osaka and himeji-jo

Osaka has a slightly more laid back atmosphere - but then again after the insanity that is Tokyo I can't think of too many cities that wouldn't feel this way. After our smooth 3 hour trip on the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka on Friday we dropped off our bags at the hostel and and went for a walk towards the nearby business district, grabbing lunch along the way at the supermarket. After walking around a bit, we took a ride on a ferris wheel which was perched atop one of the buildings to get a better sense of what the city is like... Turns out, it's huge! Although Steve spearheaded this ferris wheel adventure - it didn't take long before he balanced himself in the middle of the cabin and admitted he was afraid of heights. This amused me to no end. We eventually made it back to the hostel, which is utilitarian but clean and with a friendly staff to help navigate the city. We took a quick nap before heading to the Dotonbori Dori area in Osaka. It's basically the main drag where you can get all sorts of street food and do quite a bit of people watching. After walking up and down a few times we settled on a random Izakaya for a late dinner and beers. We both enjoyed the deep fried hard boiled quail eggs and the Ochazuke - green tea poured over rice with salmon on top - very much comfort food (well maybe not the eggs!).

Today we made it out of the city and headed towards Himeji-Jo - the oldest remaining castle in Japan and a Unesco World Heritage Site. The five story castle is quite imposing, overlooking the town of Himeji and beyond. I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one, but it was very different from any other castle I've visited. Afterwards, Steve and I took advantage of the free bicycle rental at the town tourist office to bike around town aimlessly for a little while. This didn't last too long though because we're quite lazy and decided to return home on the train. Tomorrow we're planning on heading to Nara before going to Kyoto for our last three days in Japan.