#Japan16 Hakone to Osaka

After the best night's sleep I'd had in a week, I went straight downstairs for an early morning dip in the Onsen. It was just as relaxing as I'd remembered, and again I had it to myself. I pinched another ice lolly on the way back to my room, admiring the view out over the valley from my balcony. The steam from the hot springs was rising up to merge into the clouds. It was beautiful.
I had breakfast arranged, and I had my own vegetarian breakfast of tofu, rice, pickles, omelette, beans, miso soup and steamed vegetables (cooked in a little heater on my table). It was all good excel for some weird mushrooms in my soup. I thought my soup was a bit fishy, but I know it is common to use fish stock in food over here. The mushroom I ate seemed to be the sauce of the fishiness though, and the texture was... Odd. I carefully finished my mouthful before inspecting another one. No, it was definitely some deformed sea creature! I felt quite unwell, but I finished everything except the soup, knowing my next meal was uncertain. I left the hostel, boycotting the funicular (now I knew the route) to enjoy an atmosphere walk through misty Goya. I took this time to appreciate that I was really in Japan, and it looked just as mysterious and beautiful as I'd hoped. The weather was cool and damp, perfect for hiking, but Osaka was calling, so I got on the train!

The offending 'mushroom'. Just looking at
it makes me feel queasy!

It was a long journey to Osaka, but on the way I befriended a young Chinese -American man, who waas telling me of his love for Akihabara (Tokyo), where he had bought a suitcase, and a suitcase worth of video games! He was studying to become a composer of music for video games, and we exchanged soundtracks, which made the journey much more pleasant, and we exchanged details before we parted company at Osaka station.

I didn't linger in the city but got a local train straight out to the suburb of Mono -o/Minoo/Minoh (depending on who you ask). There I bought a Japanese sweet, a green putty made of rice, with a core of sweet beancurd. The ladies at the cafe who had enticed me in were very friendly and also gave me a sort of gelatious bean sweet, and a cup of bean tea. Now that is exotic even for my kind of teas! I can't say I enjoyed it but it was interesting!

Bean cake, bean sweet, and bean tea. Yummy...

From the cafe I walked into Minoo park, a serene place tracking a clear, shallow river for nearly three kilometres. Signs warned me of wild monkeys, but sadly I didn't see any. The walk culminated in a beautiful red bridge over the river, begin which stood a tall waterfall. Three boys were filming each other boxing on the bridge, but they left after a while and I got some photos. Unfortunately the foliage was still a bit barren from winter, but it was nonetheless worth the trip.
By the time I got back to the city centre, dusk was falling. The buildings we passed looked spectacular in the lowlight with their rainbow signage, so I impulsively decided to take my camera for a wander around the Umeda area of the city.


Setting my camera down on any stable surfaces I could find, and playing with the shutter speed, I got some fantastic photos of neon Osaka. I stumbled into my new Hostel, Guesthouse Morizou, at 7.45. It was a tiny place, cosy and very cute, covered in handwritten notes secured with Washi tape saying things like "please mind your head! :)", and plastic figurines. The beds had curtains with friendship bracelet tie-backs, and the staff were very friendly, the girls even called me "kawaii"!

So much neon. And so many bikes!

 I ditched my bag there and messaged my new friend from the train. He was staying with a friend, and the three of us agreed to meet for dinner, so I hopped on the Japan Railways train to Namba station, where I came across several young people dancing in the street. Literally. It was like a scene from one of the Step Up movies - some cool break dancing street gang. I wanted to stop and watch, but didn't want to put them off, as I was a lot more conspicuous in Osaka than in Tokyo (Osaka is less touristy) and I had people to meet! I walked "Namba walk" which was a strange underground shopping and food arcade, and also an art gallery! At the other end was the station where my new friends were waiting, and we went to Dotomburi. Dotombori was recommended in my guidebook as one of the best places to eat in Osaka, a city renowned for its food, but we were limited by my vegetarianism. Finally we found a place with a number of meat free small dishes, and to my delight we ordered by vending machine! I entered all of my small change, selected the numbers of the items I wanted, and received three tickets, which I then presented to the waitress inside the restaurant.

My first vending machine dinner. Not sure how I missed the cat!

I had rice, Kimchi, and beansprouts. Although rice is rarely exceptional, the Kimchi was quite nice and the beansprouts and seaweed which came with it was absolutely delicious! After that we wandered down to see the famous Glici "running man". I thought he was a poster but it:s actually an enormous neon sign. Of course it:s neon - this is Osaka. Osaka was such a vibrant, happy city, I liked it much more than I expected. The guys dropped me at the nearest subway station and I made it back to my stop just in time for curfew. As I hurrid back to the hostel, someone came up behind me and made me jump. It was one of my room mates, a Korean girl who I had chatted briefly to as I unpacked.

She was lovely to talk to as we strolled back. She had discovered that he two Japanese girls in opur dorm were in Osaka for the same reason as her - to watch a Japan Idol concert live in Osaka Castle Park the next day! Unfortunately I didn:t have the spae time to join them, but we laughed at the thought. She asked what I:d had for dinner, and when I told her about my Kimchi, she explained that Japanese Kimchi is different to the original -  less salty, less spicy, and sweeter apparently. Personally I thought Japanese sounded better, but I wasn't going to tell her that! She also identified my strange breakfast sea creature as a clam!!