One of the travel guides recommended going to Osaka and experiencing the tranquility and peacefulness of the bamboo forest, with the tall bamboo stalks reaching into the air, and the breeze moving the leaves around and creating a serenity of rushing noise that drowned out the bustling city nearby.
At least, that was the way it was supposed to work. I'll get to that in a minute.
This Osaka hotel included breakfast each morning - either "Western" or "Japanese" style. I tried the western, Donna had the Japanese style.
The main difference was the entree - I had some small, crustless bread sandwiches with some kind of egg salad or ham. Donna had some kind of really fishy fish. There were other pickled veggie and fermented bean selections. It did have bread and a toasting machine, a coffee machine, and orange juice & teas.
Not too bad. It saved us going to Matsuya again.
After breakfast, we headed to the Shin Osaka train station. With the Japan Rail Pass, we can get on pretty much any Shinkansen bullet train (except two of the express ones). And, we are allowed to make a seat reservation (an added cost for most non-pass travelers). Most of the trains are divided into the reserved and non-reserved cars. Today, we decided to just wing it, and got onto a non-reserved car at the last minute, on the first Shinkansen we were able to get to.
It was no problem. In fact, we had the car mostly to ourselves except for about 5 other travellers.
The Shinkansen got us to Kyoto in about 16 minutes (35 miles away). A local train (what most people would be taking due to cost) would be over 45 minutes for the same trip. That's because it doesn't stop between the two cities, and well - it just goes fast.
At Kyoto station, we transferred to a local train for the trip out to the western edge of Kyoto. The destination was the the train station at Saga Arashiyama. This area is a rural village on the edge of Kyoto. The signage to this bamboo forest wasn't good, or didn't exist. So, I was using Google Maps. Usually, it works out pretty well. But today, Google maps didn't work so well. It led us to a different part of the village, and across a river from the bamboo forest. We had to back track and figure it out from local, non-english maps. That added about an hour to our walk. Fortunately, we weren't on a timetable, so the walk through the village and next to this river was fine.
Eventually, we did make it to the bamboo forest. But by that time, so had everyone else.
What was supposed to be a "tranquil and peaceful" experience amongst the bamboo forest was instead an irritating walk with a crowd. Loud kids, lots of people talking loudly and laughing while doing selfies. I guess you have to get here really early to get the right experience. Late morning wasn't it.
But, it was fun to be in a more rural section of a Japanese city - one without a lot of skyscrapers.
Getting out of that area, we initially thought about going right back to Osaka. But in looking at the map at the last minute, we saw that Nagoya was only about an hour up the tracks from us, on the Shinkansen (about 111 miles).
So, we though heck - let's go to Nagoya for lunch.
Back to the Shinkansen station, and we hopped the first northbound Shinkansen - again, using the non-reserved car.
There were only a few people on the train with us.
In less than an hour, we were in Nagoya. We had already found a Matsuya restaurant near the train station, so off we went.
On the way through the Nagoya train station, I found the shortest escalator in existence.
Only about 8 escalator steps. Not sure why, but there it is.
Here's Matsuya, our eating comfort zone.
We then just wandered around the downtown Nagoya area.
Before heading back to Osaka, we decided to try a McFlurry at a local McDonalds. It was about half the size of a McFlurry in the states, and cost about $2. The portions are smaller in Japan. That's a good thing.
I initially got reserved seating for the return Shinkansen to Osaka. Being closer to rush hour, I didn't know how crowded the trains would be. However, we went to the platform just as another Shinkansen was arriving. We noted the non-reserved cars seemed to be empty - so we just hopped on this Shinkansen instead. It got us back to Osaka about 20 minutes sooner.
We were back in Osaka in just over an hour. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel, doing laundry and relaxing. And, catching up on these blogs.
Tonight, we decided to try a Japanese version of Subway. It was only a 15 minute walk away. The local temps were only in the 70's, so it was a nice walk.
We tried the salad version of their sandwiches - a roast beef, and an avocado shrimp.
In most cases since leaving Tokyo, locals could not (or, would not) speak english. So, we had to do the best we could by pointing and making our requests understood. The vast majority were accomodating. A couple, not so much.
In this case, the Subway employees did well, and tried to get our order correct. They did, and their food was good.
Then we walked back to the hotel, going through the back streets of Osaka, next to the rail lines. At no time during this trip have I felt uncomfortable or worried about my safety. We walked down alleys, veer away from the main streets, and have had no problems.
As noted before, even the most obscure alleyways will likely have some kind of business or restaurant. Or, at least a vending machine or two (or three, or four....).
It was only about 9pm, however the streets were relatively free of cars, and only a few people moved about, either on foot or bicycles. Lots of bicycles in Osaka.
A Lawson convenience store. This chain, Family Mart, and 7-11 were very common - almost on every block.
An odd place to park and lock a bicycle - an underpass walkway.
Our street, next to the railroad line.
A two stall parking garage. Perhaps more parking behind the garage door.
An alley between a main street and our hotel. Our hotel has an entrance on this alley.
Another parking lot in an alley - four stalls.
Bicycle parking all over.
And dedicated motorcycle/scooter parking at most buildings.
Back at the hotel, and done for the night. Tomorrow, we may go to Kobe. They have some cool rope lines to the top of mountains, and of course - Beef!
