brilliant - especially as we did it on public transport, with no idea of what to expect and no idea of what we were doing. We didn't even get lost....still time for that to happen though! lol.

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Photos

Our room
Minions are very popular here.

Airport fun
Mal making the best of containing his excitement before we leave for Japan.

Photo spot
We have no idea why everyone wanted to get a photo in front of this guy.

Roof top garden
Cherry blossoms are almost here!

Comments

[Dad]

Enjoy
HI Kaz,Mal. Glad to hear our very positive finding to date. Seems as though there have been a lot of changes since I was there some 43 yrs back. Continue to enjoy. Hope you get a chance to have a ride on the Bullet train Love Dad

[Kaz Hicks]

Thanks Dad!
Stay tuned for the next blog! Xx

[Rowland and Lee]

Great Trip
Hey guys, how good does your trip sound - love the loo info - glad you are both enjoying and experimenting with the new cuisine- keeps the blog coming , makes us feel as if we're there