Today mostly involved getting up at sparrows, having another lovely breakfast in the Ryokan and then trekking to the station to catch the Shinkansen to Ōsaka for a planned day trip. First port of call was the ticket office to get our return tickets, together with a bit of prep to get the right words in place to make sure we got day return tickets. 

Note: this was the actual time we realised that if you have the JR Pass you don't actually HAVE to book tickets unless you want a reserved seat. Which, while free and nice and all, isn't strictly necessary for a 15 minute journey! Ah well, live and learn. And another outing for my terrible Japanese at the ticket desk...

Got off at ShinŌsaka station and then a 10-15 minute jaunt round the Tube network and a short walk to get to our intended destination Ōsaka-jō (Osaka Castle). This is another one of the stops on the “Shōgun Trail” and features in one of the key scenes in the book as Blackthorn helps Mariko with the plan to get Toranaga (i.e. Tokugawa) out of the castle. Actually, the “Shōgun Trail” is apparently not a thing but it really should be, especially for the benefit of rather geeky Westerners of a certain age.

Anyway, the castle is just as impressive a place as I'd imagined from the description in the book despite being, as Philip Isaacs said, like Trigger's broom. It's been destroyed and rebuilt so many times it really doesn’t have a great deal of original bits left, apart from some of the gates and foundations. Also, I’m fairly sure the invading Tokugawa forces weren't treated to a direct elevator to the top floor and easy disabled access for those Bushi who had had unfortunate katana related experiences. Nevertheless it’s still a huge, imposing structure in very extensive grounds and God knows what Will Adams would have thought about it in comparison to the Tower of London when he saw it in the early 17th Century.

After wombling up through the outer defences of the castle and the inner courtyard we spent ages climbing up through the castle itself and taking in the treasures on display within (no photos allowed on most floors unfortunately). Then we got to the top floor and (a bit like at Skytree) used up gigabytes of storage each playing the fun game of “how many panoramas can you take”. You do get a great view over the grounds and the central part of Ōsaka – not as flat and traditional as Kyoto and not as Skyscraper-y as Tokyo.

Back through the various floors of the castle (exiting through the gift shop – again fairly sure not an original feature!) to spend a good few hours mooching round the surrounding park and gardens (playing game #2 – take the best juxtaposition photo!) to end up back where we started.

Where to go next then? How about what was billed as a prewar shopping arcade in Tanimachi? Sounds like a plan Stan. 30-40 walk from the castle to Tanimachi so lots of opportunity to see the non-touristy bits of the city. All very interesting. Got rather overexcited at the “Knock Knock Cats” signs in a car park reminding drivers to give the local (presumably feral) cats a chance to wake up and get off your tyres/out from under your car before driving off. Funny the bits of a trip that stick out eh?

Anyway eventually got to the Tanimachi arcade and it wasn’t really what we were expecting, primarily because we hadn’t really researched it. I suppose we were expecting wooden structures and open market stalls but it really means a covered shopping street as opposed to a modern shopping mall. There are small stall holders in amongst the larger shops and supermarkets but they are all in proper buildings rather than “market stalls” per se. Still interesting though and did get some amazing strawberry mochi from one shop which I need to learn how to make if I can get the ingredients. Walked through the arcade and around the local area (finding the only pet shop we saw on the whole trip!) and then did a bit more Googling to find the next stop.

Decided on checking out Shinsaibashi which is one of the major shopping areas in Ōsaka and firmly on the tourist route. Short train ride later (including taking pictures of the journey through the tunnel through the cab window – can’t do that in the UK!) and we rocked up at the Shinsaibashi district.

A bit hot and tired by this point (yes I know - happened most days!) we first repaired to a trendy coffee bar for the usual iced coffee. Third mortgage taken out after all! Seems to be a thing to buy one very expensive coffee and then spend hours using up the bar’s Wi-Fi and power sockets.

After drinking up and leaving (thereby reducing the average age of the clientele by 25 years) we spent an inordinate amount of time looking round the ultra-trendy fashion boutiques in the area, of which there were thousands! Looking for stuff for Lou I might add. Not sure we’d be able to carry off Lolita or Manga fashion ourselves these days, at least not without causing onlookers to book in for years of expensive therapy. I know you never get older than 18 in your head but occasionally life reminds you that what you see in the mirror is accurate, like it or lump it.

We found the districts' main retail “event”, Shinsaibashisuji, which is a proper modern shopping mall complete with H&M, Gap, Uniqlo and similar. If you ignore the Japanese text and endless high pitched "Irashaimase!" it could easily be Lakeside or Bluewater. Did try a bit of retail therapy but it wasn’t dissimilar to mooching round the shops at home and it was really quite expensive. Like I said – tourist tourist tourist.

Late afternoon by this point so Shinkansen back to Kyoto.

Dumped the gear at the ryokan and had a bit of a freshen up before checking out the centre of Kyoto again. Primarily we were trying to find a hold-all and some more vacuum storage bags (from Daiso) to get all our stuff plus half of Toji market back to Tokyo. Tried everywhere to get a sensibly priced bag but they were either the right size and hugely expensive or cheap but tiny. Once we’d eventually found Daiso (it’s in the big Aeon Mall shopping centre if you’re interested) we gave up and got a smallish carrier type bag for 100 yen. Not ideal but better than nothing.  

Went a different way tonight looking for something to eat for tea and after a lot of talking ourselves out of things we decided to inflict ourselves on a tiny okonomiyaki restaurant (called Kyo - map reference here) we found away from the centre.

When we first went in they looked a tad concerned as we were the only non-Japanese in there and they didn’t look especially geared up for foreigners. Not at all unfriendly, just a bit worried. Anyway, a bit of my incredibly fluent Japanese I think helped reassure them that the evening wasn’t going to be full of awkward pointing at menus and us relying on them speaking English*. Everyone relaxed a bit after that and the food, beer and sake was stunningly good. Did watch very carefully for tips on how to make it properly, Kyoto style. Also Pochi got his photo taken with the ladies - I did ask politely and I hope they didn’t just think I was mental.

Tummies full and with a slightly warm glow from several drinks (nurukan is one of my favourite words!) we ventured back out into the night and aimed for the ryokan.

On the way we revisited the "off licence" from which we'd bought the Nigori sake a couple nights ago (it was closed when we went past yesterday). Lovely welcome back from the owner (“bagpipes” came up again!) and bought more of the same sake as it was delicious and so it had all been drunk! Spotted HUGE bottles of the stuff and had involved conversation about sizes of sake bottle. Look, this stuff is important ok? You need to know your 合 from your 升. Also learnt a bit more keigo (which like a complete idiot I have forgotten!) and swapped meishi. Left the store grinning like the proverbial.

Back to the ryokan for yukata, sake and bed!

*For “incredibly fluent” read “embarrassingly awful”. Genuinely not trying to “big myself up” or come across as patronising here. I can fully understand that Japanese people in shops/restaurants away from the tourist trail may not get many tourists, would not expect them to speak any Japanese if they do walk in (it doesn’t appear to be common) and if they aren’t confident with speaking English it can all get awkward real fast. The Japanese system for learning English still doesn't appear to stress conversation. The English system for learning Japanese is....well basically non-existent, at least in most UK state schools. No wonder some places turn tourists away (though as I said before it only happened once on our whole trip) .