We couldn’t believe it when we pulled in the Osaka Umeda bus terminal early. I’m not sure we’ve ever caught a long distance bus that’s been on time let alone early before but here we were standing in the pissing rain a 6am...Welcome to Osaka! Knowing that we couldn’t check in till midday we headed for the nearest Starbucks (a terrible habit/comfort we seem to have picked up during the last few months) only to find that even they weren’t open this early. Luckily we only had 10 minutes to wait and we were soon sipping on more weird flavoured lattes (macadamian nut toffee for me) and thawing out before braving the weather for our relatively long walk to our AirBnB. Having seen a small break in the rain we decided to start walking. Our plan was to find somewhere near where we were staying to hole up for a few hours before checking in. Unfortunately the break didn’t last long and we were soon walking across a bridge, soaking wet and miserable. Our reward on the other side however, was Matsuya with our tried and true favourite breakfast. Something to note in Japan is how difficult their addresses are to understand (they give you an area not specific street and the numbers aren’t in numerical order on the street). Aware of this I left Dani with the bags and attempted to find a place that should have been no more than a 5-minute walk away. Just over an hour later I finally found it (with the help of the lovely concierge at a nearby hotel) and was able to grab the key before going to collect my wife and bags. Our AirBnB ($37.05 AUD/27.90 USD/¥3,056) was basic, but wonderful and best of all we had got a discount (link Japan tips) due to staying for a week. It had a little kitchenette, bathroom and best of all pocket WiFi to use around the city. Being nicknamed the kitchen of Japan we thought it was only fitting that we did a Japanese cooking class there. The class (Taste Osaka) was our first activity in Osaka and we weren’t very familiar with getting around yet. I discovered that if we walked to Osaka station (across that bridge again) we could catch the JR loop line to our cooking course, which also happened to be around the back of Dotombori, a famous area in Osaka. The cooking class ($77.85 AUD/57.15 USD/¥6,500) was amazing and we were stoked to learn some new techniques when cooking our favourite cuisine, as well as finding a class that focused on something other than sushi. Being at the back of Dotombori we thought it would be worth exploring after the class. It is definitely a fun place to wander and check out the unique signage out the front of the restaurants. It’s also where Osaka’s version of Kappabashi (kitchen area) is but it was nowhere near as cheap or as all-encompassing as Tokyo. We had a friend from Australia helping us with our itinerary in Japan and he happened to share with us that there was a major sumo competition happening in Osaka while we were there. Now, by the time we found out about this there was absolutely no hope of booking tickets online as they were all sold out but they do have cheap tickets for available every day at the door for the first 200 people in line. Deciding to take a risk on getting a general admission ticket we were there bright and early. We managed to score 2 tickets (¥2,200/$25.45AUD/20USDpp) pretty easily and soon we were preparing to see our first sumo fight. Not really being into spectator sports and really not being into fighting I wasn’t sure that this would be my thing but you know… when in Rome and all that. It turns out it was a pretty incredible experience. The culture surrounding sumo is fascinating. There are only 6 competitions a year around the country so if you happen to be lucky enough to have one going on while you’re in Japan definitely go. Good to note though is that they start the matches early in the morning with the younger inexperienced wrestlers while in the afternoons and evenings you have the more elite levels. Your ticket entitles you to one re-entry so you don’t have to go in straight away and can leave and come back once during the day. We chose to get tickets, then get breakfast, enter stay till the afternoon, go and get lunch and do some shopping before coming back to see the big guns (no pun intended). This turned out to be a great way to break up the day and meant we got a taste of all the different levels and the intensity of the serious fights at the business end of the day! Having decided to use Osaka as our base to explore the surrounding areas we planned to use the Hankyu line 2 day pass (¥1,400/$17 AUD/12.80 USD) to get us from Osaka to Kyoto. While researching this we also discovered the Cup Noodle Museum is also on the Hankyu line so we planned our day to start there then head to Kyoto to temple hop. The Cup Noodle Museum (location) was one of the more obscure things we did in Japan but it was a lot of fun. For ¥300 ($3.65 AUD/2.75 USD) you get to make your own cup noodles including decorating your cup and choosing your own ingredients. It was a fun way to spend a morning before heading out to Kyoto for a more grown up activities. Our first afternoon in Kyoto we decided to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine famed for its red gates (actually orange but hey…) and Kinkaku-Ji golden temple. Unfortunately these are on the opposite sides of Kyoto but again its all well linked by public transport. To save money we decided to walk to Fushimi Inari from the Hankyu station but there is a metro line and JR line station close by. The beautiful “red” shrine is free to enter and you can do an extended loop walk, which will take you the better part of 2 hours and covers the whole complex. We hadn’t factored enough time in for this and walking to the cheaper transport stops so I would recommend planning well and giving it enough time to really explore this shrine. From there we walked back to Kyoto station (again this can be done on transportation) to catch the bus to Kinkaku-Ji (¥370/$4.50 AUD/3.40 USD). Kinkaku-Ji temple (¥400/$4.85 AUD/3.65 USD) is definitely best saved for a sunny day. If we are perfectly honest neither of us were sure that this temple was worth going to for not only the entrance fee but the cost and time to get there on public transport. For the ¥1000 ($12.10 AUD/9.15 USD) you spend on the 30mins you’re there we wouldn’t bother again when there is so much more to do in Kyoto and so many wonderful temples and shrines to chose from. This being said it was a really rainy day and the gold may look a lot more spectacular in the sunshine. Just as the heavens opened we had hopped back on to the bus (¥230/2.80 AUD/2.10 USD) to get us back to the nearest Hankyu station to get us back to Osaka. Our next day in Kyoto was focusing on the Bamboo Forest (also free) and the Gion Area known for its more traditional look and the world famous geishas (unlikely to be spotted but make sure if you do see one to have some respect as they are people and many tourists treat them like zoo animals). With the bamboo forest you can take the Hankyu line to Arashiyama Station (you need to change at Katsura Station but this is very easy). Once there it’s a 15-minute walk to the forest but is very well signposted. The best thing to do is to get there early in the morning before all the crowds. It can get packed but we had it nearly to ourselves in parts and I would imagine with 100s of tourists it would detract from it’s peacefulness and overall beauty. There are many shrines and temples you can walk to in this area so it’s worth giving yourself a few hours to explore before heading into Kyoto itself. From here you must head back to Katsura station to change onto the line heading to Kyoto. We booked ourselves on to the free walking tour in Kyoto to explore Gion but unfortunately they seem to pack far to many people on to the tour which means you don’t learn very much so I think you may be better off exploring Gion on your own. If you really want to see a geisha we heard the best time is about 5pm when they are off to entertain for the evening. It is more common to see maiko (trainee geishas) leaving school in the afternoons too.
Our time in the Kansai area was coming to an end but we had another full day before catching our night bus to Hiroshima. We checked out of our apartment and walked to the bus station where we were going to store our bags for the day (a large locker could store both our big bags and our front packs (¥500/$6 AUD/4.50 USD for 24 hours). We had decided to do one last day trip to Nara and this turned out to be an excellent decision. To get to Nara we took the circle line from Osaka station to (¥180/$2.20 AUD/1.65 USD) Tsuruhashi Station where you can then transfer onto the train to Nara (¥670/$8.10 AUD/6.10 USD). This was a lot cheaper than going from Umeda Station to Naha and then transferring to the Nara train. Nara was one of our favorite places in Japan. It has all the beauty of Kyoto but fewer crowds and the added bonus of herds of deer roaming the streets (strange but true). There are many beautiful shines and temples to see and most of them are free to enter. There is also the very large Buddha but we chose not to see this as we had seen the one in Kamakura a few weeks earlier and couldn’t justify the entrance fee (you need to pick and choose in Japan as the small entrance fees add up very quickly). It was a great last day in Kansai and we were ready to explore Hiroshima, a city I had been curious about since I was a little kid. The bus wasn’t due to leave till 11pm so we had some time to kill, but Willer Bus station has good WiFi and a coffee shop you can hang out in. The buses are also really comfortable and an efficient way to get around as well as save money on a nights accommodation. The bus to Hiroshima was one of the most expensive journeys around Japan at ¥13000 ($78.25 AUD/59 USD) but if you have one of the Willer passes you may be able to get this journey a lot cheaper as part of the 3-5 ride packages.
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