Greetings from Osaka

Hi everyone! Another update from me. We traveled to Osaka from Tokyo on Friday. We spent 3 hours on the shinkansen (bullet train). I thought since it tilts in the curves you wouldn't feel it riding at all, but the thing shook and shuddered very much. Anyway, it did go fast and we had great views from the train. Fuji was in the clouds, however, that was a shame. We only saw its base. Perhaps on the way back next week!

We got to Osaka around 6pm, rush hour. We finally got to our hostel (Osaka J-hoppers) after being on really crowded trains. The neighbourhood of the hostel is really nice, though! Lots of little restaurants and stuff. Next to the hostel is a school which has its own vegetable patch which we could see from our window. The room was big and so were the beds, but it wasn't en suite, which is never very nice.

At 7:30 we met our friend Satoshi at Osaka station. He took us to a yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant where we did not only have the standard stuff like chicken thigh, but also chicken skin, chicken butt, chicken cartilage (that's kraakbeen for you Dutchies) and chicken stomach! Satoshi told us the last one was liver, but he sent us an email later saying he had made a mistake in the translation and it was actually stomach. My stomach got kinda upset from it, but I think that was also from the trip and all; doing way too much in one day.

As we walked back to the station we passed Hep Five, a sort of amusement area for youngsters. On the roof of this building is a giant red ferris wheel! Wish we had had time to go on it.

On Saturday I had very little energy. >< I guess it's from all the things we've been doing and seeing, combined with the heat and humidity. I did go out for 2 hours, to view Osaka castle. It's very nice (google it to see what it looks like) but after walking up to it I didn't have the energy anymore to go inside it as well. So I went back to the hostel and just rested. That evening there was going to be a fireworks display by the river, which could be viewed from the hostel roof. There was going to be free food (yakisoba (=fried noodles) and salad). It is customary for people to wear yukata when viewing fireworks displays in summer, so one of the ladies who works at the hostel helped me put mine on (that took 15 minutes!) and then we went up to the roof, ate and watched the fireworks. Yes, those yukata are as uncomfortable as they look. >< But everyone commented on how nice I looked! On Sunday we spent 2 hours on the train to get to Koyasan, a 900 metre high mountain nearby on top of which the shingon sect of Buddhism was started back in the 9th century. On top there are loads of temples and an enormous cemetery. On the way there we got higher and higher on the train until we were about 400 metres above sea level. Great views of course! The last 450 metres were done by cablecar and then we were at the top. We viewed a few temples and then walked for 2 km through a literal forest of the dead (Doctor Who reference ftw!) with 200,000 tombs, some as much as 1000 years old. So beautiful! At the end of it we got to the main tomb of the founder of shingon Buddhism (can't remember his name just now) and in front of it is a Hall of 1000 lanterns. In it are, as the name says, a lot of lanterns; 2 of which are said to have been lit since the 11th century! Unfortunately it was closed. It closes at 5pm and it was 6:30 by the time we got there. >< That was such a shame! One of the doors was open a crack so we peeped inside, but we couldn't see that much. Then we got the bus back to the station and the train back down. The altitude had really given me a headache. >< I'm used to living on sea level people!!

When we got back to Osaka it was 10 pm and all the little restaurants were closed. So instead of getting udon (noodles) like we wanted, we went to McDonalds instead. XD It was quite funny to be in such a sacred place where they all eat vegan food just a few hours before, and then eating McDonalds. XD But it was good. I got grape fanta, which was not that good. All the grape-flavoured stuff here tastes really sweet and chemically, but then again; so do the actual grapes!

And now it's Monday morning and we are going to view the temple here in Osaka soon and then we're off to Nara!