Osaka and Japan overview; cost, accomodation etc

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Next destination Osaka. Still getting to grips with the JR train system announcement boards we ended up getting on the local train instead of the express train. Turning a 90min journey into a 3 hour one! Great.

After checking in, our hostel informed us that on Sundays they have a member of staff who takes guests for food and drinks in a Japanese tapas type place not too far. Everything on the menu is 300yen (£1.80) and the portions are good including the beer. She didn't have to tell us twice. We waited at the meet up point with 3 other hostel guests and were introduced to the craziest 64 year old Japanese man with the most infectious laugh. His name was Mr Yano and he loves a good drink (especially sake). Even though his English wasn't great which resulted in conversations being completely lost in translation, we had a great laugh and the food wasn't bad at all.

Feeling a bit rough the following morning after staying up late chatting with some of the hostels other guests, we packed our bags and checked out. Our flight to Bangkok wasn't until midnight so we had a full day to explore Osaka.

We took a trip to the Umeda building to go to the floating garden observation deck but as we was quite an overcast day we decided against it. After spending a good 40mins trying to get our bearings using the map the hostel gave us we finally found Osaka station. Our intention was to visit the Shinshibashi and Dontonburi areas but our first hurdle was working out how to use the ticket machines as they weren't as straightforward as say the ones in Tokyo. Instead of choosing your destination and getting the price worked out for you, you had to choose your fare. Like how were we supposed to know this? After some help, we got our tickets in the end.

Shinsihabashi and Dontonburi turned out to be very much like all the shopping districts we had visited in Japan. They reminded us of Takeshita st in Harajuku especially the area called America Mura. This was supposed be like a little USA in Japan although we expected a little bit more "wow" from the title. After walking till our feet hurt we head back to our hostel to get our bags, say our goodbyes and make our way to the airport. Goodbye Japan, you will be missed (not the cold though, definitely not the cold)

Other observations since Tokyo

Traffic culture outside of Tokyo is not as strict. To our surprise we actually saw people crossing during the red man. This would not happen in Tokyo. One girl we met in Hiroshima, explained that she used an umbrella on her bike in Tokyo (like many ppl do outside of Tokyo) and was stopped by a traffic control officer a given a yellow card, with her details taken. Can you believe it? Very strict.

Buses use the most straightforward system ever. Back home in Manchester whenever catching the bus people form a queue and then one by one either show their pass or say where they're going and then get told the fare. Here, on the buses and trams its one flat fare, you jump on and pay in a machine as you leave. Just like that. If you don't have the exact change there is a change dispenser on the inside, thus preventing queues or delays in the bus service.

Toilets all around Japan are great. Most open automatically as you walk towards it and when you sit you are greeted by a warm seat. There are even sounds options to blurr out any toilet noises as it is deemed impolite to share toilet noises with others.

Another thing that caught our attention was the chairs on trains. You can adjust them to face the opposite direction if you like. So for example if you have all seats facing one direction and would like to sit in a 4 (2x2) facing each other you can (depending on which train) swivel the chair around or push/pull the back rest. How simple!

I guess we have already spoken about meats but the problem we had was most meat was unidentifiable because of the amount of fat on it. In some places you can choose you level of fat (fatty, extra fatty or even more fatty) with no option to ask for no fat. We both normally strip the fat of our food back home so found this to be a little bit out of our comfort zone.

One final thing we wanted to mention was the alcohol vending machines. Throughout the streets they have vending machines everywhere selling both drinks and alcohol with no one appearing to abuse that system or sitting next to it etc. We considered whether this would be the case back home, would it still be standing if we had them throughout our streets?

Japan Overview

Exchange rate 200 Yen to £1

Chris favourite place; Tokyo attraction; Samurai Park and activity; bike riding in Tokyo

P’s favourite place; Kyoto attraction; Inari Shrines and activity; bike riding in Tokyo (for the first half)

Transportation. Japan from our experience was easy to navigate. To our surprise there were bus stops, trams and subway stations everywhere. When we asked someone for directions so we could walk 20 minutes they would always give us transport options finding it strange we wanted to walk. Transport is efficient and reliable and you never really have to wait more than a couple of minutes for a bus or train. If you want to travel around we would strongly suggest you purchase a JR pass as we certainly spent our money’s worth as not only does it allow you to travel between cities but also using the JR lines within cities. This was invaluable.

Accommodation; we booked all our accommodation a month in advance, due to good hostels booking up fast. Although we did meet people who booked it along the way they never really got their preferred option. Guesthouse are always clean and can be strict about check in time. We enjoyed staying in J hoppers (Hiroshima, Osaka), nine hours hotel (Kyoto) and K’s House (Kyoto). For a dorm room expect to pay £15 + and a double room £20 + each. We stayed in dorm room for Tokyo and the rest of the places double rooms.

Food The food in Japan is varied, we found some strange dishes but if you look hard enough you can find some good foods. We strongly suggest to try new dishes as we now both have new favourite foods. Many restaurants have plastic food dishes on their display although we did not find it too helpful as we did not know what it was. Okonamiyaki, teriyaki, Ramen, meat dumplings and meat sticks and Mos/Fresh burger were our favourite dishes. Oh not to forget the very affordable Saizeriya.

Spends Japan can be expensive compared to other travel destinations but we thought it was affordable by UK standards. We spent on average of £30 a day each for accommodation, food, attractions etc although if you count the JR pass which we booked in the UK for around £150 each (used for the 2^nd week after Tokyo) we spent £40 each a day.



Next a quick stop in Bangkok, Thailand before Myanmar

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