About time...

Hi all,
Finally found a PC that I can post to here from so here goes...

From the email I sent around you probably figured I got to Osaka with no problems (besides getting lost finding the hotel). I spent a couple of nights there, saw Osaka-jo castle (which I really, really wish I could upload some photos of) and got a great view from about 200m up the Umeda Sky Building. Then it started to rain.

Due to a combination of poor planning on my part, and just plain getting lost (the Japanese seem to have an aversion to labelling streets with names) I managed to blister my feet pretty nicely so I'm buying packs of blister pads like there's no tomorrow. Anyway, I moved on to see the Osaka Aquarium (containing the world's largest aquarium tank) and ended up walking around it at the same time as a party of what must have been several hundred young school kids. Seeing a foreigner in their midst caused much excitement.

Moving on from the aquarium and the surrounding port area, I went to find my new hotel...

...which turned out to be a total dive, located in what must be the ass-end of Osaka.

Next day I jumped on the first train to Kobe looking for a break from the somewhat unrelenting concrete mass of Osaka, and I found it.

There was a flurry of snow as soon as I arrived in Kobe (which seemed pretty unexpected since the temperatures are reasonable right now) and I finally hunted down a fine Okonomiyaki place, which I'd been after since I arrived. True to form, the best places are usually located off the beaten path, and this place (called Tada, in case you ever come to Kobe) did a fine Okonomiyaki. Fine except for the octopus in my mixed one, but you have to try everything once, right?

Further exploration yielded a decent business hotel a mile above the dump in Osaka, and a number of hidden shrines and the like. Some of these are beautiful and if I can find a way to upload the photos I will do.

Another suprise in Kobe was another fine restaurant, about a block away from my hotel down another little street. Called Nailey's Cafe, this place served the best pizza I have eaten outside of Italy, the best salad I have ever eaten, and had the most bizarre feel inside (National Geographic covers on the wall, Discovery Channel HD on a projector on the wall, and a life-size wicker reindeer standing inside by the door - I didn't get it either). The owners were unbelievably hospitable and spoke decent English to boot. Oh, and the Suntory Premium Malts beer was tasty too. If I go back to Kobe (likely, since beyond the rather striking Earthquake Memorial Park and the aforementioned shrines, I have some stuff I'd still like to see) I'll be back there.

The Earthquake Memorial Park can't really be explained without photos but they've preserved a section of one of the piers exactly as it was after the quake, and it really shows the raw power of what happened to Kobe back in 1996.

I'm running out of internet time here, but I've just arrived in Kyoto using the ever-efficient train system and thought I'd finally drop a post in here while I have the chance. More to come soon.

Take care all,
James