I awoke on my futon style floor bed, surrounded by straw tatami matting and my glasses of green tea scattered around, and remembered where I was. I was to leave kinosaki today for osaka but was in no rush. I went down for another wonderful breakfast, including sashimi, crab miso soup and steamed fish, and used the last of my time at the ryokan to utilise the private onsen and check out the town outside of the hot baths. I was pretty much the only one in the onsen so it was a nice way to wake up and focus my energy on the day ahead. Why can't we all have these things in our houses back home?
After a good scrub in the onsen, I was energised for my walk to the ropeway (cable car) and after a quick trip up, I wandered around the top checking out the mountainous view from all angles then meandered back down to the town. At the bottom, I saw a sign for hikers saying "because we saw bears yesterday, please do not walk on mountain path". I'm happy I saw that one after I'd walked the path down, but I still got nervous when I heard a twig snap for the rest of the way!
Back in town, I ran into the American uncle, father and daughter I'd befriended and run into a few times since the train to kinosaki. They shouted me lunch and I said goodbye to head to Osaka. The daughter hugged me tight goodbye and thanked me for being a girl she could talk to on the trip. Bless. Her dad was gay so I'm not sure she had a mum presence normally. First time I've met the daughter of a gay guy so I wonder if that's a common thing? I didn't ask... After all, I'm in Japan and that may have come across as disrespectful.
I arrived in osaka before dinner time and made my way to the hotel. Only that it wasn't the hotel I had booked in for, and I was sent to the other hotel from the same chain in a different part of the city. Ho hum. Turns out the hotel I was booked in for was in an ideal location, just a few blocks from main bar area Dotonbori. I arranged to meet up with the girls I met on the Fuji tour, although one of them was sick so it was just C and I. The street was a bit mental, the restaurants adorned with giant crab, dragon and blowfish sculptures advertising their specialities, and neon lights flashing from every ledge. Off the Main Street, however, were alley ways dotted with little restaurants and bars. Again with the cover charge for so many of them - seriously how do these bars think they'll make money by doing that? We just walked straight out again. We did get caught in one old school karaoke bar though, didn't see the cover charge notice and ended up spending about $40 each after 2 drinks and one song (Hey Jude, the only English song I knew in their weird song list). Until then we had been enjoying the naff interior and Japanese customers singing love songs and waving their hands in the air with me as I sang "na na na hey Jude". It stung a bit, I tell ya!
I tried yakonaki (fried octopus balls) and made sure I got the menus in English when I ate, to avoid a cheeky dish of cow rectum or something. But C said she accidentally ate it and it was quite tasty. What you don't know hey... After several drinks, including a roadie we bought at the supermarket between bars (because we could, the bars were about 10m apart), we said goodnight.
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