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Late start this morning. Left 8:45 and went down the road to the hotel's cafe. We didn't think it had what we wanted, so we decided to go to the Umeda Sky Building. Not best day for it as it's raining, but thats okay. We hailed a taxi because otherwise we'd need to catch a train and bus and with the rain, worth the extra cost ($21). We reached the Umeda Sky Building at 9:10, 20 minutes before opening. We decided to go to the cafe at the top for breakfast. The building is very impressive. The elevator to the 39th floor is glass so you can see 360 degrees as you ascend, then you take an escalator through a glass tube to get to the 40th floor. We had very nice breakfast of coffee and ... read more

Easy start to day. Left Hotel Flex at 8:20 and reached Platform 14 at 8:40 for our Shinkansen bullet train, Mizuho, to Himeji. This one is older than the others we've been on, but still very comfortable. On arrival at Himeji Station we bought our reserve tickets for the fast train to Osaka at 9:11 for tomorrow Raining today unfortunately, but all good as we found our hotel easily and were able to go up another covered arcade almost the whole way. We left our bags, bur Oscar was reluctant to leave as he just wanted to play. Finally convinced him to go at 11:15 and again undercover right up to the park adjoining Himeji Castle. We decided to have lunch at the Kassui-ken restaurant within the Koko-en gardens which are next to Himeji Castle. We ... read more

Left the Sanco Inn Hotel at 8:30 and had plenty of time to buy coffee/ matcha lattes and buns before boarding our Shinkansen bullet train to Hiroshima which left on time as usual at 9:12. It was a very comfortable 90 minute trip. Hotel Flex was an easy 10 minute walk from the station. We again took advantage of the luggage forwarding service, but this time sending all three of our big bags and packing everything into backpacks. This time, Krissy used her bigger backpack and I used the backpack that normally attaches to my Osprey suitcase. It worked quite well, I carried the heavier pack on my back and the second one on my front. We were able to leave our bags at the hotel as we were too early to check in. We then ... read more

Late start today because Krissy and Oscar slept in until 8:30. We still managed to catch the 9:30 train to Nara and got there about an hour later after one train change. As usual we picked up some buns for breakfast and with just 10 minutes to spare Krissy decided to line up at Starbucks for coffees and matcha latte and made an order. Daisy and I waited for the drinks so Krissy and Oscar would have time to find an elevator if needed. We just made it in time at 9.30 and got to Kintetsu-Nara station just over an hour later. We started walking towards Nara Park and there were deer everywhere on the footpath outside the park. Vendors are selling Deer crackers at strategic places for $2. We bought some and entered the park ... read more

We decided to have the hotel buffet breakfast which was good and set off fairly late around 09:40am. It was only a short 12 minute trip on the train to the Inari Station, right opposite the temple entrance, but we hadn't counted on the number of different lines converging into Kyoto Station. Like living opposite Central Station in Sydney but much more complicated. Took us quite some time to work out where we had to go and then had a long wait in the train before it set off. Reached the temple entrance at 10:25 and proceeded to follow the hordes of tourists. Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head of all of Japan's Inari Shrines. Inari is the Shinto God of Rice. Its famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of ... read more