We were suppose to do Osaka Castle the day before, but time constraints and the crappy weather made it a challenge to accomplish, checked out of the hostel early..ish! (Another good hostel, not quite as nice as the Tokyo one, but would still recommend it to anyone heading to Osaka, it's real easy to find from the Fukushima Station in Osaka and the staff are really helpful! And also Mr Yano is an amazing Japanese person to drink with!) We left our bags in the safe room before heading towards the castle. The weather was quite unpredictable again today, heavy humid showers! Fun! Walked to the castle from the train station, it's about a mile away, not too far, although in hindsight we should have got on that "train" that goes to the castle. Anyway, the castle is quite a feat, it looks spectacular and has an intriguing back story, which is played out throughout the museum. Got some great pictures of the castle (at some point you'll see!)
Headed back to the hostel to get the bags, left to Osaka station, first thing I noticed when we got to the JR station was a large Pokemon display right next to the building apparently housing the Pokemon shop, we didn't check it out as it was already late afternoon. Hopped on a JR train to Kyoto.
The first thing I really notice about Kyoto, is how different it is to Tokyo/Osaka, it's not as built up as the more populated cities, you see no end of pagoda's and shrines whilst on the train, but no giant shopping centres or housing complexes to the extent the other cities has, it's almost like Kyoto has been left behind. For those who didn't know this use to be the capital of Japan up until 1869, and it wasn't a target during the World War ll bombing raids, that's why a lot of the prewar buildings and shrines are still standing.
Anyway, we get off the train and instantly we have no idea where we are suppose to be going in regards to the new hostel, so we hop into a cab, and you know you're in trouble when even he doesn't know where to go! Never the less, we found the hostel in no time, it's around a 15 minute walk from the station, but if you don't know where you are, you'll easily get lost, as it's hidden down various side streets. This hostel has a very different feel to it, it's a "backpacker" hostel, it caters to a lot more people than previously encountered, and they all appear to be English or American, this isn't a bad thing, but it's not the same as the other hostels whereas you were interacting with the locals and they were showing you their customs. There seem to be a lot of students here spending my taxes! Even the receptionist spoke fluent English, although to be honest, he was a lot of help when it came to planning my temple hop for tomorrow!
There isn't much more to post about, after we got settled, we walked around Kyoto, trying to get our bearings, there isn't much in the area... apart from a Yodabeshi Camera! Meh! We found a local shrine called Higashi Hongashi but it was closed, so we couldn't really explore it. Crashed earlyish! Going to be up early to travel around Kyoto!
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