Japan

Thursday, 7th continued----
I, inadvertently, disconnected the internet last night so lost half my blog! It's hard enough to find a computer without doing that.
Thursday morning I started my journey to Osaka, I sat on the station platform for a while (I couldn't find a station cafe that I could sit in and have breakfast, the Japanese seem to eat on the run). Everything is so well organised. The trains park neatly with the carriage entrances neatly placed next to the gap in the railing and the carriage number. Everyone gets off the train with their rubbish, recycling rubbish bins are everywhere, the cleaners rush on and clean, whilst passengers queue politely by their carriage door!

The journey was uneventful, I saw Mt. Fuji again, I had my first sighting from the air but it was not very clear as there is a lot of air pollution, today I got a better sighting and took several photos but I missed the best shot, never mind I saw it and no clouds on top. I confess the above picture is a postcard, I didn't get this close! The one below is mine though I did get a better view.
When I arrived in Osaka I decided to go straight to the hotel to get rid of my bag, I thought it wouldn't take long! Theoretically it wouldn't have but the subway station I arrived at had a kind of underground shopping mall and I didn't know which exit I had come out of, so I walked the wrong way first, then the hotel has it's entrance on a different road to both the address and the map, so it all took ages, when I arrived I was exhausted. I thought it was jet-lag but I think it was food and drink lag, I must discipline myself to stop. After I dropped off my bag I went straight for food, I was gagging for a beer. The first 'restaurant' I found had plastic models of the food outside, so I went in. It was incredible, cheaper than Nando's and quite weird, you had to start by selecting the number of your order on, what looked like, a vending machine you pay the machine and give the tickets it produces to a waitress. I got my beer but I needn't have bothered because iced tea was served with the meal, I'm sure it was a 2 litre jug, so I drank loads. The meal came on a tray, 6 dishes - the main course (mine was pork in ginger), rice, soup, gherkin and 2 sausages with raw veg. I started by wondering why there was no knife and fork, then I remembered, so I looked for the chopsticks, eventually I found them in a drawer under the condiments and Soy sauce. The rice was stodgy and tasteless for my taste, I discovered why when I tried to flavour some with the sauce! (The correct way to do this is to add the sauce to the rice but I added the rice to the sauce!) I defy anyone to eat rice, that's disintegrated in sauce, with chopsticks!

After food I went for a walk around. I found a series of side streets that, together, make a kind of market.

The produce was incredible, really fresh and good quality. All neatly packed for meals.

When I returned to the hotel I asked about launderettes and internet cafes. This hotel has a laundry room and they have rented me a laptop for 2 nights, hence I can blog . I have been having real trouble finding a computer, apparently most people travel with their laptops so when hotels say they provide free internet they only mean 'internet' not a computer to access it!

Friday,8th
I put the alarm on to get up early this morning as I wanted to go to Yoshino to see the Cherry Blossom. I had downloaded a list of trains that I needed, this was vital to start with as, once I left the subway, there was virtually no information in English. My list said to take a train from Oje to Takada then another from Takada to Yoshinoguchi. I got the train I wanted at Oje by the skin of my teeth and religiously got off at Takada, I only had a couple of minutes to get the next train and there was a train on another platform, so off I went only to discover that the train I wanted was the one I had just got off! I had to wait an hour and 20 minutes for the next train so I wandered about the little town, then returned to the station so I could sit down and eat some breakfast.

Eventually I got to Yoshino, it is very pretty, shrines, up in the hills with lots of cherry blossom. Cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan and they turn out in droves to picnic under the trees. Today was maybe not a good day, the morning was fine but it rained in the afternoon. I went out today, for a trip to the hills, with neither a waterproof nor an umbrella!

Mats under the trees for picnics.

I had planned to visit Nara as well but with the difficult trains, the rain and the fact that the batteries in my camera had gone flat without me noticing, I decided to return to Osaka. I got back to Yoshinaguchi without a problem and was helped to find the right platform for the train back to Takada. The timetable looked like the trains for Takada also went to Oje and, after my experience of the morning, I decided to stay on the train. We waited for ages in Takada but eventually we left, very late according to the timetable that I had seen. Surprise, surprise, we end up in Nara! I was obviously meant to go and I'm glad I did but I had to buy an umbrella and I couldn't take any photos!

I hear there was an earthquake somewhere last night, I didn't feel a thing.