Nara & Osaka

Our Hamamatsu hotel room: ❌toilet didn’t flush (!) and bed needed a new mattress.  ✅great location (except you can easily get lost - see below), room a little larger than the one in Tokyo, AMAZING breakfast: I have not seen jam and butter and a toaster and bread (apart from sandwiches at 7-Eleven) the entire trip.

Sunny day. 17 deg C. Hard to believe it is only a few weeks to winter …

Apparently Hamamatsu has a strong local sweets tradition, hence the number of bakeries, both Japanese and Western-style.

Well, my walk after brekky nearly turned into a disaster … I headed off just to have a look around and then thought I’d try to get to the Castle. Google suggested walking time made it a bit tight but I did make it for a photo (it wasn't open at this time).

It was an interesting walk back UNTIL I hit the damn underpass that takes you down to the station area and via another subway into the hotel. 

Well, frankly between Google Maps and Me we made a real meal of this, to the point at which I whatsapped Kubo our guide that I was lost underground and sent him a photo of a ceramic dragon on the subway walk that I was near.

Fortunately (although I didn’t feel fortunate at the time!) the message didn’t send.

I recalled seeing the dragon (and some other way points) last night when we went to dinner. But this morning, a short time later, I saw a second dragon! Either there was more than one, or I had walked in circles (entirely possible). So THAT wouldn’t have been useful …  

On and on I walked: up and down, round and round. If I saw the May One department store one more time I was going to scream. Google Maps showed 120 m, then 140 m over and over; 2 mins and 4 mins over and over. Do you think I could get to the hotel? Every time I came up for air out of the subway, I’d find myself on the wrong side of the road for the hotel - and crossing the road was forbidden.

Finally in desperation I changed the mode of travel to car which circumvented the map constantly re-routing me into the subway. THAT did it.

In the meantime I had forgotten that the departure time today was 9 am not 8:30 am - phew! Deep breathing! 

I ended up walking 5 kms(!!!!) of which at least half would have been in the subway!

On leaving Hamamatsu, Kubo pointed out a statue of Donald Trump playing a piano on top of a building (??).

Passed Lake Hamana and lots of citrus orchards. Then we pass the huge container port of Nagoya which has a leisure centre including LEGOLAND Japan and Sea Train Land. Located in Ise Bay, it is the largest and busiest trading port in Japan.

Today we go to Nara which was Japan’s first capital – in 710-794 (Nara period). Pop. 367,000. This is also where Pico Iyer lives and where his book ‘Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells' is set.

We pass Iga City where Iga ninja were legendary spies and mercenaries known for developing the Iga-ryu style of ninjutsu, a sophisticated art of stealth, combat and intelligence gathering. Unlike ninja who served specific lords, the Iga ninja operated as a mercenary army, offering their unique skills to various feudal lords during the Sengoku Period.

Once peace was established in the 17th century, the ninja were mainly employed by the Tokugawa Shogunate to spy on the various regional lords and to guard Edo Castle. During these times, the ninja became greatly romanticised in popular culture, such as Kabuki Theatre (which we saw on our first day in Tokyo).

Nara Deer Park. It is on ALL itineraries. Hence, full of people - and I guess being a Saturday.

We had our lunch purchased from 7-Eleven this morning with the deer nibbling around - but they weren’t particularly interested in our eggs sandwiches.

Next was Todaiji (Great Eastern Temple): the massive building houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Buddha (Daibutsu): 16 m tall, 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold; and you pass through the biggest temple gate in Japan.

We finally got away from Nara (late) after people failing 1. to turn up at the scheduled time (esp. if eating lunch out and service is slow); 2. getting lost; 3. loo stops esp. when left to the last minutes; 4. people ducking off to shop (again also last-minute). Such are the joys of group travel - not!

All of this of course eating into the schedule for Osaka.

Osaka is Japan’s 3rd biggest city (pop. over 2,700,000).

The main attraction is Dōtonbori (‘Dōton’s Canal’) and the street (and off-streets) are lined with shops and restaurants. 

A lot of Xmas trees and decorations everywhere we go!

The entertainment district comes alive at sunset as the illuminated billboards glitter off the waters of the 400-yr old bori (canal).

We ticked off the iconic ‘Glico Running Man’ billboard viewed from Ebishu-bashi bridge; the large tuna hanging outside the Sushi Train restaurant; the ‘angry cook’ mascot of the iconic Kushikatsu Daru restaurant; the ‘drummer boy’ - Kuidaore Taro - a clown mascot for a now closed restaurant.

And we bought cheesecake from Rikuro which owes its success to quality ingredients: Danish cream cheese, special syrup for the raisins, fresh milk and eggs.

Dinner was at Chibo where we had the local specialty okonomiyaki (I had the ‘Hiroshima-yaki’). It was excellent. We last had this dish at Kurashiki, cooked by the entertaining husband and wife team. This is a teppanyaki savoury pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients - like mine tonight: noodles, cheese,  an egg plus vegetables like shredded cabbage and bamboo shoots - cooked on a teppan.

We had gyoza to start, but these were teppan crispy! Fab! 

MF-san had a Sapporo beer (the oldest beer brand in Japan, founded 1876).

Caught the Osaka metro to our hotel where our bags awaited us. 

I have walked 16 kms. No wonder my feet are sore.