Our second day in Osaka started started
with a trip to the world famous Mr. doughnut. I would be lying if I
said this was our first time here.
With some sugar in our belly’s we
headed to the falling water clock at Osaka station. I am not sure how famous
this thing is but I think its one of the more interesting features of
the central train station. Its hard to explain what exactly it is so
I have this handy video to fill you in. Kim decided the best time to
take the video was when every delivery man in Japan was en route.
After the fascinating water show we
took the train to Osaka castle. The castle was closed due to the
proximity of the new years holiday but fortunately the surrounding
park was still open. This was not a huge loss being that the inside
of the castle is a modern museum lacking any cultural significance
other than the fact it is a museum. Most historic buildings in Japan
have been burnt down multiple times so in most cases what you see is
not exactly the original build. None the less the view from the
outside was impressive.
After walking in the park we headed to
one of my favorite restaurants in Japan. They specialize in a unique
tomato based ramen. Last time I just got
the house specialty but this time I ordered the arabian version which
featured a spicy broth and exotic veggies. It was quite tasty but it
had a lot of this unidentifiable root vegetable with holes in it that
I was not too fond of. Kim ordered the same thing and was not a fan
of the mystery ingredient either. All things considered it was still
delicious.
With lunch out of the way it was time
to head to Nara to celebrate the new years countdown. The trip ove
was not long but finding the right train turned out to be a bit
confusing.
We ended up on a train to Nara but we
quickly found it out that was not supported by our rail pass. On top
of that it was a reserve train so we had to pay double the fare for
the seats. I was not too happy with how this turned out but we made
it into town which was the important part.
Finding the hostel wasn’t too bad but
we arrived 15 minutes early so we waited on a bench just outside the
main door. Eventually the hostel employees ventured out but didn’t
see us and got quite the scare as they passed us. Its always helpful
to leave a good impression.
In reality the hostel is an old
Japanese house that the owners rent rooms out of. Our room was a very
nice traditional Japanese room with a sitting porch which overlooked
the central garden.
After settling in we toured the town
while looking for somewhere to have dinner. New years is the largest
holiday in Japan so suffice it to say
most restaurants were closed on the eve. We managed to find a
Japanese/Indian hybrid restaurant that was still open. No photos of
this meal were captured so I will leave you with this accurate
interpretation.
All fueled up
we headed back to the hostel to relax before our big night out.
