Japan Day 8: The Train, The River, The Rain.

Catching a bullet train was all very exciting because it went very fast and felt more like a spacious aeroplane than a train. 

The down side was that the bullet train from Nagano to Tsuruga spent most of its time in tunnels, with occasional tantalising glimpses of rugged snow-plastered mountains to the south/east, and glimpses of rice paddy fields, ports, and the sea to the north/west.

You know me. I'm a compulsive photo-taker. I did my best.

Nagano from the train.

The last leg of the journey was via Limited Express, still fast but not bullet-fast, and less tunnels.  Stuck in an aisle seat, I had more tantalising glimpses of Lake Biwa as we roared on our way to Kyoto.

From there it was a short hop to Osaka where another very nice JR man had to work his magic so that my Suica card could play nicely with the local network, and then the Osaka Metro popped me out at Dotonbori which was about as different from Karuizawa as you could get. In the nicest possible way.

Back in the big city.

I wandered through the main market strip to my hotel, goggling at all the lights, activity, and noise. Osaka is proud of its food scene and my hotel was right in the centre of the Dotonbori tourist strip where all the usual tax free tourist tat jostled for space with a plethora of restaurants selling Osaka's signature dishes plus anything else you could possibly imagine eating.

Just to make it clear what you were eating.

...false advertising?  Although I didn't go in. Maybe they did sell dragon for dinner.

I chose a restaurant at random and enjoyed the Osaka 'soul food' ominimayaki (don't judge me on that spelling) which was a chopstick challenge but I got most of the food in my mouth without disgracing myself too much. Although I suspect that the gentleman at the neighbouring table was quite entertained by my chopstick antics, to the point of open laughter at times.  That was OK. I'm entertained by my chopstick antics too.

It was pouring by the time I finished eating. Of course I wasn't clever enough to bring my umbrella with me, was I?  Lucky my hotel was nearby. I ran home in the rain.

Visible from my hotel room window was the ferris wheel which was part of the Don Quijote store, facing onto the Tonbori River in an area known as the Venice of Japan. Now I've not been to Venice but I suspect that the similarity requires an elastic imagination even if one can go on boat rides up and down the Tonbori River and there are lots of bridges.  I wasn't that excited by the boat rides but the ferris wheel was definitely on my Things To Do In Osaka list. Tomorrow though. All that sitting on trains had quite worn me out and I was ready for an early night.

Tonbori River in the rain.

Home for a couple of nights: Holiday Inn Osaka Namba.