Nikko and Osaka

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Our last day in Nikko was interesting. We awoke at 6:45 to get to the yoga lesson put on by the monk and eat breakfast at 8. The yoga lesson was interesting. We did a few things that I have done before and a few I had never seen, nothing too exciting just a bunch of stretching. Then near the end we did some kind of meditation thing, and the monk did a few oooommmmmmmm’s and said a prayer. It was a little awkward but relaxing none the less. After that we showered, had breakfast, and went off to see the sights. We had planned to see this Edo era village thing but it turned out to be a big tourist trap so we skipped it and decided to just walk around and see the shops before beginning our long journey to Osaka. It took about 4 hours to get here so once we found our hostel we showered and headed out for some much needed food. The local specialty here is takoyaki and okonomiyaki. Takoyaki is octopus and since I am allergic to squid and octopus we opted to find a nice okonomiyaki shop. An okonomiyaki is a sort of savory pancake filled with noodles, cabbage, eggs and flour, then you toss in a meat of your choice, slather it with some sauce and there you go. It was in this shop we had a most interesting experience. The people spoke no English, so Amanda had to talk them, but the menu was all in Kanji, which neither of us can read enough of to make anything out. Once the server helped us order and we were sitting there eating peanuts and drinking we heard oldies playing on the radio. So there we were, eating a strange food, in a bar where I’m the only white guy for miles, and listening to “one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater” drinking a beer that I don’t know the name of. Quite surreal really. Once that was over we went back showered once again and went to bed.

The next morning we got up, got on the first train to Himeji and went off to see a castle. We decided breakfast was overrated and skipped it and went right off to the train station. A silly mistake really as we were starving an hour later. The pictures kinda speak for themselves, the castle is really cool and has a lot of history; too much to write about here. Once were done with the castle we tried to beat the horrible heat and humidity by eating kakigori! This is shaved ice with strawberry sauce, like a snow cone only better. The place we went puts a scoop of ice cream on it to make it even better. It’s awesome. By now the clouds are rolling in and some deafening thunder and lightning had started. So we decided to head back to Osaka. We left just in time too because it started to storm, and storm HARD. The trains were all delayed about 15 to 20 minutes because of the rain and when we got back all we wanted was food. I have begun to feel like we ate our way through Japan. But all the food we get is carbohydrates. Bread, rice, or noodles. So we went out on a mission to find sukiyaki. We needed protein, meat from a cow, and we needed it now. The good news is that the rain had brought down the humidity a little so it was bearable to be outside. Once we ate we went out to see what Osaka has to offer. We wondered around a bit and ended up in an alley way that was lit up like vegas. This place is called Dotomburi Street. It’s a bunch of shops, arcades, and more pachinko parlors that anywhere else in Japan. It was loud and getting humid again, but we couldn’t help but look at all these people shoving ball bearings into these machines. Some had like 7 or 8 buckets worth! Well after our walk we headed back. Only 2 more updated then were back home.

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