Well myself and teg get up at 5, a few others wake up too. Then after much stalling we decide to just go on ahead. So we set off for the temple from Yuru Yuri. Pass the now infamous panda and go looking for the side road we need. Almost miss the turn. Map shows five side roads, we see one. A short uphill walk later past the usual metric tonne of vending machines and small food shops (and another love hotel) we arrive at the entrance to the temple. Take some photos then head inside. Get to gatehouse 1 minute after opening time and pretty much have the shrine to ourselves. Head over to the “I can fly… You can fly?” YY platform and get a look at the vast array that is the cityscape. Seriously, it’s massive, with mountains around it. Try out the panoramic mode on my phone, doesn’t come out very well for some reason. Find a dead cicida, take some photos, then carry on up the stairs. Go all the way around taking photos of everything. Get to the other side of the shrine and we can hear the others talking. Look across and there they are on the far side. Holo takes a few pics of teg and myself with his 50x zoom. Next we come across the water shrine part. There’s 3 lots of water coming down and some cups on handles under UV lamps for you to use. I go up… Bless my hands I suppose, then try drinking some. Not exactly tasty, kind of metalic. We carry on check out a pagoda. Find a dirty pond with a turtle and some koi in it. Pretty much at the exit now so we check the map and time and go look at some other stuff.

Short walk away we find another pagoda, this one is 45m tall and each layer is 6m a side. Not a tourist place we figure, since it’s not open. So on to next one on map. Don’t have much time before train, so only get a quick glimpse at stuff. Then back to hostel to meet up.

Loads of trains later we arrive in Osaka. Head for some castle there. It’s basically rebuilt since it was destroyed. Have to start on top floor and work way down. Top floor is open so can see for miles from the platform. Check out the floors below, kinda meh. References to people from Oda Nobuna all over the place amuses me. Anyway we are done, go outside. The stairs up and down have a fine mist been sprayed on them, so myself, teg, sakura and stelf stay under it for a while to cool down. We are pretty sure the staff are trying to make us move because the mist keeps getting thicker. By time we move you can no longer see the bottom of the stairs and people are using the wrong stairs.

Go straight ahead to some benches and sit for a while, octpus stall in front of us, stelf eventually gives in and goes to get it. Myself and teg go grab a cola flavoured shaved ice. Really nice considering it’s pretty much ice with juice squirted on.

Odin phones asks where we are, tell him go straight from exit. Spot him and TT they look around, I wave and shout, they go away. We see them sit at some benches 100m away, shrug and carry on eating. Eventually we all meet up at us. Some old guy who speaks a bit of english and chinese starts to talk to us. He ends up showing us the way to our next stop, the peace museum. Not much to see, some videos and WW2 stuff. So we don’t stay for long.

Next stop was a ferris wheel. We get there and it’s 8 stories up on top of a building. Grab our tickets and get group photo taken then get split into 3 and get on. Night time so can see loads of the city lights. Osaka looks the shit. So much stuff to do here it’s crazy. One building next to us has 8 floors and each floor looks to be dedicated to a different thing. Get all the way around and it’s time to head back to Kyoto. Was sad to see Osaka go. Would be an awesome place to live.

Get back to Kyoto and go to get food at same place as first night. Get there and are told there’s no room at the inn for Virgin Mary. Walk across road and ask at another place. Same deal. 3rd one we try has plenty of room and the food turns out to be really nice.

Back to hostel and pack for tomorrow, have to check out by 9. Plan is to check out, go back to Osaka for the day, then Nara and back to Tokyo.